6 Psychology Principle of Persuasion
Principle 1: Indebtedness
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion — In-Depth Summary
This Book consists of seven chapters, the first chapter introduces the basis for weapons of Influence used by compliance professionals. The next six-chapter builds on top of chapter one (So make sure to read chapter one first). Each chapter introduces one principle of persuasion listed as below:
6 Psychology Principle of Persuasion
Principle 1: Indebtedness
Principle 2: Commitment and Consistency
Principle 3: Social Proof
Principle 4: Liking
Principle 5: Authority
Principle 6: Scarcity
Principle 1: Indebtedness
The Old Give and Take… and Take
There is a general distaste for those who take and make no effort to give in return, we will often go to great lengths to avoid being considered one of their number. It is to those lengths that we will often be exploited through indebtedness.
Indebtedness can be easily created by small gestures, good deeds, kindness, gifts, “free sample” etc. These gifts, even unwanted ones will generate indebtedness, prompt you to return the favor in one way or another. An organization that uses this technique makes sure that these product are seen as gifts instead of merchandise: “there is a strong cultural pressure to reciprocate a gift, even an unwanted one; but there is no such pressure to purchase an unwanted commercial product”.
“rejection-then-retreat technique”
Suppose you want me to agree to a certain request. One way to increase your chances would be first to make a larger request of me, one that I will most likely turn down. Then, after I have refused, you would make the smaller request that you were really interested in all along. Provided that you have structured your requests skillfully, I should view your second request as a concession to me and should feel inclined to respond with a concession of my own — compliance with your second request.
It would appear, then, that the larger the initial request, the more effective the procedure, since there would be more room available for illusory concessions. This is true only up to a point, however. Research conducted at Bar-Ilan University in Israel on the rejection-then-retreat technique shows that if the first set of demands is so extreme as to be seen as unreasonable, the tactic backfires. In such cases, the party who has made the extreme first request is not seen to be bargaining in good faith. Any subsequent retreat from that wholly unrealistic initial position is not viewed as a genuine concession and thus is not reciprocated
Reject-and- retreat technique sometimes not only agree to the desired request but actually carry out the request and volunteer to perform a further request. Why is that? we know that as long as it is not viewed to be a transparent trick, the concession will likely stimulate a return concession. but there is more to it, if there exists a positive by-product of the act of concession: feelings of great responsibility for, and satisfaction with, the arrangement, the person is more likely to participate to engage in further request.
When the person who negotiated the deal, and is able to cut a good deal from it, they will feel more responsible for having “dictated” the final agreement and tends to live up to the terms that he himself arrives on. When an agreement is forged based on the person’s own wants, they feel satisfied and tend to agree to further such an arrangement.
How to say NO?
We could refuse to comply and suffer the brunt of the rule’s force upon our deeply conditioned feelings of fairness and obligation or avoid or reject confrontation by refusing to allow to commission its force against us in the first place. but be aware that we might reject authentically generous people, it is advisable to accept the desirable first offers of others but to accept those offers only for what they fundamentally are, not for what they represented to be. Once we have determined that his initial offer was not a favor but a compliance tactic, we need only react to it accordingly to be free of its influence. As long as we perceive and define his action as a compliance device instead of a favor, he no longer has the reciprocation rule as an ally: The rule says that favors are to be met with favors; it does not require that tricks be met with favors.
Disclaimer
All information above are the summary of the book: “Influence: The Psychology Principles of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini” There are a lot more interesting and eye-opening techniques used by compliance professionals that are not mentioned in this summary. Find out more by buying this book at Amazon.com