Influence by Robert Cialdini | Book Summary

What factors cause one to say yes to another? And which techniques are most effective to use to cause compliance?

The world is changing rapidly, and life is getting more complicated, so the incidence of mindless compliance is occurring much more. In his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini researches the psychology of compliance.

Find out why it is one of the go-to business and best sales books for entrepreneurs to grow their businesses!

Introduction: The 7 Principles Of Influence

For three years, Dr. Robert Cialdini immersed himself into the lives of compliance professionals, such as marketers, salespeople, recruiters, etc. He wanted to observe how the following principles of compliance or levers of influence are used:

1. Reciprocation – “requires that one person try to repay what another person has provided”
2. Liking – states that “people prefer to say yes to individuals they like”
3. Social Proof – states that people decide what to believe or how to act in a situation by examining what others are believing or doing there
4. Authority – the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience
5. Scarcity – states that “people assign more value to opportunities that are less available”
6. Commitment and Consistency – “a desire in most people to be and look consistent within their words, beliefs, attitudes, and deeds”
7. Unity – the experience of togetherness with others is about shared identities and is used by people to define themselves and their groups

Dr. Robert Cialdini organizes the book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion based on six universal principles and unity will be the most helpful in achieving these three motives of persuaders:

• Cultivating Relationships: Reciprocation, Liking, and Unity
• Reducing Uncertainty: Social Proof and Authority
• Motivating Action: Consistency and Scarcity

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Chapter 1 – Levers Of Influence (Power): Tools Of The Trades

Among many species of animals, ethologists, the researchers who study animal and human behavior, have “identified regular, blindly, mechanical patterns of action:

Fixed-action Patterns – the automatic-behavior patterns tend to be triggered by a single feature of the relevant information in the situation

Scientists discovered these patterns or habits occur similarly in the same way and order every time. Also, the research observed that a trigger activated these patterns:  

Trigger Feature – the feature that allows one to decide on a correct course of action without having to analyze wholly and carefully other pieces of information in the situation

Mental Shortcuts

The mechanical behavior to a known trigger provides efficiency by saving vital time, energy, and personal resources. In humans, psychologists have found uncovered some of these shortcuts:

Judgmental Heuristics – mental shortcuts we employ in making out everyday judgments

The drawbacks are that these automated responses may result in silly mistakes and costly errors. The likelihood of mistakes increases when others seek to profit by using them to manipulate others into compliance.

The Compliance Process

However, in Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini argues that recognizing these patterns and triggers helps you use the compliance process to your benefit:

Compliance Process – “wherein one person is spurred to comply with another person’s request”

Each trigger feature for compliance can be used as a lever of influence to move people to agree with requests. For example, the contrast principle is commonly used as a lever of influence because it typically is unrecognizable:

Perpetual Contrast – “the tendency to see two things that are different from one another as being more different than they actually are”

Chapter 2 – Reciprocation: The Old Give And Take

In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini cites that “one of the most widespread and basic norms of human culture is embodied in the reciprocity rule:”

Reciprocation – “requires that one person try to repay what another person has provided”

This rule applies when the beneficiaries feel obligated to repay an action in the future. It allows one to provide something with the confidence that the action is not lost. It follows that human society trains us from birth to either abide by the rule or endure negative social consequences. Overall, the reciprocity rule builds trust within society and humanity, allowing relationships, transactions, and bartering to flourish to be a win-win for everyone.

How Reciprocation Works

Many compliance practitioners employ the reciprocation rule frequently to get people to comply, especially for profit. For example, they will give gifts (free samples, raffle tickets, etc.) before asking for a favor or smaller request in return. This tactic is highly effective due to three traits of the rule:

1. Possesses Extreme Power: The rule can overpower another into saying yes to a typically refused request. The practice becomes amplified when a present, favor, or service is personalized or customized to the needs or wants of the recipient.
2. Enforces Uninvited Debts: The rule can cause one to provide unrequested favors, producing an awkward feeling of indebtedness to the recipient. Thus, one becomes devoid of the choice of taking on the debt and may feel obligated to repay it.
3. Triggers Unequal Exchanges: Ideally, the rule would promote equal exchanges between partners. However, a small initial favor can create a sense of obligation, which causes one to provide a much larger favor in return.

