influence.md

Introduction:

• Animals have automatic trigger patterns to specific and narrow stimuli in the environment.
• Humans have similar trigger patterns (which can be overridden by top down control though). People are more likely to oblige to your request if you use the word "because".
• Human subsconscious stereotype: expensive = good, inexpensive = bad. Expensiveness of an item causes humans to have a big placebo effect.
• Humans respond with appropriate behaviors based on few key features / stereotypes.
• Humans generally take the words of experts unless they have skin in the game.
• Another rule: people acts like their neighbors. This is exploited by using fake reviews on websites.
• Possible exploitations:
  • Items of discount in a store might be overpriced to sell them off quicker.
  • Sales people show you a higher priced item first, so that the lesser priced item will seem less expensive.
  • Once you agree to buy a car, people start suggesting more features that will incrementally make your car look better.

Chapter 2: Reciprocation

• People reciprocate irrespective of they like you or not. Just do something nice with seemingly no intent before asking a favor.
• When someone does something nice, don't say "nah, it's no big deal". Say "if our roles were reversed, I'm sure you'd do the same for me" to trigger the reciprocation response.
• Matching our gift to the person's need amplifies the feelings of reciprocation.
• When someone buys you a drink before meeting, it's rude to refuse so you take it. But you're socially obliged to reciprocate now.
• When someone does us a favor, we have an urge for action to help him; and in a much bigger way. We're doing it to get ourselves rid of the debt.
• Evidence shows that rejection-then-retreat technique is a sustainable method, the victims don't feel exploited. It actually makes the victims feel better.
• How can we neutralize it's threat? If you recognize someone is using it, take what they give you and don't return the favor (define how the favors were being used as sales devices to free you of the guilt).
• Possible exploitations:
  • Giving a chocolate / small gift with bill increases the amount you'd tip.
  • Giving a ballon to kids that enter increase the likelihood of how much you'd spend.
  • Any free gift given to you by a business is a possible way of exploitation. Be aware.
  • Tasting free samples at markets make you buy things you might not want.
  • Don't take free gifts from people. You'll be tied to a social obligation to help them.
  • A kid asks you to donate 5$ to charity and when you decline, he asks you if you want to buy a 1$ chocolate.

Chapter 3: Liking

• If someone we like tell us that a counter belief is correct, we're more likely to agree.
• How to get people to like you?
  • Physical attractiveness (in politics, job interviews, higher salary, persuasive, get more help)
  • Similarity (most likely to date) (in clothing, interests, name)
  • Mirroring (words, body movements)
  • Do favors
  • Compliments (be specific)
    • Works even if they know you need favors from them.
    • Do it out loud to each person when you feel that.
    • Especially on something that someone's insecure about.
    • Do it behind their back, to their assistants.
    • Do it when they do a good thing, and give them a great reputation for it. They will have this reputation to maintain.
    • Tell them you want to learn from them. Give others the role of teachers.
  • Familiarity
    • just seeing someone before makes you like them
    • just saying the untrue thing again and again, you make normal people believe it.
    • shake hands
• If you don't like someone, it's more likely that we'll be disagreeable.
• Everyone learns better in collaborative environments than rivalry environments.
• Someone who carries bad news is associated with "badness", as if they caused it.
• Possible exploitations:
  • People never sue doctors they like. A doctor might be nice to you, while being engaged in malpractice so that you don't sue him.
  • Phone company offering discount for family for being on the same service. If someone pitches that you're going to save your friend some money by moving to this service, it's much more likely that you'll say yes. (referrals)
  • If someone claims to be similar to you, stay on guard.
  • People who want more tips would exploit the above principles.
  • "I heard you're really good at X, so I was wondering if you could help me with a project that involves X?"
  • Sales people telling that they will fight their bosses to get us a better deal.
  • Good cop bad cop routine.
  • Car next to a attractive model seems more attractive than just the car.
  • Having credit card logos in the place makes it more likely that you'll make a purchase.
  • An ad associated with something you know (eg. olympics) makes it much more likely that you'll get it
  • You're more likely to enjoy an experience when you're eating plesant food.
• Defence:
  • Don't try to resist other people trying to get them to like you. Let them do that work. And when you have additional liking for someone, recognize it and compensate for it before doing a favor.
    • Question to recognize liking: "In the 10 minutes that I've known this person, have I come to like him omre than I expected?"
  • Once you recognize liking, note that you need to evaluate the thing based on it's own merits, not of the person selling it. So concentrate exclusively on the deal.

