Science of Persuasion Part2

It’s the second part of previously written article “Science of Persuasion”. We already talked about 3 shortcuts now it’s time to take this article to the next level. The remaining 3 shortcuts are listed below.

  
Consistency: People like to be consistent with the things they have previously said or done. Consistency is activated by LOOKING for and ASKING for small initial COMMITMENTS that can be made. In one famous set of studies researchers found rather unsurprisingly, that very few people would be WILLING to erect in unsightly wooden board on the front of their homes to support a DRIVE SAFELY campaign in their neighborhood. However in a similar neighborhood close by 4 times as many home owners indicated that they would be WILLING to erect this unsightly billboard. Why? 

Because 10 days previously that had agree to place a small post card in the front window of their home that signal the support for drive safely CAMPAIGN. That small card was the initial commitment that lead to a 400% INCREASE in a much bigger but still CONSISTENT change. So when seeking to influence using consistency principle the detective of influence looks for VOLUNTARY, ACTIVE & PUBLIC COMMITMENTS. And ideally gets those commitments in writing.

            Linking: The 5^th principle is the principle of liking. People prefer to say YES to those they LIKE.  But what causes for one person to like another. Persuasion science tells us that there are 3 important factors, we like people who are SIMILAR to us, we like people who pay us COMPLIMENTS, and we like people who COOPERATE with us towards mutual goals. As more and more of the interactions that we are having taken place online, it might be worth asking whether these factors can be employed effectively in online negotiations. 

      In a series of negotiation studies carried out between MBA students of 2 well known BUSINESS SCHOOLS. Some groups were told TIME = MONEY gets straight down to business. In this group around 55% were able to come to an agreement. Second group however were told before you begin negotiating exchange PERSONAL INFORMATION with each other, identify similarity you share in common then begin negotiating. In this group 90% of them were able to come to successful and agreeable outcomes. That is 18% more too both parties.       

So to use this wonderful principle of liking be sure to look for areas of similarity that you share with others and GENUINE COMPLIMENTS you can give before you get down to business. 

Consensus: The final principle is consensus especially when they are certain, people will look to the ACTION & BEHAVIORS of OTHERS to determine their OWN. You may have noticed that hotels often place a small card in BATHROOMS that attempt to persuade guests to reuse the towels. Most do this by drawing a guest ATTENTION to the BENEFITS that reuse can have on ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION. It turns out that this is pretty effective strategy leading to around 35% COMPLIANCE. What could be even more effective way? There are 75% of people who check into a hotel for 4 nights or longer will reuse their towels at some point during their stay. So what would happen if we took a lesson from the principle of consensus and simply included that information on the cards and said that 75% of our guests reuse their towels at some point during their stay so please do so as well.

It turns out that when we do this towel reuse RISES by 26%. Now imagine the next time you stay in a hotel and you saw one of these signs saying 75% of people who have stayed in THIS room have reuse their towels. So what you think now might be that I hope they are not the SAME TOWELS and like most people you probably think that this sign will have no influence on your behavior whatsoever. But it turns out that changing just few words on a sign to honestly point out what comparable previous guest have done was the single most effective message leading to 33% INCREASE in reuse. So the science is telling us that rather than relying on our own ability to persuade others we can point to what many others are already doing especially many SIMILAR others.

So these are the 6 scientifically validated principles of persuasion that provide for SMALL, PRACTICAL, COSTLESS changes that can lead to big differences in your ability to influence and persuade others and in an entirely ethical way. They are the secrets from the science of persuasion.