Reciprocal Concessions

Another way to employ the reciprocation rule is to get reciprocal concessions:

Reciprocal Concessions – the action of making an initial concession that produces a return concession

Typically used in negotiations, the reciprocal concessions method is commonly employed using this technique:

Rejection-then-Retreat Technique – the method of starting with an extreme request, which will be rejected and then scaled down to a more acceptable request that is more desirable and profitable to the recipient

The recipient would likely accept the reasonable request as it seems like a concession. Research shows that this technique will more likely cause one to agree, follow through with the request, and accept similar requests in the future. When people participate in a reciprocal exchange of concessions, they feel more:

• Responsibility as they ‘dictated’ the terms of the final agreement; and
• Satisfaction with the result due to it being established via the requester’s concession.

Defense

Avoid trying to systematically reject the initial favors provided to you. Instead, defend against reciprocation by accepting the initial offer in good faith and reframing it as a trick. This reframing will prevent you from feeling the need to reciprocate with a favor or concession of your own.

Chapter 3 – Liking: The Friendly Thief

Whether it is our friends, family, or strangers, Dr. Robert Cialdini, in his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, shows that we are influenced by the second principle of the people we like:

Liking – states that “people prefer to say yes to individuals they like”

The liking rule is vital to business, as you are much more likely to buy something when you like them. Thus, compliance professionals deliberately try to improve their effectiveness by increasing likeability through several factors and positive events:

The 5 Factors Of Liking

1) Physical Attractiveness: People have generally understood that being attractive is socially beneficial; however, the advantage has been heavily underestimated. This factor stimulates a halo effect, which causes us to automatically associate favorable traits such as honesty, kindness, and intelligence to them. Thus, good-looking people tend to be more influential in getting what they want and changing other’s minds.

2) Similarity: We also “like people who are like us.” Similarity can occur in the “area of opinions, personality traits, background, or lifestyle.” Compliance professionals wanting us to like them will manipulate and appear similar in their appearance, opinions, and interests. As a result, we are more likely to accept their requests without thinking.

3) Compliments: Giving compliments will get others to like you and more likely comply with your requests. There are two types of genuine compliments that are useful and lack recognition:

• Those presented “behind a deserving person’s back.”
• Those given to get the recipient to live up to it by consistently taking the desired action.

4) Contact and Cooperation: We also “like things familiar to us.” Familiarity by repeated contact causes us to view a specific person or thing positively, especially when contact occurs under favorable rather than negative circumstances. Cooperation is one positive circumstance that provides contact through shared goals, which is mutually beneficial for all involved.

5) Conditioning and Association: Compliance professions use associations to form positive connections in their audience’s mind about themselves, their businesses, or their products. In contrast, people can also be unfairly associated with adverse events in the eyes of observers. Thus, conscious individuals will distance themselves from unfavorable situations.

Defense

There are many strategies used by others to get you to like them, so you need a general approach to defend yourself from compliance. Therefore, you should be aware of your biases for liking compliance professionals. Mentally, you need to decouple your liking for the requester from their offer. Then, make your decision to comply based on the worthiness of the request.

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Chapter 4 – Social Proof: Truths Are Us

Showing popularity for a specific idea, good, or action occurs universally in many activities, including dieting, criminality, online shopping, etc. In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini presents the third principle, which is very effective for getting compliance:

Social Proof – states that people decide what to believe or how to act in a situation by examining what others are believing or doing there

Compliance professionals use social proof by presenting a request and providing evidence of popularity. When they show that many others (the more, the better) are or have been complying with the request, it causes even more people to comply, increasing its popularity.

Optimal Conditions For Social Proof

There are three optimal conditions where social proof is most influential:

1. Uncertainty: When either the scenario seems uncertain, or others are unsure, uncertainty reigns and causes people to follow other people and agree with their actions. When trying to resolve uncertainty, we likely overlook that others are simultaneously trying to examine the social evidence.
2. The Many: In a group, one’s likeness to perform a specific action is proportional to “the many” or the number of other people doing that action. When we see many people taking a particular action, we want to follow their lead when it has these characteristics:
   • Validity as we justify other’s actions to find the correct choice
   • Feasibility as we view other’s actions as something that is possible for us to do
   • Social Acceptance as we want to feel as part of the group and not the outsider
3. Similarity (Peer-suasion): Peer-suasion is the idea that “people conform to the beliefs and actions of comparable others, especially their peers.” When we see similar others taking a particular action, we tend to follow them.

Social Proof Mistakes

Regarding social proof, the biggest mistake made is crying, “Look at all the people who are doing this undesirable thing,” to try to highlight the frequency of an undesired behavior or issue. However, this message weakens the original intent by saying, “Look at all the people who are doing it.” The result is the poorly delivered message becomes social proof itself and makes things way worse.

