Publications
Partners
Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade, by Robert Cialdini
AUTHOR Robert Cialdini was the professor of psychology and marketing at Arizona State University and a visiting professor of marketing, business and psychology at Stanford University.
He rose to fame because of his first book, Influence, in which he identified six psychological principles routinely used in businesses that dealt with influencing people. ‘Influence’ was bolstered by valuable evidence from scientific and social psychological research into successful persuasion.
This book’s significance lies in its science-based evidence of not just what best to say to persuade, but when best to say it. The focus of this book is what effective communicators do before delivering a message, to get that message through.
The legitimate merits of your message are never enough to get it accepted, any more than the finest seeds can grow in stony soil. Pre-suasion is the psychological framework in which your message is placed to carry even greater weight.
Consider this example as an introduction to this line of thinking.
Clearly, the tactic of mentioning an admittedly unrealistic price tag for a job won’t win you the business; many other factors are involved, but it almost always eliminates challenges to the price.
Research shows that the amount of money people are prepared to spend on dinner went up when the restaurant was named Studio 97, as opposed to Studio 17. After drawing a set of long lines on a sheet of paper, college students estimated the length of the Mississippi River as much greater than those who had just drawn a set of short lines. People buying wine were more likely to purchase a German vintage if, before their choice, they’d heard a German song playing on the shop’s sound system.
An extraordinarily successful home fire alarm salesman always conducted his sales in people’s homes. A key to his success was an odd technique he always used to establish an aura of trust with the family. “Trust is one of those qualities that leads to compliance with requests, provided that it has been planted before the request is made,” Cialdini explains.
In each sales situation he would apologise that he had forgotten something in his car, then get up, fetch it and enter the house again. His rationale: “Who do you let walk in and out of your house on their own? Only somebody you trust, right? I want to be associated with trust in those families’ minds.” He simply arranged to be treated as one of these trusted individuals.
Similar procedures can produce similar results
Many people believe that the approach needs to be different in their profession, ignoring what is the same. The process of persuasion is governed by psychological laws, which means that similar procedures can produce similar results over a wide range of situations, Cialdini explains.
There are specific identifiable moments when an individual is particularly receptive to a communicator’s message. If you were asked if you were stubborn, you automatically begin searching your memory for times when you’d acted stubbornly, and you would almost certainly identify an instance.
If, on the other hand, you were labelled quite flexible, someone who is prepared to change her mind after getting new information, you would find instances of this, too. The reason for deciding if a description of oneself is true or false involves looking for confirmation of the idea rather than for contradiction. This is because it is easier to register the presence of something than its absence.
When researchers asked people: “Do you consider yourself a helpful person?” nearly everyone answered yes. “In that privileged moment - after subjects had confirmed privately and affirmed publicly their helpful natures - the researchers requested help with their survey. Of those asked, 77.3% volunteered, Cialdini reports. Without the question, only 29% agreed to help with the survey.
What people give attention to is, obviously, of immediate importance to them. However, it is also considered, even unduly, to be an important issue. This is because of the human tendency to assign undue levels of importance to an idea as soon as one’s attention is turned to it.
Two weeks before the anniversary of 9/11, about 30% of respondents had named 9/11 as an especially important event. As the anniversary drew closer and the media treatment intensified, 65% of survey respondents started identifying 9/11 as an especially important event. People believe that if the media (or the public) has paid attention to an idea or event or pop group, it must be important enough to warrant the consideration.
In not too dissimilar a way, attentional-focus leads to the appearance of causality. Economists, Cialdini believes, are prone to this bias because the monetary aspects of a situation dominate their attention and analysis. Economist Felix Oberholzer-Gee approached people waiting in line at several different locations, and offered them money to let him stand in front of them. Fifty percent of everyone offered $1 let him in, as did 65% of those offered $3, and 76%, when offered $10.
This is not surprising, except that almost no one took the money! To explain this, Oberholzer-Gee ignored the economic factors in favour of the moral obligation most people feel to help those in need. The need was deemed stronger by what the line-jumper was prepared to pay.
Elements such as money that attract our attention don’t just appear more important, they also appear more causal, Cialdini explains. In the same vein, when observers were asked to judge who had more influence in a discussion, based on tone, content, and direction, the results were the same: whoever’s face was more visible, was judged to be more influential. We see the cause in what attracts our attention.
Ethical concerns
With the array of powerful insights Cialdini has gathered, the question must be asked about the ethical use of Pre-Suasive techniques. Chapter 13 addresses this concern cogently. Undoubtedly the unethical will use this knowledge unethically, until they get caught.
However, with this information made known to consumers, those who behave unethically will be identified. Onerous penalties for that behaviour will be inflicted by now more-aware customers – avoiding doing business with the unethical.
That said, the real value of this book to a wide range of people in business lies in the understanding that it doesn’t take much to enhance the effectiveness of communication. Sun Tzu wrote: “Every battle is won before it is fought.” That is the value of pre-planning, and the value of understanding the insights of Pre-Suasion.
Read this book; you will be pleased you did. It works to prevent falling prey to the unethical, and as a guide to how you can become more persuasive – ethically.
Readability: Light ---+- Serious
Insights: High +---- Low
Practical: High -+--- Low
* Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works. Views expressed are his own.
