“Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive” by Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin and Robert B. Cialdini
I picked this book up to see what insights it might provide on message design and decision making. The book is loosely organized around six principles of social influence: reciprocity, authority, commitment, scarcity, liking/similarity and social proof. The book uses stories and cites studies for each of the 50 persuasive techniques.
A memorable sample:
Social Proof – we look to what others do as guides to what our behavior should be. In the Petrified National Forest park visitors were stealing petrified wood. The Public Service Announcement (PSA) message in use was; “Your heritage is being vandalized everyday by the theft losses of petrified wood of 14 tons a year, mostly a small piece at a time.” This message actually reinforces the idea that lots of people are stealing. The PSA rather perversely establishes the norm — the forest is being depleted by visitors stealing the wood. An alternate PSA was developed that showed an image of a lone visitor (isolated from peers) with the universal circle and “X”over the hand picking up a small piece of petrified wood. The text was changed to “Please don’t remove the petrified wood from the park in order to preserve the natural state of the Petrified Forest.” The new PSA by showing the thieving individual in isolation, led to a significant reduction in the theft of wood. The idea that one could translate a similar message into an educational setting to set the behavioral norms is similar to an approach that favors focus on positive expectations (labels) for students. Students will rise to those expectations. Isolate the undesired behavior.
While the book was interesting and had lots of similar such stories and studies to propel the reader forward, the book strayed too far from the six principles of social influence. The 50 examples began to feel like 50 randomly selected techniques. Easy to read and entertaining, I would give the book a 7 out of 10.
Other gleanings from the reading included:
- we learn more from scenarios that show the consequences of failed decision making
- we like people similar to ourselves – this can be even someone who repeats back to us our own words (ex. of a waiter who repeats verbatim our order is more likable than one who substitutes other words, or worse doesn’t repeat the order at all. This concept also applies to mirroring in body language)
- personalization and making people feel exceptional helps make them more persuadable (another waiter example used here)
- we act upon advice of people we think are experts (hang up that degree!)
- if you explain your petition with a “because” people are more apt to be persuaded by your argument than if you omit it
- reciprocation will fade over time
- don’t forget to point out the uniqueness of what you offer (products, or think job hunt context)
Finally, if you are wrong admit it. Do not blame others (this implies that the wrong/error was outside your control and therefore you cannot be trusted to fix it).