Another social proof mistake is lying about the lack of social proof for your idea, cause, or product when you do not have any. Instead of relying on existing social evidence or other status symbols, either use another principle of influence or point to future social proof by showing trending support. When your audience notices a change, they will expect it to trend in the same direction.

Defense

We should not blindly follow the decisions and actions of similar others when making our own. You can defend against complying with faulty social proof by recognizing when the evidence provided is inaccurate or fake in these two situations:

• Sabotage – the situation in which “the social evidence has been poorly falsified”
• Looking Up – the instance in which a “natural error will produce snowballing social proof that pushes us to an incorrect decision”

Chapter 5 – Authority: Directed Deference

In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini discusses authority or the fourth principle of influence. Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram examined the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience. Contrary to their conscious, he found many ordinary, grounded individuals were willing to inflict pain on others simply because an authority figure directed them to do so. It shows that many people are heavily susceptible to comply with the requests of an authority: 

Authority – the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience

Within society, we have been socialized to obey authority and follow the rules. It is typically beneficial, as these authority figures tend to be intelligent, wise, and powerful. But unfortunately, as a result, many people tend to develop mental shortcuts of blindly complying with authority.

Symbols Of Authority

Instead of examining substance, several symbols effectively trigger us to comply, and professionals heavily use them. The three major symbols of authority include:

• Titles – the label showing your profession or position but can be adopted with little effort
• Clothing – your appearance showing your job or status but can be faked with a costume
• Trappings – your accessories and possessions which can show social status or wealth

Research has found that those showing high-status symbols or providing celebrity endorsements command more obedience. Also, those who obeyed underestimated the effect of authority on their actions. Moreover, these “authority figures” in the study had no other legitimizing credentials.

The Credible Authority

In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini, states that people view credentials and the influence of authority as either IN authority or AN authority:

• In Authority – merely being in charge, which has issues when one uses their position to give orders and “often generates resistance and resentment”
• An Authority – being highly informed and is earned as others are more likely to follow your recommendations as you know more than them

To be perceived as an authority, you need to be credible, which requires two distinct attributes:

• Expertise – one’s knowledgeability on the relevant subject matter
• Trustworthiness – one’s objectivity and honesty in the delivery of their knowledge

It takes time to develop credibility, especially trustworthiness. To build your expertise, become so good they can’t ignore you. To establish your trustworthiness, admit to your weakness early in presenting and then show your overcoming strengths later.

Defense

To defend yourself, you need to quickly recognize “when authority directives are best followed and when they are not.” You can effectively do so by determining credibility by posing these questions:

• Expertise: “Is this authority truly an expert?” This question directs our focus away from symbols and toward the credentials of the authority and their relevance to the topic.
• Trustworthiness: “How truthful can we expect this expert to be?” This question guides us to examine the authority’s honesty beyond their relevant knowledge.

Note: Regarding trustworthiness, be aware of compliance professions providing some faults early on to build your trust. If you perceive them to be honest, then all following information they give you will seem more truthful.

Chapter 6 – Scarcity: The Rule Of The Few

Scarcity is a fundamental issue in economics because there are unlimited wants and not enough resources, which causes differences in assigned values:

Scarcity – states that people assign more value to things and opportunities that are less available

Less Is Best And Loss Is Worst

Compliance professions use the scarcity principle to convince us to purchase their products and services by using these two methods:

• Limited Number – the method of informing customers that “a certain product is in short supply that cannot be guaranteed to last long”
• Limited Time (Deadline Tactic) – the method of placing “some official time limit on the customer’s opportunity to get what the compliance professional is offering”

Thus, if we don’t act now, we will be unable to purchase the valuable product due to being sold out or the offer expires. These methods stimulate the human tendency for loss aversion:

Loss Aversion – the idea “that people are more driven by the prospect of losing an item of value than by the prospect of gaining” something of equal value

Psychological Reactance

People tend to make decisions to avoid losses, while compliance professionals recognize this notion and rely heavily on scarcity. The power of the scarcity principle stems from two sources:

1. Reliance on Mental Shortcuts: Things that are difficult to attain are typically more valuable. The availability of a particular thing indicates its level of quality. Loss aversion motivates us to avoid losing something of high quality.  
2. Psychological Reactance: As opportunities become less available, we lose freedoms. Psychological reactance theory explains that we react to the loss of freedoms by desiring them (with their associated goods and services) much more than before.

Many human behaviors can be explained by psychological reactance, which is clearly noticeable at the terrible age of two and in the teenage years. At these ages, children feel a sense of individuality and rebellion, which create concerns regarding control, rights, and freedoms.