Chapter 4: Social Proof

• We determine what is correct by finding out what other people think is correct.
• Social proof is much more effective when the victims think that the social proof is not intended to persuade them.
• Cults tend to double down on their beliefs when the doomsday predictions fail. Why? Because to acknowledge that they were wrong would be disastrous for them, they instead motivatedly reason to continue believing in it.
  • The cult heads seek more recuits at that time, and as the believers see more and more people on board, they're more likely to believe in the ideas. (social proof)
  • Because the physical evidence can't be changed, they focused on changing the social evidence.
• Optimal situations where social proof works: when we're uncertain, evidence come from numerous others who are like us.
• In a restaurant, infrequent visitors are most vulnerable to the label "popular".
• In times of uncertainity, we look around for social clues to follow.
• If you're in a dire situation in public, clearly say "help me", not just growling. People are more likely to help then as there is no uncertainity that you need help. If that doesn't work, say "you sir in the blue jacket, call 911 for help" to disspell any uncertainity.
• If you're ever in an accident, your goal is to tell people around you in no uncertain terms that you need help.
• Any quarrel for women on the street might be thought of as a relationship conflict. To increase the chances of getting help, shout "I don't know you"; not "someone help me please" or "why have I even married you"
• people go for social proof especially when they see others as similar to them
• if you want to convince your kid to swim without the jacket, show him examples of other kids his age doing the same.
• Possible exploitations:
  • If someone wants you to pick a dish, "most popular" is much more effective than "chef's recommendation" or "speciality"
  • Instead of showing that the product is good, they only tell us that it's "fastest selling"
  • A company publicizing that they need more staff to keep up with demand will get more demand from public.
  • To make you start using the new wheeled carts in store, they recruit artifical shopper to carry them around.
  • Ad that says "your neighbors were able to reduce their current bill by 30% with X" is more effective than "you can save 30% with X"
  • cults get people close to the group member through bonding exercises, and get them to disassociate from outside people. so when there's adveristy, they talk to people fromthe cult.

Chapter 4: Part 2

• After a suicide story that goes viral, the suicide rates in the city shoot up.
• The principle of social proof states that we use information about the way others (mainly ones similar to us) have behaved to help us determine proper conduct for ourselves.
• When people are uncertain, they're much more likely to follow the lead of others. Especially when other people similar to you do the same thing. "peer-suation"
• Example of johanesberg cult.
• "no theft please, we're losing 14 tons a year" -- convinces people and make them steal too. just these words are enough, social proof comes to play. Instead stress on how everyone is compling to save this heritage.
• Q: what about the current movement then, where people are talking about love your faults, and that it's normal to be fat, etc. This makes the masses think and act in such a way that they don't strip off the extra fat from their body.
• if you don't have enough market to use social proof to your advantage, then refer to future social proof.
• instead of saving that only a minority are saving water, say that the number of people saving water is continiously increasing.
• eg. betting on horses, raise the initial odds to favor poor horses, and more people will bet on it.
• Defence:
  • autopilot (determined by social prrof) can be useful in some cases; we don't need to make an independent decision each time.
  • be vigilant about the data provided as social proof (eg. phony reviews on product pages, we hear only from people who speak positively, hire actors to provide positive feedback about a product, etc.)
  • when you see these kinds of proofs in play, disassociate from autopolit and be super aware. go on attack, don't buy products who're using these kinds of social proofs to sway you. especially when someone tampers the evidence.
  • when the crowd is doing something, we assume they have access to information that we don't; but it might just be another case of social proof. give proper weightable to our own experience and judgment while making these decisions.

