PNTV: Influence by Robert Cialdini, PhD (#339)

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to Philosopher's Notes tv. Today we've got another great book, Influence by Robert Cialdini. Influence. Subtitled the Psychology of Persuasion. This book was originally written over 30 years ago. It is kind of the classic manual on influence, the psychology of persuasion. Robert Cialdini is one of the world's leading authorities on influence and the psychology of persuasion. He's a professor in both the Department of Psychology and the School of Business at Arizona State University. And this book is kind of part consumers guide to not getting duped and scammed and can a part of marketing guide on the triggers of human behavior. He makes the important point that these triggers which we're going to talk about can be used for good or for ill. We want to stand up final big idea against those people who are using these natural triggers for their profit at our expense. Philosopher's note. Right, unpack these ideas. Five ideas here. So we'll start with turkeys. Turkeys. What do turkeys have to do with influence? Well, did you know that you can take a mama turkey, a mama turkey, right? And trick her via certain triggers? Here's the deal. A mother turkey will respond to the cheap cheep sounds of their little chicks, right? So cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep. That sound is very important trigger for the mother. If she hears that sound, the cheep, cheep, she will nurture her chicks. But if she doesn't hear that sound, she'll actually ignore them or even murder them. Cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep. Super important trigger that she naturally follows. It reveals the health or lack of health of her chicks, right? Now, what's fascinating is that the mother turkey's natural enemy is a polecat. If you bring a polecat in near a turkey, that mother turkey will attack the polecat, go after it and just basically do everything it can to get rid of it and kill it, right? Now, what's fascinating is you can get a stuffed polecat and you can pull it on a string toward the mother turkey and she'll have the same response to the stuffed polecat that she does to the real polecat, right? She'll go after it and attack it. But if within that stuffed polecat you put a recording that sounds like or that is a recording of a baby turkey going cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep. The turkey, mother turkey, not only will she not try to kill that polecat, she'll actually bring it in under her feathers, right under her wings and nurture it as if it's one of her chicks, cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep. Robert uses this as an example. And he comes back to it again and again and again. That little trigger presses play on a tape. She says it goes click and then whirr, right? The turkey will take a natural enemy and bring them into her nest, literally right under her wing, literally. If a certain trigger is pulled, he says we need to be aware that these automatic triggers and kind of mechanical actions that we have that run on autopilot, you usually they're good for us, right? We're going to talk about some of these triggers, but there are times when the automaticity of these behaviors works against us. Like this turkey bringing in the polecat. Every other time she hears a cheep cheep, it's going to be good. But there are certain times we want to be more aware. So what are our triggers? There are six of them that Robert identified. In addition to spending decades in research in a laboratory and studying all this stuff, he spent three years basically in observational. Participant observation is the type of research participant observation where the researcher actually becomes a participant in whatever subject he or she wants to study. So in this case, he literally kind of infiltrated different sales organizations. He became a car salesman. He sold vacuum cleaners. He worked in a restaurant to learn how waiters influence people. He did that for three years. So to kind of understand their tricks and what they use to influence people and get them to comply. He calls them compliance professionals or practitioners, people who get you to say yes. He identified six triggers. And in the book, each trigger has its own chapter, right? So here's a quick look at our six triggers. They are, number one, reciprocity. I'll go through these in a moment. Reciprocity. And then we have consistency and commitment. That's very important to us. Then we have social proof. And then we have liking. And then we have authority, which we're going to talk about in a fair amount of detail on the next big idea or one of the other ideas. And then we have scarcity. So these are the triggers that he found these compliance professionals use most often very quickly. Reciprocity. The basic idea here is that when someone does something nice for you, you have a very strong built in mechanism to respond in kind to do something nice in return. Now this is usually a really healthy thing in human civilization, right? If someone's being kind to you, to return that favor is a really cool, noble thing to do. It's important for our civilization. But when profiteers use this to their advantage, we want to be aware of it. So reciprocity, it's our first thing. Second one is consistency. We have a desire as humans to make commitments and then to be consistent to those commitments. So he talks about, we're going to talk about how to use this positively in our own lives to influence ourselves. But he calls this the foot in the door technique. People get you to take just a little bit of action and and then they can get you to take a lot more action. That's consistency. And then the third is social proof. Best selling, right? Fastest growing. Social proof is a very, very powerful thing. Again, usually this is good when you see a lot of people doing something, typically evolutionarily, that was a sign that it was