Speaking of Psychology: The power of persuasion, with Robert Cialdini, PhD

While many people think persuasion is an art, psychologists have for decades been researching how people respond to attempts to influence their behavior. In this episode, persuasion expert Robert Cialdini, PhD, talks about his formidable body of work developing and understanding what he calls the six universal principles of influence.

Robert Cialdini, PhD, has been the go-to psychology expert in marketing since his best-selling book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” was first published in 1984. He is a regents’ professor emeritus of psychology and marketing at Arizona State University as well as CEO and president of the consulting company Influence at Work, which focuses on ethical influence training. He is also author of the book “Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade.”

Audrey Hamilton: Hello and welcome to Speaking of Psychology, a podcast produced by the American Psychological Association. I'm your host, Audrey Hamilton. In this episode I talk with a psychologist about how marketers and even job seekers can use the six universal principles of persuasion to be successful without being manipulative.

Robert Cialdini: So you see, very small changes in the way we communicate can produce big differences because those small changes harness powerful psychological motivations inside us.

Audrey Hamilton: While psychologists have been able to uncover the subtle mechanics of persuasion, we also discuss how influencers can use the principles ethically -- a tactic that will lead to more effective and longer-lasting behaviors.

Robert Cialdini has been the go-to psychology expert in marketing since his best-selling book “Influenced, The Psychology of Persuasion,” was first published in 1984. He is a Regents professor emeritus of psychology and marketing at Arizona State University as well as CEO and president of the consulting company Influence at Work, which focuses on ethical influence training. He recently published a new book called “Presuasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade. Welcome, Dr. Cialdini.

Robert Cialdini: Thank you. Good to be with you and your listeners.

Audrey Hamilton: Alright well let's first talk about the theory you're most associated with, which is the six principles of persuasion. First of all, what are these six principles, if some of our listeners may not be familiar with them and can you give them a brief description of what they are?

Robert Cialdini: Surely. The first is reciprocation, the idea that in all human societies we are trained from childhood that we must give back to those who have given to us first. And we have very nasty names for people who don't play by those rules. We call them mortars or takers or ingrates. Nobody wants to be labeled like that. So, we will go to great lengths to give back to those who have given to us. There was a study done in a candy store in which half of the visitors were greeted by the manager who gave them a gift piece of chocolate upon entry. They were 42 percent more likely to buy candy and not all of them bought chocolate. It wasn't that they learned that the chocolate there was good. It's that they had been given something and they felt an obligation to give back.

A second principle is the principle of liking. No one will be surprised to know that we prefer to say yes to those we like. That's not a surprise, but the research suggests that there's a small thing we can do to get people to like us more. For example, waiters in a restaurant -- after the order is taken, if they say to a customer “good choice,” their tip goes up 13 percent.

Audrey Hamilton: I've heard no heard that quite a bit.

Robert Cialdini: In a hair salon, if the stylist says “Oh, that hairstyle looks great on you,” her tip goes up 37 percent. So simply giving genuine compliments where they're warranted can be successful for all concerned.

Another principle is the principle of what we call “social proof,” the idea that one way we can make good decisions is to see what those around us, like us, are doing in that situation. There was a study done in Beijing, China. It shows you the cross-cultural reach of this principle. What they did was to go to restaurants and put on the menu a little asterisk next to certain dishes -- purchasing if those dishes immediately jumped by 13 to 20 percent. Now what did the asterisk stand the stand for? It didn't say this is the chef's special for tonight or this is the specialty of the house. It said this is one of our most popular items and it immediately became more popular because it was popular, right?

So social proof -- another principle is the principle of authority. We prefer to say yes to people who can give us evidence that experts on a topic have recommended this, the particular steps that they are asking us to take. So for example, in one study that my team did in hospitals with stroke patients who were sent home with exercise regimens to do while they were at home -- they were 30 percent more likely to live up to those exercise regimens if the person who gave them the exercise regimen had his credentials and diplomas on the wall when he did so. So this was an expert and people were more likely to follow the recommendations because we typically are safe in following the lead of legitimate authorities.

A fifth principle is the principle of scarcity. People want more of those things they can have less of. So there was one study in supermarkets that showed that of all the promotions that they did for the various brands on their stores, the one that outdistanced all the others by double was one that said only X number of items per customer.

