THE SCIENCE OF PERSUASION

1. THE SCIENCE OF PERSUASION Robert Cialdini By:PowerPoint ABDULRAHMAN ALSUBHI MO11082403

2. EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND:1963-67: Undergraduate study in Psychology at the University of }1967Wisconsin {B.S., June, 1967-70: Graduate study in Social Psychology at the University of North Carolina (Ph.D.,June, 1970).1970-71: Postgraduate study in Social Psychology at Columbia University.

3. Robert B. Cialdini : • Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University. • He is best known for his popular book on persuasion and marketing, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Influence has sold over 2 million copies and has been translated into twenty-six languages. It has been listed on the New York Times Business Best Seller List. • Fortune Magazine lists Influence in their "75 Smartest Business Books."

5. Q1-Have you ever been tricked into saying YES? Q2-What do you know about The Science of Persuasion?

6. Definition :Science of Persuasion The act of persuading; the act of influencing the mind by arguments or reasons offered, or by anything that moves the mind or passions, or inclines the will to a determination. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy--eg84V3k&feature=related

7. Six "Weapons of Influence" Reciprocity ConsistencyCommitment and Social Proof Authority Liking Scarcity :Reciprocity

8. :Reciprocity People tend to return a favor, thus the pervasiveness of free samples in marketing. In his conferences, he often uses the example of Ethiopia providing thousands of dollars in humanitarian aid to Mexico just after the 1985 earthquake, despite Ethiopia suffering from a crippling famine and civil war at the time. Ethiopia had been reciprocating for the diplomatic support Mexico provided when Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935.

9. Commitment and Consistency: If people commit, orally or in writing, to an idea or goal, they are more likely to honor that commitment because of establishing that idea or goal as being congruent with their self image. Even if the original incentive or motivation is removed after they have already agreed, they will continue to honor the agreement. For example, in car sales, suddenly raising the price at the last moment works because the buyer has already decided to buy.

10. Social Proof : People will do things that they see other people are doing. For example, in one experiment, one or more confederates would look up into the sky; bystanders would then look up into the sky to see what they were seeing. At one point this experiment aborted, as so many people were looking up that they stopped traffic.

11. Authority: People will tend to obey authority figures, even if they are asked to perform objectionable acts. In 1955 University of Texas at Austin researchers Monroe Lefkowitz, Robert R. Blake and Jane S. Mouton discovered that a man could increase by 350 percent the number of pedestrians who would follow him across the street against the light by changing one simple thing. Instead of casual dress, he donned markers of authority: a suit and tie. .

12. Liking: People are easily persuaded by other people that they like. Cialdini cites the marketing of Tupperware in what might now be called viral marketing. People were more likely to buy if they liked the person selling it to them.

13. Scarcity: “Perceived scarcity will generate demand”. For example, saying offers are available for a "limited time only" encourages sales. A great deal of evidence shows that items and opportunities become more desirable to us as they become less available.

14. Influence across culture: Do the six key factors in the social influence process operate similarly across national boundaries? Consider the results of a report published in 2000 by Stanford University's Michael W. Morris, Joel M. Podolny and Sheira Ariel, who studied employees of Citibank, a multinational financial corporation.

15. The researchers selected four societies for examination: The U.S., China, Spain and Germany. They surveyed Citibank branches within each country and measured employees' willingness to comply voluntarily request from a co-worker for assistance with a task. Although multiple key factors could come into play, the main reason employees felt obligated to comply differed in the four nations. Each of these reasons incorporated a different fundamental principle of social influence.

16. Employees in the United State: They took a reciprocation-based approach to the decision to comply. They asked the question, "What has this person done for me recently?" and felt obligated to volunteer if they owed the requester a favor.

17. Chinese Employees: They responded primarily to authority, in the form of loyalties to those of high status within their small group. They asked, "Is this requester connected to someone in my unit, especially someone who is high-ranking?" If the answer was yes, they felt required to yield.

18. Spanish Employees: They based the decision to comply mostly on liking/friendship. They were willing to help on the basis of friendship norms that encourage faithfulness to one's friends, regardless of position or status. They asked, "Is this requester connected to my friends? If the answer was yes, they were especially likely to want to comply.

19. German Employees: They were most compelled by consistency, offering assistance in order to be consistent with the rules of the organization. They decided whether to comply by asking, "According to official regulations and categories, am I supposed to assist this requester?“ If the answer was yes, they felt a strong obligation to grant the request.

21. References: • http://www.influenceatwork.com/ • http://www.squeezedbooks.com/book/show/25/influence-the-psychology-of-persuasion-collins-business-essentials • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini • Scientific American Special Edition; Jan2004 Special Edition, Vol. 14 Issue 1, p70-77, 8p, 6c, 1bw • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy--eg84V3k&feature=related