Note : this post was written by Tihomir Bajic who was the original creator of this blog. He works at Rypple and you can follow him on twitter here.

The Book

Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive by Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin and Robert B. Cialdini

Goldstein, Martin and Cialdini meld social psychology, pop culture and field research to demonstrate how the subtle addition, subtraction or substitution of a word, phrase, symbol or gesture can significantly influence consumer behavior. Interspersing references to Britney Spears, the Smurfs and Sex and the City with more academic concepts such as loss aversion and the scarcity principle, the authors illustrate the simple and surprising approaches that can hone a company’s marketing strategies.

Opinion on the book

I picked up this book as a fun light read for my flight to a friend’s wedding. It helps to be armed with the latest findings from the science of persuasion should someone get cold feet. Cialdini et al definitely delivered. They packed their conclusions into 50 short punchy chapters. Each one talks about one specific tactic that increases persuasiveness. Their suggestions are fresh and applicable to various life aspects. The right amount of humor shows that they don’t take themselves too definitively and helps turn what is really a summary of the latest research into an informative and memorable read.

The Book in One Sentence

Scientifically proven tricks to be more persuasive.

Notes

The book isn’t a Jedi manual on mind-control but was definitely helpful in pointing out things that usually make people more persuasive or more persuadable. It made me aware of mental processes that occur subconsciously in certain settings that may lead to non-standard decisions. It turns out that scientific evidence shows that emotionally charged people make bad purchasing decisions; sad people are willing to pay more than indifferent people for the same product. Is that why funerals cost so much? Or are they justifiably so expensive?

Some of the other points that blew me away:

• People tend to think of themselves as average. That is why telling someone their positive behavior is not average/expected may get them to change it even if that’s not to their advantage.
• You can get someone to like you more by getting them to help you. Once the person helps you, he subconsciously needs to reconcile the fact the he helped you (meaning he cares about you) with older negative feelings.
• Too much choice is confusing and can hurt business. After some point, an extra option on your menu or service offering that you hope will bring more interest can only cause less commitment to any particular choice. Less is more.
• Expression through writing is powerful. People are more likely to stick to their goals if they write them down first. Even writing about something emotionally charged can affect mood and subsequent decisions.
• Seek dissent during decision making process to avoid group think and to leverage each group member’s insight.
• People’s names (and even the first letter of their name) influence their career choices and preferences. A disproportionate number of guys named Dennis are dentists.

Why you should (or should not) buy that book

If you haven’t read “Influence” by Robert Cialdini then I would strongly recommend skipping this one for now and starting with that one. This one is more like a sequel and like most sequels, it is not as good.

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~Thomas

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What about you? Have you read that book? What did you think of it?