6 Psychology Principle of Persuasion
Principle 5: Authority
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 5: Authority
“Follow an expert” — Virgil
Professor Stanley Milgram conducted the Milgram experiment(s), this experiment is to test the obedience of individuals to authority figures. They measured the willingness of study participants, men from a diverse range of occupations with varying levels of education, to obey an authority who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience. Participants were led to believe that they were assisting an unrelated experiment, in which they had to administer electric shocks to a “learner”. These fake electric shocks gradually increased to levels that would have been fatal had they been real. The experiment found, unexpectedly, that a very high proportion of subjects would fully obey the instructions, albeit reluctantly. The experiment was repeated many times around the globe, with fairly consistent results.
We are trained from birth that obedience to proper authority is right and disobedience is wrong. This message fills parental lessons, school syllabus and is carried forward to legal, military, and political systems in the adult world. Notions of submission and loyalty to the legitimate rule are accorded much value in each. We did this because we assume that their superior positions speak of superior access to information and power, it makes great sense to comply with the wishes of properly constituted authorities. It makes so much sense, in fact, that we often do so when it makes no sense at all.
This is proved true in our daily lives, for example, medicine. Health is enormously important to us. Thus, physicians, who possess large amounts of knowledge and influence in this vital area, hold the position of respected authorities. The various kinds of health workers well understand the level of their jobs in this structure; and they well understand, too, that the M.D. sits at the top. No one may overrule the doctor’s judgment in a case, except perhaps, another doctor of higher rank. As a consequence, a long-established tradition of automatic obedience to a doctor’s orders has developed among healthcare staff. What happened when the physician made an error? no one in the lower hierarchy will think to question it. A study of U.S. Health Care Financing Administration shows that the average hospital had a 12 percent daily error rate on medicine prescription alone.
Connotation, Not Content
This kind of respect towards higher authorities can be exploited by compliance professionals. For example, advertiser often hires actors to play the roles of doctors speaking behalf of the products. Others would feature certain actors in advertisement, who often plays the role of a doctor in other series or movies, people who watch the show will automatically associate the actor to be the doctor. Even though objectively it makes no sense to be swayed by the comments of the actor, but as a practical matter, this often yields huge sales. This kind of commercial has the ability to use the influence of the authority principle without ever providing a real authority. The appearance of authority was enough.
What kind of appearance display authority?
- Titles. People react differently when we have a title. For example, one professor often found himself meeting strangers while traveling, he said that to never use his title — professor — during conversations. When he does, he reports, the tenor of the interaction changes immediately. People who have been spontaneous and interesting conversation partners for the prior half an hour become respectful and accepting. The other way can be true, when compliance practitioners lie about titles, it produces the same effects. Besides getting more respect, a title also affects perceptions of size, because we see size and status as related — more prestigious titles lead to height distortion.
- Clothes. Compliance professionals could use counterfeited uniforms to click us into mesmerized compliance with “authority”.
- Trappings. Finely styled and expensive clothes carry an aura of status and position, as do trappings such as jewelry and cars.
How to say no?
“Is this authority truly an expert?” The question is helpful because it focuses our attention on a pair of crucial pieces of information: the authority’s credentials and the relevance of those credentials to the topic at hand. By orienting in this simple way toward the evidence for authority status, we can avoid the major pitfalls of automatic deference.
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