"Influence" Chapter 1

I've decided it'd be a worthwhile endeavor to summarize the key ideas from Robert Cialdini's Influence, a book I recently read. My motivation is twofold: (1) to improve my retention of the content and (2) to spare you, my loyal reader, the trouble of separating the wheat from Cialdini's abundant chaff.

Where possible, I'll also try to infuse the book's tenets with my own personal anecdotes, ideally in a comical fashion. Hopefully this added incentive will keep you sufficiently enticed.

We begin with chapter one, entitled "Weapons of Influence." The core idea:

[Ethologists]...have begun to identify regular, blindly mechanical patterns of action in a wide variety of species. Called fixed-action patterns, they can involve intricate sequences of behavior, such as entire courtship or mating rituals. A fundamental characteristic of these patterns is that the behaviors that compose them occur in virtually the same fashion and in the saem order every time. It is almost as if the patterns were recorded on tapes within the animals...Click and the appropriate tape is activated; whirr and out rolls the standard sequence of bahaviors. The most interesting thing about all this is the way the tapes are activated.

An animal will react to certain trigger features representing one tiny aspect of the totality for which its "tape" was originally recorded. As an example, a mother turkey can be tricked to nurture a paper predator when the doll makes the distinctive chirp of baby turkeys. Without the sound effects, the mother becomes hostile and pecks at the puppet.

Humans too are guilty of relying upon automatic, programmed responses.

In fact, automatic, stereotyped behavior is prevalent in much of human action, because in many cases it is the most efficient form of behaving, and in other cases it is simply necessary...To deal with [our complicated stimulus environmnet], we need shortcuts. We must very often use our stereotypes, our rules of thumb to classify things according to a few key features and then to respond mindlessly when one or another of these trigger features is present.

This is a recurring theme in Cialdini's book: in our brave new world, we're ever more dependent upon the heuristics and shortcuts our low level animal ancestors and cousins never outgrew. Let's call this irony.

Cialdini's beef isn't with our use of time-saving rules of thumb. Rather, he fears "they make us terribly vulnerable to anyone who [knows] how they work."

The three components shared by most of the weapons of automatic influence described in the book:

The nearly mechanical process by which the power within these weapons is activated

The consequent exploitability of this power by anyone who knows how to trigger them

The jujitsu deployment of the power -- exploiters need exert minimal effort by using leverage and have the ability to subtly manipulate without the slightest appearance of manipulation


An example: the contrast principle.

Simply put, if the second item is fairly different from the first, we will tend to see it as more different than it actually is. So if we lift a light object first and then lift a heavy object, we will estimate the second object to be heavier than if we had lifted it without first trying the light one.

From clothiers to used car salesmen, retailers wield this weapon of influence. How? By showing customers high priced items before moving onto the more likely purchase. In negotiation terms, they set a high anchor.

Anyway, I think this principle has even greater implications. If humans are so sensitive (and susceptible) to contrast, it's like our world is two dimensional; binary. Can anyone claim objectivity? A Cialdini points out, myriad studies would lead you to conclude "no." Scary stuff, this.

Stay tuned for chapter two. It'll be less dire, I promise.