Scarcity Of Information

In our world today, more information correlates to greater wealth and power. Thus, if a specific message is restricted or perceived as scarce, people will want to receive it much more. Also, these messages will be more effective and more favorably received. Regarding censorship, there may be more favorability toward a restricted message before it has been received.

Optimal Conditions For Scarcity

In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini states that there are two optimal conditions in which the scarcity principle holds:

1. New Scarcity: We value things that have become newly scarce than those that were banned from the start.
2. Competition: We are more likely to pursue the scarce resources that we compete against others for them.

Defense

It is tough to defend against the scarcity principle despite adequate warnings because it involves emotion that hinders our critical thinking. Therefore, to protect you, use this two-stage approach:

1. When you feel the emotional rush from scarcity, calm down and rationally try to understand the signal.
2. Ask yourself why you want the thing and the merits of the offer in terms of your why.

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Chapter 7 – Commitment And Consistency: Hobgoblins Of The Mind

In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini shows the sixth principle that within us, we desire “to be (and to appear) consistent with what we have already said or done:”

Consistency – the ability to remain the same within their words, beliefs, attitudes, and deeds 

“Once we make a choice or take a stand, we encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to think and behave consistently with that commitment:”

Commitment – a pledge or agreement to take an action, stand, or position

“Moreover, those pressures will cause us to respond in ways that justify our decision.”

Consistency

Psychological research has shown that being consistent is powerful and can have us act in ways that oppose our self-interest. This tendency for consistency stems from three sources:

1. Valued by Society: When one is consistent in words and action, they build trust, and society values them and associates the traits of intelligence, stability, and strength. In contrast, inconsistency is viewed negatively as bipolar or mentally ill.
2. Provides a Beneficial Approach: Consistent action or 10X action is beneficial in your life as it builds momentum and creates progress to achieve your goals. Stubborn consistency also makes you feel satisfied and fulfilled about what you are working on.
3. Offers a Shortcut: Consistency provides shortcuts within the complex world we live in. “By being consistent with earlier decisions, one reduces the need to process all the relevant information in future similar situations; instead, one merely needs to recall the earlier decision and to respond consistently with it.”

Commitments

The power of consistency is unlocked by obtaining a commitment. After committing to an action, stand, or position, people are more likely to comply with requests that align with their prior commitment. Thus, many compliance professionals use this commitment technique:

Foot-in-the-Door Technique – “the tactic of starting with a little request to gain eventual compliance with related larger requests”

Thus, we should be careful to agree to trivial requests. Not only will we increase our compliance with similar requests, but we may also be willing to perform larger unrelated favors. Not all commitments are equally effective in producing consistent future action.

Commitment Effectiveness And Tactics

Not all commitments are created equal in their effectiveness to product consistency in future actions. In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini state that the most effective commitments produce inner change and have the following traits:

• Active – the current pursuit of the commitment, which causes pressure to align their self-image with their actions
• Public – the public commitment is done, perceived, or existing in open view, which effectively causes genuine personal change
• Effortful – putting forth effort into the commitment, which strongly correlates to the “ability to influence the attitudes and actions of the person who made it”
• Voluntary – accepting inner responsibility for the commitment when believing that we are performing it without major external pressures

And so, compliance professionals enjoy these commitments as they “grow their own legs,” getting people to be consistent and adding new reasons to support their commitment. As a result, these commitments expand beyond the original situation, and the effects of the change are long-lasting. One deceptive yet effective compliance practice is “throwing the low-ball:”

Low Ball Technique – a technique aimed to gain compliance by making a desirable initial offer to get acceptance and then changing the terms to be less favorable

Also, commitment-based tactics have reminders that regenerate the commitment and get one to act according to an earlier position, stand, or action. The reminders also serve to strengthen one’s perception of their self-image and identity.

Defense

Since automatic consistency is helpful in our day-to-day lives, we can’t discard it. Instead, we must recognize and resist the undue influence of consistency by paying attention to signals coming from these two places within us:

• Our Stomach: These signs arise when we are pressured to comply with commitment requests that we don’t want to do. You should react by telling the requester that compliance would be consistent with a previous commitment that you were tricked into. 
• Our Heart-of-Hearts: These signs should be used when it is difficult to know if our original commitment was incorrect. In response, ask the following question: “Knowing what I now know, if I could go back in time, would I make the same commitment?” Your first sensation of feeling will provide an informative answer.

Commitment and consistency tactics work well on those:

• Over 50 Years Old as they hold firm in their beliefs and attitudes.
• From Individualistic Societies as they focus on the self as opposed to the group.

