LearnHub

albrecht said:

I’m currently reading through a book called The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini. It’s widely know as the “essential book for understanding the psychological foundations of marketing” so I’m excited to dive in and increase my understanding of the field. It’s always interesting to see how psychology plays such a large role in influencing all of our everyday decisions and to put reasons behind seemingly random actions.

I studied business in university and not psychology but I love it when I can apply a new concepts from a different field to the formal education I had in business. I’m just beginning but I think this will be a great book just for that reason.

I’ll try and post my thoughts and cool findings from the book here for everyone to see and comment on as we go. Please join in!

JohnPhilipGreen said:

I love that book. There are a lot of books on influence out there, but this one is the best I’ve come across so far. My only complaint is that its a little old, so some of the examples from the 80s don’t mean anything to me. For instance, I don’t think I’ve ever seen panhandlers at the airport… that must have been popular once, but today with all the security.

albrecht said:

Wow, 20 days have gone by and I haven’t updated! I swear I’m not that slow of a reader, I just didn’t get around to posting until now!

Chapter 1: Weapons of Influence

The real interesting thing I learned about here was the social psychology behind why and how we make seemingly automatic decisions. A decision that one thinks was automatic and involved no thought actually can be influenced and triggered by a number of psychological concepts. Because of the multitude of decisions and information that human beings are bombarded with on a daily basis, our brain looks for shortcuts to make decisions. It is in these decisions where we can be influenced without truly knowing it. For example: expensive = good quality. Not always true, but we almost always will automatically infer that the item with the higher price offers us more just due to this automatic psychological response.

The chapter also goes into depth on the concept of contrast. If you are presented with things side by side or even in sequence, you will unconsciously compare and contrast between them. For example, if someone is buying a $1000 suit, the $100 tie will appear to be cheap to the buyer, despite the fact that they would never buy a $100 tie otherwise. This is why salespeople will always present the most expensive items first and then work their way down to the cheaper items. Even an overpriced item at the end of the sales pitch will unconsciously seem to be a good deal to the buyer when it is contrasted against the earlier more expensive items.

Seems pretty basic, but the book gives lots more great examples of how the psychological principle of contrast is used to influence us on a daily basis.

What experiences have you had with these principle of psychology? Anyone realize they’ve been tricked?

oLahav said:

Here’s a small trick that’s similar to what you’ve discussed- what would you prefer, a $3 discount on a $5 cup of coffee, or a $3 discount on a $3,000,000 house?

Most people would choose the coffee, since it seems like a much better deal- you get 60% off! But think about it for a second… and you’ll realize that the two discounts are exactly the same, so it makes no difference what you choose.

albrecht said:

Chapter 2: Reciprocation

Another psychological tool used today is the concept of reciprocation. If person A gives something or does a favor for person B, the concept of reciprocation kicks in and person B feels as though the owe something back to person A. Dr. Cialdini claims this is due to the human nature of not wanting to be seen a “moocher” as this is an unsavory social title.

The real interesting part is that their research is that the size of the original gift or favor is not necessarily related to the feeling of debt. You can give someone a can of Coke and then later ask for a much larger favor (costing much more than a $1 Coke) but the feeling of debt still exists and the person is much likelier to say yes. It is also interesting to note that the gift doesn’t necessarily need to be desired by the accepting party, the rule still applies.

This concept comes into play often in tandem with the concept of contrast. A common use of both concepts together is in bargaining – Start with a low offer (Contrast) and be willing to give in a little (Reciprocation) to get to the price you really are willing to pay.

Moral of the story is to be wary when someone wants to give you something for free, they just might be leveraging the psychological concept of reciprocation and you’ll find it tough to say no later.