Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials)

reciprocation.7 The rule says that we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us.

the principle of social proof. It states that one means we use to determine what is correct is to find out what other people think is correct.

the word “because” trigger an automatic compliance response from Langer’s subjects, even when they were given no subsequent reason to comply.

For instance, prisoners were frequently asked to make statements so mildly anti-American or pro-Communist as to seem inconsequential (“The United States is not perfect.” “In a Communist country, unemployment is not a problem.”). But once these minor requests were complied with, the men found themselves pushed to submit to related yet more substanti

These results suggest an important qualification of the principle of social proof. We will use the actions of others to decide on proper behavior for ourselves, especially when we view those others as similar to ourselves.

commitments are most effective in changing a person’s self-image and future behavior when they are active, public, and effortful.

In general, when we are unsure of ourselves, when the situation is unclear or ambiguous, when uncertainty reigns, we are most likely to look to and accept the actions of others as correct. In the process of examining the reactions of other people to resolve our uncertainty, however, we are likely to overlook a subtle but important fact. Those peopl

identify a number of factors that reliably cause liking.

A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason. People simply like to have reasons for what they do.