Principles of Influence

High prices can actually motivate consumers to buy. Why is this?
Let me explain this with a true story. A few years ago, a friend of mine who owned a jewellery store called me to describe a curious set of events. At her store in Arizona she had a fine set of Native Indian turquoise jewellery that was selling slowly, which surprised her since the jewellery represented good value for the price. After trying a variety of options -- moving the jewellery to a more central area of the store, asking her sales people to bring attention to the pieces -- she scribbled a note to her head sales person just before leaving for an out-of-town trip. The note said, “Change the price of everything in this showcase to times 1/2.” When she returned from her trip, she was not surprised to learn that all the items were gone; but she was shocked to learn that, because her sales person had misread the note as saying “times two” rather than “one half” the price, the price had doubled, and every item had sold.

The psychological rationale for what occurred is that people want good things, and they associate good things with a high price. It’s a little shortcut they can use to determine the quality of an item. When new customers saw the price as high (double what it had been in the past), they decided it must also be of high quality, and therefore worth buying. The larger point here is that people frequently decide something, not on the basis of the entire information array associated with an object, but on the basis of one feature that normally steers them correctly. Price – and not always a low price – is just one of the single features that can spur people into action.

In the process of writing Influence: Science and Practice, you discovered six overarching principles of persuasion. What are they?
As evidenced by the story above, people use a number of shortcuts to decide whether to buy a product or make any decision, and these shortcuts represent six universal principles of influence. The first is the principle of reciprocation, which asserts that people want to give back to others who have first given to them. If someone invites you to a party or remembers your birthday, you’ll do the same for them. If someone does you a favour, you owe that person a favour: a gift or act of kindness creates a feeling of obligation. The second is the principle of scarcity. People want more of those things they can have less of. Think of customers who crowded into stores to buy the new the Apple i-Phone, or camped out all night for a Nintendo Wii console: they did so, not just because of the quality of the products, but because there was initially a limited supply. Scarcity confers value.

The third principle is that of consistency. People want to be consistent with what they have said or done in a previous context. If we align our request with what someone has already publically gone on record as saying he or she wanted or valued, we are more likely to get a ‘yes’ in response to our request. A fourth principle of is that of authority. People want to follow the lead of legitimate experts in an area. In an uncertain situation, people don’t look inside themselves for an answer because all they see there is the uncertainty; instead, they look outside, and one place they look is to the counsel of experts. So if we include in our proposal evidence that people in authority agree with our recommendation, we will gain significantly more compliance.

A fifth principle is that of consensus. When people are unsure of themselves, another shortcut they can take is to follow the counsel of their peers. For example, when the owner of a restaurant puts on the menu, “This is our most popular item,” it immediately becomes more popular. The sixth and final principle is that of liking. People want to follow the lead of those they know and like. Before we try to be influential, it’s important to develop rapport with our customers or audience members, as they will then be significantly more likely to enter into a profitable partnership with us.

In what ways is a good marketer like a jujitsu master?
What a jujitsu master does is take certain forces that exist in the physical environment – things like gravity, momentum and inertia – and uses them to overcome the opponent and win the match. The six forces of persuasion I just mentioned are similar sources of power, only they don’t exist in the physical environment, they exist in the social environment. If we align ourselves with one or another of these principles, we don’t need to be powerful ourselves: we engage the power of social forces that most people have been socialized to follow, and we become more successful as a consequence.

How can a skilful use of the reciprocity principle contribute to an organization’s staying power?
Reciprocity is a potent force in business -- and in fact, in all arenas in life. Let me give you an example from the restaurant business, a setting that is familiar to all of us. At the end of the meal, if the waiter includes a mint with the bill, the tip goes up on average 3.3 per cent. If the waiter includes two mints per each diner, something unexpected happens: the tip goes up 14 per cent. This isn’t just about restaurants, it’s about the way our minds work. In all interactions, people tend to want to give back to those who have first given to them.

For example, if you want a deeper or more personal interaction with your colleagues, you should share some personal information about yourself. If you want a better attitude or more trust in the workplace, demonstrate those qualities and they will come back to you. The same rules of reciprocity that exist in normal human relationships also pertain to business. By making use of them, we can build profitable partnerships, alliances and allegiances, both inside and outside of the organization.

