In the 1970s, the Krishna organization in the United States also used this tactic to great effect. They gifted flowers to passersby on the street and, though generally annoyed, people often made donations to the organization to satisfy their need to reciprocate the gift of the flower.

ourtroom research indicates that juries are also influenced by “censored” information. It has long been known that when juries know that an insurance company will pay the bill, they tend to award larger damages to plaintiffs. Interestingly though, they award even higher damages if they are expressly told by the judge to ignore the fact that the def

In an experiment to study this phenomenon, a researcher asked people queueing up to use a copy machine whether she could skip the line. She found that if she gave a reason – “May I skip the line because I’m in a rush?” – 94 percent of people complied with her request.

If she gave no reason, only 60 percent complied.

But, fascinatingly, if she gave a

Weathermen, for example, have gotten death threats for accurately predicting poor weather, simply because they are associated with it.

Consider the famous case of Kitty Genovese, who was stabbed to death outside her apartment building in New York in 1964. Some neighbors heard the young woman’s cries for help, but no one intervened or called the police. The media soon reported that the neighbors had been callous and completely unconcerned about their neighbor, sparking outrage.

if we hear about something while eating delicious food, we tend to associate the matter in question with the positive feelings elicited by the food.

We obey authorities without question, and mere symbols of authority can already win our compliance.

From birth, we’re taught to always obey figures of authority, be they teachers, doctors or police officers. Unfortunately, this tendency to comply with authority is so ingrained and powerful that we don’t bother to think or challenge perceived authori

Clothes and props are also powerful authority symbols. In Milgram’s experiment, it was the authority figure’s white lab coat and clipboard that convinced participants they should obey them and “torture” their fellow test subjects. And con artists exploit the power of these symbols to their full extent by donning uniforms, suits and even priest’s ro

However, researchers have discovered that there’s a limit to how extreme your opening position can be: if it’s too outrageous, you’ll be seen as a bad-faith negotiator, and subsequent concessions will not be reciprocated.