I’ve been wanting to read this book for some time. Almost every big-name marketer has mentioned this book and now I can see why. It really is the bible of persuasion, influence, and marketing

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, was written by Robert Cialdini, a professor of psychology and marketing. He set out on the goal to understand how compliance professions get us to take action, purchase goods, and how they influence our view of them and their products.

Yes, I read this book to improve my own marketing knowledge. But, I also want people who use my products to take action more often.

I don’t just want students or customers who read one of my ebooks. I really want to inspire them to take action on what they’ve learned.

This book is filled with Jedi mind tricks to do just that. In fact, I think that a lot of the information in this book could be very dangerous in the wrong hands.

I’m going to go over a few things that I learned and then share the notes I took on the book.

Takeaway #1 – We are ruled by the mental shortcuts we use

This is pretty much the premise of the entire book and all of the techniques that Cialdini mentions are ways to use these “short cuts” to your advantage as a marketer.

We tend to employ mental shortcuts when:

• There is too much information and we need something to focus on
• We’re not very knowledgable about the product, service, or problem. There is uncertainty.
• We’re not thinking straight or our rational thought is affected by our emotions.
• To avoid mental strain and decision making fatigue

When you think about it, this is a good number of the decisions we make on a day to day basis. It even extends beyond our purchasing decisions.

For example, for you younger male readers, if you’re at a bar or a night club, you’re far more likely to have success with women when you cater to the short cuts they use to assess your mating value. This could include the friends you have with you, your body language, your clothing, and your tone of voice.

We use shortcuts to assess value in many different situations because a high degree of uncertainty, a lack of knowledge, and emotional stimulation throughout the decision making process is inherently human. It’s simply a part of existing in this world.

I think that from the buyer’s side, it’s crucial that you recognize when you’re in a situation that meets the above mentioned criteria. From a marketer’s perspective, it’s best to encourage this type of situation, though in an ethical way.

I mean, it’s kind of weird to say, but when you think about Nazi Germany, North Korea, or states dominated by totalitarian rule with a large amount of propaganda, the ruling group encourages uncertainty, lack of knowledge, and emotional decision making because that way it’s easier to control the citizenry.

Takeaway #2 – All decision making is based in emotion

Being a hyper rationally-minded dude, this was kind of hard for me to grasp at first. I don’t think that I make emotional decisions, but when I really think about it, I do.

Whether that’s to attain a certain image, a feeling of comfort, or the emotions that come with being respected, all of my decisions are based in emotion.

In fact, the decision to start my first company and get started on this business journey was all due to the emotion of perceived urgency and a desire to be consistent with my identity, or who I thought I was meant to be.

Once you accept the fact that all decision making is based in emotions, not logic, then the techniques and strategies that Cialdini goes through in this book make so much more sense. After all, this book is about how to affect the masses, not necessarily those who make the most intelligence or rational decisions in our society. And, let’s be honest, rationality is a minority in our society and world.

Therefore, you must appeal the emotions of your readers, listeners, buyers, or followers if you’d like them to make a certain decision or take action in some way. At the time I’m writing this, I think that Donald Trump is doing this with his follower base, whether it’s for good or evil. He’s stirring up the emotions that prompt action.

My notes and quotes

We use mental shortcuts to make decisions, usually when there is not much time or not much knowledge. Automatic behavior due to complexity. Want to avoid brain strain. Mental jujitsu.

“A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason.”

Buying: Expensive = Good. “Thus the vacationers, who wanted “good” jewelry, saw the turquoise pieces as decidedly more valuable and desirable when nothing about them was enhanced but the price.”

“There is a principle in human perception, the contrast principle, that affects the way we see the difference between two things that are presented one after another. Simply put, if the second item is fairly different from the first, we will tend to see it as more different than it is.” Light vs. Heavy weight or women attractiveness.

“When a man enters a clothing store with the express purpose of purchasing a suit, he will almost always pay more for whatever accessories he buys if he buys them after the suit purchase than before.” Buy the expensive item first will not care as much about price of other items.

Reciprocity principle

“We are obligated to the future repayment of favors, gifts, and the like.” There are social sanctions if you don’t apply.

Unsolicited favors create feelings of indebtedness. Gifts and favors. Subject does not choose the form of the initial favor or the return favor. Often unfair exchanges in value.

“For those who owed him a favor, it made no difference whether they liked him or not. They felt a sense of obligation to repay him.”

“We have already seen that one consequence of the rule is an obligation to repay favors we have received. Another consequence of the rule, however, is an obligation to make a concession to someone who has made a concession to us.”

“If the first set up demands is so extreme as to be seen as unreasonable, the tactic backfires. The party who has made the extreme first request is not seen to be bargaining in good faith.”

When an opponent feels responsible for the final deal, they feel like they influenced the other person, when it’s really the other way around. It feels like they produced the concessions. They also feel more satisfied.

Commitment and Consistency

“Once we have made a choice or taken a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment. Those pressures will cause us to respond in ways that justify our earlier decision.”

Consistency is associated with personal and intellectual strength. It also allows less mental strain when making decisions.

The goal is to eliminate reason and rational thought.

The start of engaging the need for consistent actions with previous actions comes from an initial commitment on record. Examples are responses to a survey or series of questions.

Shape people’s identity and then have them be consistent with it. You can use small commitments to manipulate someone’s self image.

Written statements or declarations can be shown to other people. They are also evidence that the act has occurred.

“More important for the purpose of commitment, it can persuade them that the author geuinely believes what was written. People have a natural tendency to think that a statement reflects the true attitude of the person who made it. What is surprising is that they continue to think so even when they know that the person did not freely choose to make the statement.”