Describe the collapse of the Hare Krishna organization in North America in terms of a failure of ethical influence.
The Hare Krishna followers exploited the rule of reciprocity in a way that hurt the organization in the long run. One common fundraising tactic they used was to approach travellers in an airport and foist a gift, usually a flower, on them. In most cases the travellers didn’t want the flower, but felt obliged to donate a dollar or two in return. I once spent an afternoon at Chicago’s O’Hare airport watching this strategy in action. Afterward, the travellers would often throw the flower away: they were angry at themselves, and at having been exploited into consent.

People who are exploited in this way, who feel frustrated because one of the principles of influence has been used unfairly, will not want to repeat the experience. This is why you don’t find the Hare Krishna organization in airports or in public places any more: it declared bankruptcy several years ago.

What’s the best way to persuade someone without making them feel compromised?
I recommend that people use the principles of influence honestly, and only when one or another of the six principles of influence genuinely exists in a situation. If you stick to using the six principles truthfully and ensure that people are being instructed properly and honestly, they will respond in kind, and want to come back and do business with you. When used in an authentic way, these principles will benefit both parties and lead to long-term partnerships.

The public is becoming increasingly savvy about the various persuasion strategies, potentially rendering them less effective, as we saw in the example of the Hare Krishna organization. Yet the basic principles of influence will always be powerful because they guide people correctly in situations where people don’t have a lot of time to gather all the information available. Let’s say all the waiters of the world began giving mints after a meal, and everyone knew it was something waiters did in order to increase their tips. That tactic might lose its potency, yet a similar one will still be effective. Instead of a mint, the waiter might volunteer information about what is especially good on the menu and what should be avoided that day. Such a ‘gift’ of information will produce a better gratuity. In other words, principles of influence (such as giving something of value first) will always be powerful, even though the tactics used to implement them might go in and out of style.

A colleague of mine told me he spent his career studying various sales techniques to ascertain which is the most powerful and effective. His answer? The single best sales strategy is not to have a single sales strategy. In other words, you should draw upon the influence principle that best fits the circumstances. If your product is in short supply, then talk about its scarcity. If there’s a general consensus that your product is the best on the market, that consensus should be the selling point. If you are an authority in a product category, then build your sales appeal around your expertise. Respond to the features of the product, to the needs of the person in front of you, and to your history with that person, and shape your strategy accordingly, instead of trying to apply the same approach to every situation.

The principles of influence are as important in politics as they are in business. How do they apply to the most recent U.S. presidential campaign?
The two candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, had remarkably different approaches to appealing to the public. These differences were crystallized in the speeches they gave to accept their party’s nomination, Obama at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, and McCain at the Republican convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Each used a different principle of influence to try to gain the public’s trust and communicate the value of his candidacy.

Obama drew upon the principle of consensus. The convention took place in a football stadium with over 80,000 people in attendance, which made for a striking image on the television screen. The subtext message was, “Look at all the people who have decided this is the right candidate.” That was a shortcut way for the viewers watching at home to decide that Obama was presidential material, despite claims by his opponents about his inexperience.

McCain, on the other hand, made use of the principle of reciprocation. In his speech, and in the speeches of the supporters and colleagues who preceded him on stage, the emphasis was on the service that he had provided to the American public as a soldier and prisoner of war, and later as a senator. His message was, “Look at all I’ve done and sacrificed for our country. In return for my service, I’m entitled to your attention and support.”

Since that time, the economic environment worldwide has changed dramatically, and so have the tactics that are most relevant under such conditions. There are two strategies that are particularly relevant right now. As I mentioned earlier, when people are indecisive and lacking in confidence -- as is the case today -- they look outside themselves to the opinions of experts and peers. To instil confidence, therefore, the executive branch needs to produce experts who can avow that its actions are reasonable and correct.

On the other hand, the government must also be careful to demonstrate truthfully that its proposed course of action has the support of the general citizenry. Genuine testimonials of support are needed from both authority figures and ordinary people. By making skilful and honest use of these principles of influence, the government has the best chance of steering the country through difficult economic circumstances.

Robert Cialdini is the Regents' Professor of Psychology and a W.P. Carey Distinguished Professor of Marketing at Arizona State University. An internationally respected expert in the fields of persuasion, compliance, and negotiation, he is the author of best-sellers Influence: Science and Practice (Allyn & Bacon, 2008) and Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive (Free Press, 2008).

[This article has been reprinted, with permission, from Rotman Management, the magazine of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management]