Audrey Hamilton: Okay.

Robert Cialdini: So, if it's scarce -- if it's rare -- if it's dwindling and availability, we want more.

And then the final principle is commitment and consistency. People want to say yes to those requests that are consistent with the commitments they've already made. So, for example, in a Chicago restaurant a big problem was no-shows -- people who would call, make a reservation and then not show for it. The owner of the restaurant tried a small technique that dramatically reduced no-shows. His receptionist used to say “Thank you for calling Gordon's restaurant. Please call if you have to change or cancel your reservation.”

Instead, he asked her to say “Will you please call if you have to change or cancel your reservation?” And then to pause and let the person say “Yes, of course.” That produced the 67 percent drop in no-shows. So you see, very small changes in the way we communicate can produce big differences because those small changes harness powerful psychological motivations inside us.

Audrey Hamilton: As I recently mentioned in the introduction you recently published your latest book on something you called presuasion -- this is the idea you say of setting up a message before you send it to get the result you want. Can you explain more about what presuasion is and what sort of research was conducted to demonstrate that this, that this works?

Robert Cialdini: Surely. So, where the book influence said asked the question -- what can a communicator put into a message to get people to say yes to it? These six principles -- presuasion asked the question what can a communicator put into the moment before delivering the message? That makes people more open and receptive to it. To make them agree with the message before they've encountered it. Well, that sounds like some kind of magic.

They agree with something they don't know if they haven't heard yet. Well it's not magic, it's establish science and the key is if the communicator gets an individual to focus on a particular concept or idea that is the central aspect of the message that's yet to occur, people will now focus on that central aspect when they encounter it. They will have been sensitized to that kind of information. I'll give you an example -- a research example. A study was done with an online furniture store -- they specialized in sofas. Half of the visitors to their website encountered a landing page with fluffy clouds as the background wallpaper of that site. Those individuals then rated comfort of sofas as more important to them. They searched the site for comfort-related features of the sofas and they preferred to purchase more comfortable furniture because the first thing they were focused on was softness in those clouds.

Now, the other half of the visitors, when were sent to a site with small coins, pennies in the background wallpaper. They then rated price as a more important feature for them in buying a sofa. They searched the site for cost- related information and they preferred to purchase more inexpensive furniture. So wherever they were sent first -- now they prioritized that idea, that concept in what they encountered next.

The interesting thing was that when they were asked afterwards -- by the way did that background on the landing page make any difference to you and how you chose? They laughed. He said “Of course not. I'm a free-standing entity. I make my decisions based on my internal preferences.”

They never recognized that their internal preferences had been shaped by what they saw first.

Audrey Hamilton: Well, let's take this idea persuasion. Let's say I'm going for a job interview or maybe I'm asking my boss for her promotion or raise. How do I set it up to get what I want?

Robert Cialdini: Let's take the job interview, that's a classic one. We typically go into a situation -- there's an evaluator sitting across a table, sometimes more than one. And what we are typically trained to say is “Thank you for inviting me. I want to be sure to answer all of the questions you have of me.” Here's what I would recommend based on pre, presuasion.

We should say one more thing before the interview begins. “But you know, I'm, I'm curious, I have a question for you. Why did you invite me here today? What was it about my candidacy that attracted you to me?”

Now what you will find is these individuals will go into your resume focusing themselves on your strengths -- all of the most positive things about your resume, your qualifications and the interview will begin with that as the, as the fundament. That's the frame of the interview -- your strengths.

Now, I have an acquaintance who claims he's gotten three straight better jobs in a row using this strategy, this presuasion strategy.

Audrey Hamilton: It makes sense when you think about it. Yeah, why not right?

Robert Cialdini: Why not?

Audrey Hamilton: How can it hurt?

Robert Cialdini: How can it hurt? You're focusing people on your strengths. And also, when you hear them describe your strengths, you know what their values are. For those are the reasons they brought you in and you can now embellish on those features of your, your background credentials.

Audrey Hamilton: Another thing I want to address is the idea of ethics in persuasion. You know, as a psychologist who instructs companies on how to persuade others, people, consumers -- how do you convince them to do so without stepping over that ethical line into manipulation, let's say?

