Robert Cialdini (Bob Cialdini) delivers a reflective speech (YouTube) about his academic career, identity as an academic (researcher, teacher, mentor, writer), and the development and impact of his book "Influence." He mentions moving to Arizona, graduating from UWM in 1967, his work on ethical influence workshops, and his astonished reaction to receiving a lifetime achievement award.
1967
When I moved to Arizona for the first time, it was a change for me. I had never been west of the Mississippi. My name is Bob Cialdini. I graduated from UWM in 1967 with a Bachelor of Science degree. The favorite part of being here at asu, but also just generally in the academic life, is the research process. For me, I would call myself an academic, and that includes being a researcher, being a teacher, being a mentor to students, and also a writer. To stay in the role, it's necessary to publish. And to publish, you have to write. There is a book that I am known for. It's called Influence. I never expected that it would have the staying power that it has, even though it was written for the consumer. How to recognize and resist influence tactics when they're used on you in some unwelcome way. The people who called me were business people who wanted to know how to employ the psychology of influence. And so what developed was a set of talks that I do, workshops that we do on the ethical use of influence. What I think I love about this whole process is something I've loved about the academic life from my start as a student at uwm, and that's the process of discovery. Always learning something new every day. And this combination of roles and responsibilities gives me that opportunity. My initial reaction to winning the reward was astonishment. So I was glad that whoever it was did their due diligence and found me lurking.