Chapter 5: Authority

• To raise more money for charity, give people sweets and a letter from their CEO talking about the importance of donating to charity. This will help you go from 5% to 17% contributions for charity.
• Miligram experiment: person in teacher role give a series of shocks in increasing intensity despite pleading from the student. "When ordered by an authority figure, how much suffering are normal people willing to inflict on an entirely innocent person?" -- A lot!
• We have an inability to defy the instructions from the boss. Even though we're suffering a lot doing something, we continue to do it based on authority.
• Especially true in case of healthcare workers: MDs are assumed at the top of the hierarchy. No one questions their MD.
• salesmen act as experts to sell you stuff.
• titles are used to convince you of authority.
• when people know that you’re a professor, they think you’re smart and stop sharing openly with you.
• peceived height for masses increases with the title of the person
• 95% of nurses agree to authority without questions, even when it’s a dangerous drug
• Clothes: a second kind of authority -- dressing as army, doctor or police. Even business suit: people follow jay walkers who wear a suit.
• MD + white coat => quite powerful.
• you're offered 10% higher salary if you wear a designer shirt for the interview.
• we tend to underestimate the influence of appearence of people.
• if you want to convince people to invest a specific way, quite a group of experts suggesting the same.
• credible experts have a halo around them.
• if you want to be trustworthy, acknowledge problems with you theories up front. This increases your trustworthyness. Especially effective when people know your weakness. "Although I'm not experience in this field, I'm a very fast learner."
• Possible exploitations:
  • Actors (who play doctors on TV) are hired to act as doctors in ads. And make strong claims about products. (so a symbol of authorithy is good enough, you don't need an actual authority)
• First, if there is a drawback to be acknowledged, it should be presented relatively early in a message so the credibility it provides will color the rest of the appeal. Second, within a persuasive communication, there is an ideal place for one’s strongest argument or feature, which can undercut or overwhelm the downside.
• Defense:
  • be aware of how biased we're because of authority. and how easy it is to fake authority.
  • see clearly when it's good to follow authority and when it's not.
  • ask "is this authority truly an expert?"
  • ask "how truthful can I expert the authority to be?"
• The waiter suggesting a less pricey item on the menu makes him more "trustworthy", and he get a higher tip because of the reciprocity principle. authority + reciprocity
• acknowledge the problems, you can always override them by putting in bigger strentgths.

