Robert Cialdini shares his principles of influence
How can you move people to act?
In Influence: Science & Practice, Robert Cialdini shares these six principles of persuasion.
| Robert Cialdini’s ‘universal principles of social influence’ | |||
| Principle | Description | Example | |
| 1. | Reciprocation | We feel obligated to return favors performed for us. | When waiters gave diners extra mints after their meals, tips increased by more than 14%. |
| 2. | Authority | We look to experts to show us the way. | When an executive published the credentials of people brought in to turn around a London bureau, the government monitoring and advisory panel was more accepting of the rate and type of change the team made. |
| 3. | Commitment/ consistency | We want to act consistently with our commitments and values. | Voters who said they’d vote on election day were 40% more likely to show up at the polls than those who didn’t make the commitment. |
| 4. | Scarcity | The less available the resource, the more we want it. | Before serving their buy-on-board meals, Midwest Airlines flight attendants announce: “We apologize in advance if we run out of a meal or meals in general. We have only a limited number of meals.” |
| 5. | Likability | The more we like people, the more we want to say yes to them. | We’re more likely to like people like us. People were nearly twice as likely to fill out a survey when it came from someone with a similar name as theirs. |
| 6. | Social proof | We look to what others do to guide our behavior. | A sign in the Petrified Forest National Park saying “Many past visitors have removed the petrified wood from the park, changing the natural state of the Petrified Forest” actually encouraged visitors to steal more wood. |
Which of these principles do you use to move your audience members to act? Which could you use?
Think Like a Reader
Move people to act
It’s counterintuitive, but true: The product is never the topic. The program is never the topic. The plan is never the topic. The topic is never the topic. The reader is always the topic.
Indeed, the secret to reaching readers is to position your messages in your audience’s best interests. (Most communicators position their messages in their organization’s best interests. Which is fine, as long as you’re talking to yourself.)
Move readers to act with a four-step process for giving people what they really want.
At Catch Your Readers — our two-day hands-on corporate-writing master class on April 10-11, 2019 in Charleston — you’ll learn a four-step process for moving readers to act by giving them what they really want. Specifically, you’ll learn how to:
- Take advantage of the formula readers use to determine which messages to pay attention to (and which to toss).
- Tap two rewards of reading you can use to boost audience interest in your message.
- Answer the No. 1 question your reader is asking, regardless of your topic, medium or channel.
- Make a two-minute perspective shift to focus your message on the value to readers — not on “us and our stuff.”
- Use a three-letter word that magically makes your message more relevant to your readers.
Learn more about our
Charleston master class.
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Source: Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin and Robert B. Cialdini, Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, Free Press, 2008
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