Resisting Influence: Scarcity and Competition

Cialdini’s Principles of Social Influence

Scarcity
[Context: Competition]
People assign more value to opportunities when they are less available—if there are fewer resources and less time to get them, we want it more

The Basics

Principle holds true for two reasons:

• Things that are difficult to attain are typically more valuable – availability of item can serve as a shortcut heuristic cue to its quality
• As things become less accessible, we lose freedoms – respond to loss of freedoms by wanting to have them more than before

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Resisting Influence: Authority and Credibility

Cialdini’s Principles of Social Influence

Authority
[Context: Credibility]

People naturally respond to authority with compliance

The Basics

• Milgram’s studies of obedience provide evidence of a strong pressure for compliance with the requests of authority figures
• Strength of tendency to obey comes from systematic socialization of society members that obedience constitutes correct conduct
• Frequently adaptive to obey dictates of genuine authorities because such individuals usually possess high levels of knowledge, wisdom, and power
• Deference to authorities can occur in a mindless fashion as a decision-making shortcut
• Tendency to respond to "symbols and signs of authority" rather than to its substance
• Failure to distinguish between Just and Unjust Authority

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Resisting Influence: Liking and Friendship

Cialdini’s Principles of Social Influence

Liking

[Context: Friendship] We want people to like us and

we like those who show that they like us

The Basics

• People prefer to say “yes” to individuals they know and like

How It's Exploited

Persuasion experts manipulate common factors that influence their likeability.

• Physical attractiveness – engender “halo” effect that extends to favorable impressions of other traits such as talent, kindness, and intelligence – attractive people usually more successful in changing attitudes and getting requests granted
• Similarity – we like people who are like us; we more willing to say “yes” to them, often in an unthinking manner
• Praise – compliments generally enhance liking and compliance; although can backfire if used excessively and transparently
• Familiarity – repeated contact with a person or thing normally facilitates liking; holds when contact takes place under positive, not negative circumstances
• Association – making connections to positive things, profiteers seek to share positivity through process of association
• Shadowing- influence agent exhibits non-verbal behaviors that match those of the target individual, creates a pseudo-comparability

Best Defense

• Resist this principle by developing a special sensitivity to suspicious and undue liking from the requester
• Separate the requester from the request, and make compliance decisions based solely on the merits of the offer – not your emotions about the requester.

Prepared by Philip Zimbardo and Cindy X. Wang

©2006-2007, Philip G. Zimbardo

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Resisting Influence: Social Proof

Cialdini’s Principles of Social Influence

Social Proof
[Context: Consensus]

A means to determine what is correct by finding out what other people think is correct.

A person tends to view behavior as more correct in a given context (to the degree that one sees others performing it)

The Basics

• Principle can be used to stimulate a person’s compliance by informing the individual that many other individuals have been complying (unanimous compliance and compliance by famous or authoritative people is most effective)
• Provides us with a shortcut for determining how to behave – while at the same time, makes one vulnerable to persuasion experts
• Most influential under two conditions:
  Uncertainty – situation is ambiguous; become more likely to attend to the actions of others and accept those actions as more correct
  Similarity – people are inclined to follow the lead of similar others
  

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Resisting Influence: Consistency

Cialdini’s Principles of Social Influence


Consistency
[Context: Commitments]

People desire to look consistent

within their words, beliefs, attitudes, and deeds

The Basics

• Good personal consistency is highly valued by society
• Consistent conduct provides a beneficial approach to daily life
• Affords a valuable shortcut through complex decision-making; being consistent with earlier decisions reduces need to process relevant information in future decisions

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Resisting Influence: Reciprocity and Contexts of Obligation

Cialdini’s Principles of Social Influence

Reciprocity
[Context: Obligation]

The rule of reciprocity requires that one person try to repay, in kind,

what another person has provided

The Basics

• Supports the giving of favors since repayment is expected from the recipient
• Sense of future obligation makes it possible to develop continuing relationships, transactions, and exchanges in society
• Members of society are trained from childhood to abide by the reciprocity rule or suffer social disapproval

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How We are Influenced and Persuaded

Robert Cialdini's

"Weapons of Influence"

When in new situations, all we human beings cope in similar ways. New circumstances bombard us with information, all ideas that we must put into perspective, so we trust impressions and “rules of thumb” to make the many decisions that new situations demand of us. Especially in today’s information driven world, we find the need to take these “shortcuts,” especially when we are bombarded with new, complex ideas in new settings.

Here are the primary shortcuts that we fearfully and wonderfully made creatures use to cut through the information:

• Reciprocity (Tendency to repay others in kind.)
• Commitment and Consistency (Tendency to portray themselves ad consistent examples in word, deed, beliefs and attitudes. It is a mechanism of commitment to one’s personality and self-understanding.)
• Social Proof (Investigation of truth by observing and/or complying with consensus.)
• Liking (Seeking to be liked and want to be treated as though they are liked.)
• Authority (Tendency to respond and submit to authority.)
• Scarcity (Tendency to value items or opportunities that are limited.)

Under reasonable circumstances, these otherwise practical techniques serve us to cut through the processing of information; however, these “shortcuts” can provide a foothold for our manipulation. Learning how these tendencies work can help us resist undue influence and make better decisions.

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