Chapter 8 – Unity: The “We” Is The Shared Me

“People are inclined to say yes to someone they consider one of them.” And so, throughout time, humans have habitually divided into “we” groups,” which is captured by this principle:

Unity – the experience of togetherness with others is about shared identities and is used by people to define themselves and their groups

The experience of unity goes beyond simile similarities to shared identities. Members define themselves in “we” groups, “such as race, ethnicity, nationality, and family, as well as political and religious affiliations.” These groups range various situations that affect human interaction; however, research has found three overall conclusions:

1. Favoritism: Group members significantly “favor the outcomes and welfare of fellow members over those of nonmembers.”
2. Groupthink: Group members “use the preferences and actions of fellow members to guide their own, which enhances group solidarity.”
3. Partisanship: “These partisan urges to favor and follow have arisen, evolutionarily, as ways to advantage our “we” groups and, ultimately, ourselves.”

These three conclusions have emerged in many worlds, including business, politics, sports, and relationships.

Factors Leading To Unity

In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini calls to research examining the unity principle’s impact on human interaction. He found that two major factors that have resulted in a feeling of unity:

• Belonging Together – the perception of existing together with others that leads to a sense of unity through these similarities:
• Kinship – the amount of physical similarity through family or genetics familial
• Place – the amount of physical proximity, including one’s home, locality, and region
• Acting Together – the experience of performing together in unison or coordination leads to feelings of unity and liking; these shared experiences include musical performances, repeated reciprocal exchange, joint suffering, co-creation, and advice-giving

Getting Together

You should use the unifying effects of belonging together and acting together to get “together as a species.” Focus on establishing familial feelings of “we “-ness rather than tribal groupings with out-group members by having sharing experiences within your:

• Home: Provide either a long-term residence for cross-group kids or invite them over for playdates or sleepovers.
• Neighborhood: Look to move to an ethnically or racially diverse community
• Friendship: Support your children in finding cross-group friends at schools, sporting events, or playgrounds.

We need to genuinely shift attention away from differences to connections when we encounter out-groups. Also, you should establish parental procedures in your children’s formative years that shape them to embrace cross-group “we “-ness. Later, your kids will continue to grow cross-group unity into the future.

Other unifying connections are formed based on national identity, mutual enemies, joint emotional experience, and shared perspective; however, these tend not to last. Instead, you should prioritize and focus on these relationships to make them last longer.

Defense

When exploiters break into our “we”-groups, they get members to comply and act against the group’s best interest. To prevent bad actors from acting selfishly in our “we”-groups, the alliance needs to take these three steps:

1. “Recognize that its corrupt actors presume they are protected by “we”-groups’ willingness to excuse members who breach ethical rules,
2. Announce to all concerned that such leniency will not be forthcoming in this particular “we”-group, and
3. Establish a consequent no-tolerance policy of dismissal for proven abuses” in the Code of Conduct statement 

This commitment to ethics in the “we”-group should be made during induction to group membership and regularly during team meetings. During induction, the incoming member should understand the organization’s Code of Conduct statement and that major violations will result in dismissal. Establishing ethics will allow organizations to benefit from “a communal, “we”-based work-group culture” that will foster cooperation, harmony, and satisfaction. 

Chapter 9 – Instant Influence: Primitive Consent For An Automatic Age

This chapter concludes the book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Dr. Robert Cialdini starts by reiterating two fundamental themes for his book:

• When making decisions, we don’t use all the available information as “we use only a single, highly representative piece of the total.” This information shortcut can cause us to make dumb errors, which others can exploit.
• At the same time, modern life is fast-paced, information-heavy, and complex due to the flourishing technological progress. Thus, we need to rely on shortcuts to living today regardless of the vulnerability to stupid mistakes.

We want “to make the most thoughtful, fully considered decision possible in any situation.” However, due to modern life, “we revert increasingly to focusing on a single, usually reliable feature of the situation.” Regarding decision-making, this book describes the seven most reliable and popular levers of influence.

Dr. Robert Cialdini predicts that “the prevalence of shortcut decision-making is likely to increase proportionately” as they are valuable shortcuts to deal with the increasing information overload. However, compliance professionals are more likely to exploit others using the principles, so we must defend against their inappropriate use.

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Next Steps

In his book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Dr. Robert Cialdini researches compliance psychology by immersing himself in the world of compliance professionals. He observed seven levers of influence and discussed how to use them: Reciprocation, Liking, Social Proof, Authority, Scarcity, Commitment and Consistency, and Unity.

I hope you enjoyed this Influence summary, and for more, you should check out the book here:

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