Chapter 6: Scarcity

• "All you have to do is agree to this proposal, we have a deal." => "we have a deal, all you ahve to do is agree to this proposal" -- people agree to the deal much more often; the second option makes them feel like they already have a deal, and would lose it otherwise.
• When there's uncertainity and scarcity, people will go out of their way to buy something. (loss aversion)
• prospect theory (loss aversion): people are more careful about losses than gains/
• frame things as loss, rather than gain to influence people.
• Say "Don't let this opportunity fade away" rather than "have a lifetime of great experiences"
• show that there are limited rooms in a hotel, to get more people to buy thme
• If you're selling a product that's in unlimited supply, focus on rthe feature that cannot be found anywhere else, and how they'll miss this if they don't take it. Focus on the scarcity; it can't be found anywhere else at the same price.
• If you have multiple things to see, selling one at a time keep the principle of scarcity on your side.
• Making a deal for only one day. Scare people that they need to take it now.
• Possible exploitations:
  • When you're planning to buy an applicance, the sales person says "I see that you're interested in this product, unfortunately, this has already been sold". The customers ask do you have another model? Sales say "that is possible, I can check, but if I can find it, will you take it for this price?" -- trick to sell
• In online products, A/B testing revealed that this is the most important thing:
  • scarcity: highlight that items are low in stock
  • social proof: describin popular trending items
  • urgency: using time limit, often with count down timer
  • concessions: offering discounts
  • authority / expertise: comparing to other products on the market.
  • liking: including a welcome message
• limited supply appeals > limited time appeals
• eg. ask teenagers to stay home (make a scarcity of going out), they lash out more and want to go out more
  • if you try to increase your authority more, it ends up being counter productive.
• do couples double down on their love because of the parents? would they be better off by being left to themselves?
  • research: parental interference increase love between couples and greater likelihood of marraige.
• restricting people's freedom makes them backlash more. tell people to do something, it triggers their scarcity mindset and makes them want to resist.
• censorship: makes us want to seek the information more, and be more favorable to it.
  • it's better for small political groups to get their information censored, and publicize their censorship, rather than the information itself.
• Imposed restraints might make things worse: sexually explicit material restriction makes teenagers seek it out more.
• When the judge asks jury to reject the information, they'll value it more (subconsciously).
• eg. call and tell not only that beef is scare, but the information that beef is scarce if priviledeged too; makes people much more likely to buy your beef.
• When people encounter a piece of information is provided to persuade them, they're less likely to accept it. How to counter this:
  • do a past facor (reciprocity)
  • be nice and agreeable (liking)
  • many other made the change (social proof)
  • experts recimmend it (authority)
  • opportunity to take action is dwindling (scarcity)
  • Futher more: provide caveats to your inital position to increase trustworthiness.
  • "But you're free to say no" "of course, do as you wish" -- radically increases acceptance
• When is scarcity most effective?
  • Cookie in short supply in a jar, is more attractive to customers - study
  • Coke deined the old formula to people; made people backlash and ask for it more.
  • People rate the thing that's in scarcity more valuable than something that's not.
• Do we prefer things that are always scare more, or things that have recently become scare?
  • Study: newly scare cookies are rather much higher in value
• Giving perks in offices, makes them feel good. Providing them in abundance over time makes them lose their value. When the company has to cut down costs and they remove them, they revolt with a passion that hasn't been seen before.
• Blacks who see rapid progress, and then see a small dip in progress revolt more than when they have no progress at all.
• For governments, it's better to not give at all, than give them for a while.
• "Freedoms once granted, will not be relinquished without a fight"
• newly scare + competition for it; makes people want it even more
• Autions push you to pay more than is necessary.
• Defense:
  • We there's scarcity in something we want, agitation sets in. The ration side recedes.
  • Use this arousal as a cue, see it as a warning. Become more aware, stay calm.
  • Then think about what we want from the item; is it worth the value you're paying for it? (irrespective of how scare it is)
  • Scare things are not inherently more useful because they're scare: the scare cookies taste the same.
• Simulateneously scheduling more people to see the same car you're selling introduces a scarcity mindset. People out bid each other.
  • Say "Excuse me, but this other gentleman was here before you. So, can you wait outside? If he doesn't want it, or can't make up his mind, I'll show it to you." The first person starts to get agitated.
  • It doesn't make sense to pay anymore for this car. Don't pay something more just because it's scare, pay more if it's valuable enough for you.