a thing that might be smart to do. Now you want to pay attention because that social proof can be fabricated or you could be following a herd of over a cliff, buffalo style. Not a good idea. Fourth big idea is liking. Now of course, liking people is typically a good trigger. Someone is likable, awesome, we engage more deeply with them. But con artists and other people who are moving in quickly can get you to like them very, very, very quickly. And you want to stop, slow down and notice, wow, I really like this person. I just met them. Is there something going on here? And separate that liking from any decision that you might make. The fifth big idea is authority. Again, it's a healthy thing to have a healthy level of respect for legitimate authority. But if we over rely on that, we can do some things that get us in trouble. We're going to talk about that. And then the sixth big idea is scarcity. You know, whatever, limited supply, act now, right? Sale ends in 24 hours. You got to do it right now, right? You got five minutes to decide. Whatever scarcity you might have noticed, it sells. It's everywhere. Again, pay attention. You want to notice that the natural impulse is to see something when it's scarce, right? But you want to check in and make sure that you aren't being driven by that impulse like a turkey. So those are our six triggers. Again, the whole book walks us through each of those in a ton of depth. We talk about it a little bit more in the note. Third one I want to focus on now is consistency. Now, rather than talk about how we get manipulated by outside forces, I want to talk about how to use this as a force for good in our own lives. So again, we have an impulse to be consistent. He shares a funny story about a group of individuals. Imagine a neighborhood, right? So you live in a neighborhood and someone Comes around and says, hey, I want to put a huge billboard in your front lawn that says drive safely. And they show you a picture of what it would look like. And it takes up your entire front lawn, right? And it's poorly stenciled lettering. It just looks horrible. Something like 83% of the people who are given this offer say, no, thanks, I'm not going to do that. Very understandably, right? Only 17% comply. But a different group two weeks before had a different volunteer come over and say, hey, would you mind putting a tiny little 3 inch square sticker in your window that says be a safe driver. Right? And almost everybody said, sure, I'll do that. That's a cool thing. I'll put a little, tiny little sticker in my window, right? But what's fascinating is two weeks after they did that little tiny thing, they took a tiny step, the individual came and said, hey, you want to put a billboard in your front lawn? Looks horrible, but you want it. And something like 75% or roughly 70x percent, four times more people complied to the request for this huge billboard if they did something tiny before they were asked for something huge. That's the power of commitment and consistency. So we want to be aware and not do things, even tiny little things for individuals or organizations where we aren't really certain of the motives or if we really want to be engaged in that line of behavior and stated positively, we want to use this force for good in our lives. So in Habits 101, we talk about the idea of starting small mini habits, the power of habits. We want to talk about how we can start small, break it down into a tiny little goal. If you have a huge goal and a habit you want to build in your life, how do you make it dinky? You want to do 100 burpees a day? Well, what if you did one burpee a day or whatever your goal is. You want to eat a pound of greens, raw greens a day, which is one of my new fun habits. Eat one leaf of lettuce a day. Start there, right? You want to sleep eight plus hours a night. You're not currently doing that. Sleep one more minute tonight or go to bed one minute earlier. These tiny kind of silly three inch sticker things put you in the direction of creating more consistency in the direction of a commitment you want to engage in. It's a big idea. Another big idea that I talk about more in the note we're not going to go into now, but you want to write down your commitments and share them with people, the stronger one, where the more energy you put into making a commitment, the more likely it is that you are going to follow through on it. We have a desire to be consistent. And then the fourth idea here is shocking. So Stanley Milgram, you might have heard of his experiments, fascinating, powerful stuff. But the short story here is that he brought people into a lab and they had them assume the role of a teacher, the student or the subject who was also in the study. You thought it was another subject in the study who became a learner. Right. So you have a teacher and you have a learner, then you have a researcher. The researcher is in a position of authority and he basically has you administer shocks to an individual as they go through a certain exam. And the results of it are just absolutely astonishing. Short story is, when you have a patient person in a position of authority, they can get you to do things that you wouldn't otherwise do. They had this individual administer shocks. Every time the learner got a question wrong, started out super mellow. Then the shock became stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger till it got to a point where it was like 450 volts that you thought you were giving to the other person in the experiment. And this person was screaming, begging this individual, you, to stop administering the shocks. But the authority figure would say, continue administering the shock. Continue the study. And the learner, or the teacher, rather, would be sitting there struggling, but would do it right. They keep on administering these shocks. And before Milgram ran this experiment, he asked a bunch of leading psychologists, hey, what percentage of people do