Introduction
Why Influence?
Everyday
Modern
Definitions
Ethics I
Ethics II
Disciplines
Approach
Bad Info
Structure
Mindfulness
Mindlessness
6 Principles
Matrix
Cults I
Cults II
Cults III
Framing I
Framing II
Framing III
Framing IV
Framing V
Framing VI
Framing VII
Framing VIII
Bibliography
Links
 

Dr. Cialdini's office, to his chagrin, was located below the university's stadium seats. The location suited him most of the time--but it made work difficult on Sundays, when the stadium was packed with cheering fans. Not just because of the noise and the vibrations from above, but because Dr. Cialdini liked sports, liked sunshine, and hated to miss the games on days like this.

Alone, he poured over the data from his most recent laboratory study. As an experimental social psychologist in the 70s, he knew that long hours and tedious analyses were an inevitable part of a career whose goal it was to understand what moved people to action. But the thunderous cheers from the fans above told Cialdini that today's game was a particularly good one. As the crowd's roar broke his concentration once again, he imagined what he was missing above.

Then he did an uncharacteristic thing--he set down his pencil, stacked his papers, and walked out of his office. Climbing up the stairs from his office and into the stadium, squinting in the daylight, he looked for an empty seat among the cheering crowd. He had seen enough of human behavior reduced to neat columns of numbers for one day. He wasn't going to miss yet another game.

Wedging himself into an empty seat, he was struck by the energy and power of the audience as they roared their approval or disappointment. "This is where it really is," he thought to himself. "This is what I'm trying to understand. The actions, the thoughts and emotions of humans. To a lesser degree, I can see it in the lab--but it's so amplified here, in the strong light of the real world!"

This experience was a turning point for Cialdini. Although experimental social psychologists are no strangers to field research--that is, conducting studies in natural settings ? Dr. Cialdini felt an increasing conviction that his research should move from the laboratory to the real world. What was unusual about Cialdini's plan, however, was his method and scope. He conceived of an unprecedented 3-year participant-observer study whose purpose it was to uncover the compliance tactics of real-world influence professionals.

For three years, Dr. Cialdini became a "spy," who infiltrated various organizations that relied on influence tactics to achieve their goals. To this end, he became an encyclopedia salesman, a waiter, a vacuum-cleaner salesman, and a portrait-photography salesman. Using similar approaches, he penetrated advertising firms, public-relations offices, and fund-raising agencies to examine their techniques. He even studied panhandlers, con-men, and cult members. For three years, Dr. Cialdini observed and learned the tactics of professional influence agents by living and working among them. And what he discovered surprised him.

Although he found thousands of different tactics that compliance practitioners employed to produce 'yes' responses, the majority of them fell within only six basic categories.

Each of these categories is governed by a fundamental psychological principle that directs human behavior and gives these tactics their power. The six principles are consistency, reciprocation, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity.

If you're not ready for the seminar, but you like this website, there's more. Next, we discuss the Persuasion Matrix . . .



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