Does changing 3-4 words on a note placed inside the
bathroom asking you to reuse the towels will affect people?
Can talking about potato chips and the latest movie trailer improve the negotiation of
two big companies and ensure that an agreement can be easier to reach without conflict?
Does liking someone skew your judgment of things?
The answer to all these questions is yes simply because people are
manipulative and the brain enjoys to be manipulated like that.
The world is always bombarding us with
information and much of it is unnecessary to us.
But because we can barely avoid all of them, we often make shortcuts in our brain,
ignoring or avoiding the ones we deem unnecessary and process the ones we think are.
By understanding which one matters more, we can identify
persuasion methods that typically work for others.
The power of persuading someone that likes you is strong – just
like how people say love can change you like no others can.
The more you like someone, the more you can do for that person.
People similar to us tend to be a mirror that we want to be the reflection of.
People that compliment us boost our confidence,
making us want to gain more when we do as they say.
People who work with us will cooperate even more and
better in the future if we comply with their requests.
Reciprocity pokes the heart of a human because people
typically do not like to owe others too much for too long.
This is especially true if the nice thing to
do is not hard and clear to them, like living
more tips to the nice waiter than gave them two mints because they are nice customers.
Kindness goes around, you just don’t value
kindness with dollars, but you do with tips.
Scarcity is a commonly understood the method used by companies
in selling products that are produced in a large amount.
Simply put, rare items will make it easier to push someone to make
the decision, because he doesn’t want to regret not getting it.
Some people don’t want to regret to not purchasing the tickets
while it’s on discount because it doesn’t happen all the time.
Women can’t stand not having a look and buy something when
there is a sale going on because it might not happen again.
You cannot miss the latest tumbler from Starbucks.
We don’t even know if we need them.
We just don’t want to regret it!
Then, there is the fact that we trust people with authority more than people
who don’t have the certificate, experience or anything to prove his expertise.
You will listen to a specialized doctor’s advice better
than your friend who heard things from another friend.
And what’s better is that you will trust that doctor very
much if you heard positive things about him from a friend.
Authority works even when the person who is doing it does not necessarily
have the qualification, but simply made it seem like he does.
Wear a lab coat and apply a neat look in a hospital and people will
straight think that you are a doctor stationed in that hospital.
Religious fraud schemes also use this persuasion technique to make people donate
for the church thinking they are helping people in need or for the good of many.
Consistency softens the initial negative reactions
to think because they are used to it already.
That is why people who are used to taking care of themselves
don’t find it hard if left to live all by themselves.
You can easily persuade your housekeeper to stay
for 15 more minutes to accompany your kids.
When you are used to being committed into something for a certain period of time, it is
much easier to comply to do something similar
that might require even bigger sacrifices.
Interestingly, you wouldn’t have the same reaction had you been
suddenly asked to commit to something that brought a sudden change.
Just like the two groups comparison that will be discussed further.
Peer pressure is the example of consensus persuasion technique
which is also a common social issue we see every day.
Bullying is a form of consensus when students are
forced to either be the bully or the victim.
You are afraid of being part of the victims, the part when
the majority shun and hate, so you go with being a bully.
It is also pretty common to see a trend the sweeps across the country and even
people who don’t seem to have any interest in that kind of thing are also involved.
The consensus is also powerful even if it is not the truth, as long as you
put your words in a convincing way that others are doing the same thing.
The urge to be accepted, to not be the odd one out
and even feel wrong is strong in human nature.
These are 6 most powerful social influence that Cialdini
mentioned and true enough, if we just open our eyes and observe,
we will see how every day, millions of people are
persuading each other in ways we never thought deeply of.
Cases of people being convinced to do something they later regret
is abundant and the brain even can’t seem to stop getting lied to.
Taking a step deeper into the psychology of persuasion,
analyze how these 6 shortcuts in our brain
seem to have played so many parts in making us do
things we would not have wanted to do otherwise.
Because of the information bombardment we get
every day, the brain is even more eager to make
more shortcuts regardless of whether they are
logical or the most beneficial routes to take.
Professionals know how persuading toys with the brain in telling
them what to do and why it wouldn’t be so bad to do so.
Rejections become acceptance and hatred turns into tolerance, but at
the same time, gullible people are brought into ruin because of it.
Nevertheless, we never stop persuading people to work to our bidding and at
the same time, comply with them, as long as we live in an active society.