you think will administer the highest shock? And these great psychologists said, I'd guess 1, 2% max. Truly psychotic people would administer this highest degree of shocks to an innocent individual. As it turns out, under the pushing of this authority figure, two thirds of the individuals in the experiment administered the highest shock when it had a threat to kill the individual. They thought they might be actually killing them on the other side of it. Insane stuff. And the point that Robert makes here is, that Milgram makes is these were normal people. They weren't psychotic people. They were super psychologically healthy people. And normal people who, under the influence of an authority figure, did crazy things. So the point here is that we can be influenced unduly by people in positions of authority. Now, again, of course, respecting legitimate authority is almost always a healthy thing, certainly usually a healthy thing. And for society to work, it needs to be a healthy thing. But when people manipulate authority and use it not in a benevolent way, we need to be aware. An example I use here. That leads us to the fifth big idea, which is to stand up against people that are abusing this stuff is the American Heart Association I mentioned in the Happiness Diet. They gave a stamp of horizontal Heart Healthy to Trix and to Cocoa Puff. Now, I believe that the American Heart association is a pretty authoritative institution. That's just something I want to believe in. Right? If this group is putting Heart Healthy on Trix and Cocoa Puffs for a fee to the manufacturers of that junk food, it makes you kind of wonder what's going on. And Robert makes the point that, again, these triggers can be used for good or for ill. It's just how we've evolved, and it's typically how we can function very well and efficiently in a very, very busy and noisy world. We need to be able to do things automatically, but we also need to stand up to people who are using these things to manipulate us in a negative way, whether it's the Heart Healthy seal of approval on Trix and Cocoa Puffs. Stop buying that stuff and stop buying food from the manufacturer in general. Anyone who would do that doesn't deserve our money. Those same companies that are spending $10 billion a year to advertise to kids while the obesity rate is tripling over the last X decades, that's insane. So take a step back and notice how different businesses with whom you may be engaging and doing business are using these triggers in an unhealthy, unhelpful way. And Robert says, stand up against them. And then that's the consumer side of it. And then on the creator side of it, let's create noble businesses. Let's deal with our community and our customers with a deep level of respect and virtue. And if we're going to use these things, do so. And again, he says he's a marketing professor. He teaches people how to use these things, but do so from a place of higher ideals and respect, not violating these triggers and getting people to do things automatically that are against their better interest and that they wouldn't do if they slowed down and thought about them rationally. So stand up. Remember the shocking effects of following authority mindlessly. And again, the point there was that these weren't abnormal people. It was you and me who get influenced by these authority figures. In Iconoclasts, we talked about rule number one of being an iconoclast is to be able to step back and say, you know what? I'm going to challenge authority or culture's view on this idea, and I'm going to propose an alternative view. And then I'm going to have the courage to deal with the pushback. It's a really, really powerful thing as we want to create more influence from an authentic, grounded place. Remember consistency. It can be used against us, but it could also be used for us. Remember those mini habits, the tiny habits and how things tend to grow? We want to be committed and consistent. Write down your goals, share them with people. Our six triggers reciprocity, consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity can be used for good and ill, but let's not be turkeys and let our automatic flow be used against us. That's a super quick look at this book. Fascinating research studies and his stories about what he learned kind of behind the scenes. And if you're into this, I think you will enjoy it. For now, think about the big idea that most impacted you. What jumped out, what landed. How can you apply to your life more today? Get on that. Have have another awesome day. See ya. Isn't it a bit odd that we went from Math to science to history, but somehow missed the class on how to live? For some wacky reason, optimal living 101 never made the schedule. Of course, it's too late to go back and change that and you're too busy to read full time to catch up yet. If you're like us, you're all about optimizing your life and actualizing your potential. So imagine this. Imagine having someone read the best books on optimal living and pulling out the big ideas that can truly change your life. You know those sections you asterisk and underline and mark all up. Then imagine that guy me, connecting those ideas to other great books in helping you apply them to your life today. Well, that's what I do with something we call Philosopher's Notes where I break down each great book into a simple 6 page PDF, 20 minute MP3 and 10 minute Philosopher's Notes TV episode. Then imagine me taking the absolute best big ideas from those great books and sharing them with you in fun, inspiring, super practical optimal living 101 classes on stuff like purpose 101, confidence 101, business 101, meditation 101. That sort of thing. You've got a personal trainer? I'm kind of like your personal philosopher. Ancient wisdom plus Modern Science plus Common Sense plus Virtue plus Mastery plus Fun. That's what our optimized membership program is all about. We'd love to have you join us. Check us out at BrianJohnson. Me join.