Written statements make people think that they reflect your actual beliefs. There is also a pressure to adjust our image to be in sync with how others perceive us.

“Our best evidence of what people truly feel and believe come less from their words then from their deeds. Observers trying to decide what a man is like look closely at his actions…the man himself uses this same evidence to decide what he is like.”

Initiation rites make someone value a goal more. It increases commitment to the group.

“Commitments are most effective in changing a person’s self-image and future behavior when they are active, public, and effortful.”

Fraternities want the men to own what they had done. When you don’t feel inner responsibility for an act, you don’t feel committed to it. You need to not have a big reward or external pressure.

Getting someone to take personal responsibility for an action will make them more likely to stay with their choice than if you exert external control (they’d go back to their old desire or way).

First, have the person make the decision that they are going to buy.

Social Proof

Canned laughter – Makes people laugh longer and more often.

“We view a behavior as more correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it.”

“One means we use to determine what is correct is to find out what other people think is correct.”

Shortcuts are often right, but not always.

Fastest growing or largest selling means that the product is “good.”

“Since 95 percent of the people are imitators and only 5 percent are initiators, people are persuaded more by the actions of others than by any social proof we can offer.”

“The greater the number of people who find any idea correct, the more the idea will be correct.”

“In general, when we are unsure of ourselves, when the situation is unclear or ambiguous, when uncertainty reigns, we are most likely to look and to accept the actions of others as correct.”

Most people will help when they realize an emergency is happening, but they don’t realize it is happening. Also, when in a group personal responsibility is reduced. “We can learn from the way other witnesses are reaction, whether the event is or is not an emergency.”

“The principle of social proof operates most powerfully when we are observing the behavior of people just like us.”

“Well, I’m three years old, and Tommy is three years old. And Tommy can swim without a ring, so that means I can too.

“Willing to give up their freedoms of thought and action for the safety of a place where all decisions would be made for them.”

Uncertainty leads to more reliance on habits. When people are uncertain, they look to the actions of others to guide their own actions.

“Thus the most influential leaders are those who know how to arrange group conditions to allow the principle of social proof to work maximally in their favor.” No leader can control everyone, but he can with those that are devoted to him. Once a certain portion is convinced, they can convince the rest.

We assume that if a lot of people are doing something, then they must know something that we don’t.

“The strength of that social bond is twice as likely to determine product purchase as is preference for the product itself.”

Liking

People who like you are more likely to comply with your requests.

“A halo effect occurs when one positive characteristic of a person dominates the way that person is viewed by others.”

We assign favorable traits to good looking people without logic.

Good looking people are better liked, more persuasive, more frequently helped and assumed to possess better traits.

We like people who are similar to us in terms of opinions, personality traits, background, or lifestyle.

When you know that someone likes you, you are more likely to like them back.

Familiarity also plays a role in decisions. Seeing or experiencing something more and becoming familiar with it leads to greater liking

“Compliance professionals are forever attempting to establish that we and they are working for the same goals, that we must pull together for mutual benefit, that they are, in essence, our teammates.”

Police – There is someone on his side with his welfare in mind.

“The principle of association is a general one, governing both negative and positive connections. An innocent association with either bad things or good things will influence how people feel about us.”

People assume that we have the same personality traits as our friends.

You should try to connect yourself or product with things people like.

“All things being equal, you root for your own sex, your own culture, your own locality…and what you want to prove is that you are better than the other person. Whoever you root for represents you; and when he wins, you win.”

“We purposefully manipulate the visibility of our connections with winners and losers in order to make ourselves look good to anyone who could view these connections. The goal is to make observers think highly of us and to like us more.”

Authority

Men and women respond to authority the same. They both comply.

“It has to do, he says, with a deep-seated sense of duty to authority within us all.”

Subjects would not give additional shocks when another subject asked them to.

“Notions of submission and loyalty to legitimate rule are accorded much value in each.”

Religious leaders have authority because of superior access to information.

Goal is to make the person not think too much.

Things that affect authority:

• prestigious titles
• height
• clothes
• status symbols

By seeming to argue against your own interests, you will appear more trustworthy.

Scarcity

“Something that, on its own merits, held little appeal for me had become decidedly more attractive merely because it would soon become unavailable.”

How much money you could lose will make you more interested than how much money you could save.

At loss of availability, something jumps in attractiveness.

“The things that are difficult to possess are typically better than those that are easy to possess, we can often use an item’s availability to help us quickly and correctly decide on its quality.”

We hate to lose freedoms we already have.

“When our freedom to have something is limited, the item becomes less available, and we experience an increased desire for it… We need to make sense of our desire for the item, so we begin to assign it positive qualities to justify the desire.”

Even if you have a bad argument, if people hear that it’s being restricted, they will be more sympathetic to it.

Something that is not generally available. Less available = more desired and valued.

The feeling of being in competition for scare resources has motivating properties.

“The joy is not in experiencing a scare commodity, but in possessing it. It is important that we not confuse the two.”

“If the answer is that we want the thing for the social, economic, or psychological benefits of possessing something rare, then, fine; scarcity pressures will give us a good indication of how much we would want to pay for it.”

“He would end the pressure quickly by either agreeing to Richard’s price or by leaving abruptly.”

Produce an emotional reaction that makes it different for the person to think straight.

“It is clear that we frequently pay attention to but one piece of the relevant information in the situation.”

“We are likely to use these lone cues when we don’t have the inclination, time, energy, or cognitive resources to undertake a complete analysis of the situation. Where we are rushed, stressed, uncertain, indifferent, distracted, or fatigued, we tend to focus on the less of the information available to us.”

Ending Note

Do not use these techniques for nefarious purposes. I am simply providing notes I took.