Robert Cialdini: Yes, well we've -- my team has recently completed a piece of research on what happens to organizations that don't apply ethical rules to the way that they treat their customers, their clients, their prospects and who are deceptive, dishonest and the presentation of that information. What happens is some people inside the organization, inside the company feel uncomfortable with this kind of duplicity, this requirement that they be dishonest as part of their job. It creates emotional distress in them. They're agitated. They're upset by having to do this and our research shows as a consequence, they perform their jobs less well because they're upset. They are more likely to leave the organization, which creates big turnover costs for any company that, that chooses an unethical approach, right? But thirdly, when those people who are uncomfortable with cheating leave and what's left is a precipitate of employees who are comfortable with cheating, we find they will cheat the company. The company has selected for dishonest people. Those people who lie for you will lie to you. These will be the people who pad their expense accounts, who run under the table deals with vendors and suppliers, who steal equipment and so on.

Audrey Hamilton: So, it's against their own best interest and bottom line.

Robert Cialdini: That's exactly right, Audrey. That it's, it's, this is the reason why when I speak to leaders of various organizations, I tell them that they should be scrupulously honest -- right -- anything less is going anything less is going to drive away their most honest employees and give them the headache of having to manage dishonest employees inside their organizational envelope.

Audrey Hamilton: So, circling back to the original six principles that we talked about at the beginning. How can people recognize when someone is using them unethically or being manipulative?

Robert Cialdini: Yes, sometimes you can't tell until the transaction is over and you realize that you've been, you've been fooled or duped or not fully informed. You know, we in my company we sometimes have technological issues that need to be solved and we need to contract somebody who comes in to solve them and people will claim expertise – “Oh yes, we can do this we have a long history of being able to solve this particular problem,” and then we find out that was just to get us to sign the contract. They claim to have authority when they didn't and, as a consequence our only redress is to say we will never do business with you again. We will never testify. We will never give a testimonial in your behalf. In fact, we'll tell all our friends not to do business with you. That's the long-term consequence of the unethical use of these strategies.

Now, that's not to say that people who use these strategies always use them dishonestly. The last time I bought a television set I was in an appliance store. I wasn't looking for a new TV but I saw a great deal on a big-screen TV that I knew had been rated very well by Consumer Reports and a salesman came up to me – said, “I see you're interested in this set here. I can understand why. That's a great price for that model, but I should tell you that's our last one. And I just got a call from a woman to say that she might be in today to get it.”

Audrey, 20 minutes later I'm wheeling out of the store with that set in my cart and I'm the guy who wrote the book. I'm still susceptible to it. Right?

Audrey Hamilton: Right?

Robert Cialdini: Now, here's what I did the following day. I went back to that store to see if that set was still an empty space on the shelf. Was it really the last one or had they just gone to the storeroom and replaced it more than other and that scarcity principle was being exploited to get me to comply? It wasn't a genuine piece of information that I could use to improve my outcomes in the situation. It turns out there was an empty space. It was true.

So, here's what I did. I went back to my office. I went online and I provided a customer review that praised that store and that sales person because in that situation he was not my -- he was he was not my, my enemy. He was my ally in the process of getting something good -- by giving me honest information about true scarcity. Under those circumstances, I was happy to partner with him.

Audrey Hamilton: Well, thank you Dr. Cialdini for joining us. It was a pleasure to have you.

Robert Cialdini: Well, I enjoyed the opportunity as well.

Audrey Hamilton: Thanks for listening to our podcast. Make sure you check out our other episodes of Speaking of Psychology - and please subscribe if you haven’t already. We are a proud member of the APA Podcast Network, which includes other great podcasts. Please check out APA Journals Dialogue, If you want to hear about the latest and most exciting psychology research. And if you are interested in the practice of psychology, be sure to listen to Progress Notes. Topics include how health care policy and social media affect practicing psychologists. You can find those podcasts on iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also go to our website, www.speakingofpsychology.org to listen to even more episodes and gather more resources on the topics we discussed.

Thanks for joining us. I’m Audrey Hamilton with the American Psychological Association and this is Speaking of Psychology.