A Joosr Guide to Influence by Robert Cialdini

The most common one can be seen in television shows and commercials, where experts such as lawyers and doctors (or actors who play them in movies) tell us what brands and medicines to buy. We read these people as authorities, and blindly follow their guidance. We see other symbols of authority daily: height, clothing, unnecessary honorifics, and so on, are used to send one clear message: “I’m the expert here, and you should be following me.

what if you were tricked into a small decision that made you commit to a larger decision later? To save your integrity, your mind would push you towards a big decision you may not want to make. Compliance professionals use this all the time.

It’s often been found that censoring something or banning people from access to something will only make that thing much more desirable.

professionals put this into practice in several ways. One of the most common tricks is to announce a product is being sold in limited numbers, which increases its rarity and makes it harder to get

First, you’ll want to see if the crowd’s information is real. If it’s been faked, you can be sure someone is trying to sell you something. Second, always check the crowd’s decision against your own information or morals.

Advertisers use social proof all the time, reminding us that “fifty million fans love this music,” and “over 90 billion burgers have been served” from a company. These numbers make us think the crowd knows something we don’t, and prompts us to follow along. Hollywood has been using these tactics since the 1940s, prompting audiences to laugh by playing canned laughter over sitcoms, making viewers feel like a more-informed crowd gets the joke.

This is the reason why car salesmen will offer you free coffee (which they pretend they’re getting you as a personal favor). It’s why coworkers do small favors for you, right before asking you for something big. It’s why politicians are seen doing community work, investing in a neighborhood that’s going to be important in an upcoming election.

When we see someone we find attractive, our minds attach positive personality traits such as honesty and talent to them, whether or not they deserve them

irst, people tend to gravitate to other people who are similar to them. You’re more likely to buy from someone with a common dress style or shared interests, and the pros know this.

If you were given the job of delivering a mildly painful, but ultimately harmless, electric shock to a stranger, would you do it? With your boss watching carefully, would you continue to apply the painful shocks, even as they increased in intensity? What if the victim began to cry out in pain and agony, begging for you to stop? You may think that no one would be heartless enough to keep hurting a stranger like this, but you’d be surprised. A 1974 experiment simulated this very scenario and found that a startlingly high number of people would in fact continue delivering the agonizing shocks, and all because of one factor: authority.