Chapter 7: Commitment and consistency

• Amazon gives employees 5000$ bonues ot leave. Amazon claims "it's not good for either workers or amazon" for employees to be here who don't want to be for the long term.
• When we make commitments, we act in order to be consistent with them.
• Once you get someone to make a commitment, they're much more likely to stay commited to it.
• Two reasons why people continue to stay consistent:
  • it takes much more cognitive effort to change your mind
  • when people want to really believe in something, and don't want to change their mind
• after your sales pitch, and they agree, ask "why did you pick us today? what needs are you satisfying?" This gets people to make a commitment and much more likely to go ahead and do more things.
• if you want people to hire you, say "But, before we start, I wonder if you could answer a question for me. I'm curious, what was it about my background that attracted you to my candidacy" -- this makes people say good things about you, and they commit to it.
• how do you get captured war soldiers to give away secrets? in small steps: get them to commit to small things to start off. "America is not perfect" Once that's done, ask more questions, in what ways is it not?
• get people to do trivial first commitments, you can then gradually escalade what they commit it.
• "foot in the door technique": get homeowners to commit to a small sign on their backyard "drive slow", and then a few weeks later, suggest a much bigger commitment.
• when people do some good, they change their identities, they suddenly start thinking of themselves as good citizens committed to the public good. This identity makes them make much bigger decisions.
• environment to make commitments affect self-image massively
  • commitments are most effective when they're: active, public, effortful and freely chosen
• written commitments makes them act more inline with the written testament
• get people to help you out by giving them a identity / self-image to uphold
• get the employees to write a goal on paper, so that they're much more likely to act in favor of fulfilling it.
• when people make commitments on paper, they live up
• public commitments: you're more likely to follow through on them.
• use "will you please call us if you change your plans?" to get customers to verbally commit, instead of "please call us if you change your plans". No show goes down from 30% to 10%
• exploitations:
  • the toy companies keep toys that kids want out of stock during christmas: so that you buy other toy for your kids.
  • a few months later: the run ads again for the toys kids want; but you get them now because you promised for last christmas but weren't able to.
  • just by asking "would you spend 3 hours volunteering for raising funds for cancer?" the likelihood of volunterring increases by 700%. similar asks: to the jury "if you were the only person believing in my clients innocence, would you withstand the pressure of the rest of the jury to change your mind?"
  • "how are you doing today?" "I'm good" "I'm calling to ask if you can help the unfortunate people who're not feeling good ..."
  • in paris, tourists are asked to sign a petition supporting the deaf; and ask for a donation immediately after. people donate due to the conistency principle.
  • web developers have multiple pages to fill out a survey, instead of all on single big pages. this makes the customers incrementally commit to things, instead of all at once.
• defence:
  • don't sign petitions. they not only make you much more likely to sign future ones, but also change your self-identity of how you think about yoruself.
• “The evidence is clear: the more effort that goes into a commitment, the greater its ability to influence the attitudes and actions of the person who made it.”
• The perceived incentives to take action (for someone who commits) needs to be low. This convinces them internally that they took the action due to it's importance, not incentives.
• Similarly, for teenagers, we should not give them too big incentives to do this (it'll make them feel they do it for the prize, and absolve internal incentives). Instead, we need to make them take internal responsiblity for the actions.
• Study: when you forbid something through force, it becomes more desirable for people, and they will do it when you're not around. Instead, do mild forbidding; doesn't make them feel desirable.
• When you do mild forbidding, and teenager don't do it -- they feel it's their internal decision to forbid; and are more likely to be consistent. It makes them change their self-image.
• Just reminding people of their older commitments makes them more likely to comply.
• Defence:
  • When you do any deal, make sure there are no "additional unexpected expenses". Salepeople use this trick to get you to pay more because you already commited to the decision.
  • Being aware about this priciple, and when people are using it to exploit you.
    • when the sales person is making you feel guilty; just say "I know you did that as a pretext to make to commit, and I refuse to make deals with people who try to trick me like this."
    • think deeply, not at surface level.
  • "sorry the prices have been changed, but we didn't update it on the display" -- focus on if you would pick this if you haven't committed to it already. Let that guide your decision.
• features more likely to commit
  • older people are more likely to commit.
  • people who are more individualistic, and have strong identity.

Chapter 8: unity

• unity is shared identities that people share deeply (eg. tribes)
• here, the actions of one person in the tribe affect the self-worth of others sharing hte identity.
• indians are more likely to buy frmo indians. it's much more significant than "similarity"
• political parties do this a lot. people are iddentified with the party so much that they take any blame of the party personally.
• where this happens: sports, politics, etc.
• how to convince your spouse?
  • aggresive
  • factual approach / superiority
  • using "we" identity (we've been together for so long, I'd really appretiate it if you could change this for me)
• The third option above works best. So you need to (i) remind of shared identity, (ii) make a request.
• Yawn's are more contagious for people who are more relatable.
• unity 1: belonging together
  • same family
  • brain reacts similar to their own experience, and experience of people in their close family.
• when you see your parents help strangers, you'll do it too.
• you can persuade someone by pointing to the commonality in your identity.
• unity 2: acting together
  • eg. doing prayer, reading stories together, marching in unison, rituals before going to war, listening to music, suffering together, facing a enemy attack, building somethign together with others, etc.
  • music can persuade people better in feelings-based products such as snack foods and body scents. but not for products which have personal consequences such as safety equipment or software.
• when someone comes to visit, do the setup and cleanup togetehr to experience a greater sense of unity; especially for kids.
• people might try to exploit you if you always talk about "us / we". To avoid that, make it clear that there is no-tolerence for abuses of the system on the outset.

Chapter 9: instant influence

• under constraints (timem or otherwise), we restrict ourself to a single piece of evidence that's readily available in front of us to make a decision in a mechanical fashion.