I have also spoken to many people who have been on the receiving end of the process. It is the setting, the context, the non-direct, non-verbal features of the process that persuasion artists know how to exploit.
The Illusion of Invulnerability
Now they're likely getting paid to watch shoppers move through Safeway or Bloomingdale's. Children are surveyed outside toy stores, fast food restaurants and elsewhere. are likely to be found.
Whom Do We Trust? Experts, Honesty, and Likability
I chose not to work this weekend and took my kids to the country fair at their school. At the end of the party, guests lined up ten deep to order.
Expertise
Those eye drops you are giving me, the patient told his doctor the next day, really hurt. It is not the reality of the demonstration, but the public's perception of that reality that is being sold.
Honesty
Instead of directly promoting the company's product, the agency published a series of essays by various established authors under the title The Power of the Printed Word. For example, a recent ad for a new Apple laptop began with the headline, "The best advertising is word of mouth." The ad then cited statements from journalists and other apparently neutral sources claiming how much they liked the new computer.
Likability
Our first homework assignment during sales training—which our teacher touted as "the most important assignment you'll ever do"—was to compile a list of at least two hundred people we know. When a fellow student in my training group expressed reluctance, our instructor asked, "If you started working in a restaurant, wouldn't you want to tell people what you like about it, if it's a good product?" The instructor then reasoned, "If they buy, it's a good deal.
Killing You with Kindness
During a short rest in the middle of the experiment, Andy left for a few minutes. In clear support of the reciprocity theory, Andy sold almost twice as many tickets to the people he had previously given a free Coke to. I had apparently stepped into one of Japan's most powerful yet subtly defined cultural norms: the principle of giri, or obligation.
The Free Lunch
If the target tried to return the flower, Krishna always rejected it and kindly said to the person, "This is our gift to you." Only after the gift was accepted did the lawyer attempt to sell the target a book or magazine. Open a newspaper or check a bulletin board and you'll find more people waiting to give you gifts than you know you would. For example, door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen may try to convince you that you will. you are doing them a favor by accepting their gift.
The Gift of Time
Nancy, our "host," invited the nine of us to a presentation by representatives of a company that sold candles and candle-making accessories—products described in the company's brochure as "the ultimate affordable luxury." The company assured us that the candles are of such high quality that they are "used in the White House and in TV shows." In case anyone somehow missed the connection, Barbie added that it's "the same deal that Nancy has." At one point, for example, Barbie excitedly announced that she had just heard that candles were called a "universal gift."
The Good Cop
I've broken crumbs before and I'm going to break this one to pieces.''He expresses his disgust by spitting on the floor or holding his nose or any other nasty gesture,'' the manual states. He explains, he writes in the manual, how he "hates to work with such a man, but has no choice how, if perhaps such savages would keep quiet and give the man a fair chance to tell his side of the story, etc., etc." The interrogator hopes that on this at which point his subject is so grateful that he will do whatever is asked of him in return.The interrogator is talking man to man.” Apparently it is now the subject's turn to pay him back.
The Love Bomb
Indeed, one of the ironies of cults is that the craziest groups are often composed of the most caring people.18. You become the companion's "spiritual child". The day is full of joint activities: singing, cheering, dancing, singing, gardening, games, exercises, group meals, lectures. Sex is forbidden, but you are constantly hugged and petted by members of the opposite sex.
The Creditor
When they give to others, it is usually with the expectation that they will later receive more in return. If you spend too much time around scammers, cheaters, and frauds—as I did while writing this book—it's easy to start seeing anyone who offers you a gift or performs an act of kindness as some kind of creditor or control freak. However, it is important to remember that the norm of reciprocity has developed its power because, more often than not, it serves society extremely well.
The Contrast Principle
In the Nothing campaign, Jack pointed out, "the mere fact that people were very aware that 'those billboards must have cost a lot of money' means that what they're advertising must be worth it. Now we're going to tell you why. " The ads, which ran for ninety days, effectively killed the long-running Avis campaign.It made no difference that the product was identical in both cases—the same beer, consumed in the same environment.
Rule One: Separate Gains
Persuasion artists understand that in the buyer's mind the value of an absolute number is arbitrary, ambiguous and malleable and that as a result consumers can be easily persuaded to pay more or less for the same product.
Rule Two: Separate Small Gains from Larger Losses
Rule Three: Consolidate Losses
I then asked the same colleagues how they would prefer to receive letters if they contained acceptance news. One of the least effective strategies is to make special requests in temporary proximity. Too often, people's first reaction is to ask, "If it's such a good cause, why don't theater owners just donate some of their profits?" From a marketing perspective, this is not a bad question.
Rule Four: Bundle Small Losses into Larger Gains
Right after asking for your name and address, Form 1040 asks if you want to contribute a few dollars to a presidential campaign fund. Before you find out how many thousands of dollars you owe us this year, we want to give you a chance to give money to politicians. Most taxpayers would probably vomit at this suggestion in any other context. But how many want to worry about a few dollars when preparing their tax return.
Rule Five: Appeal to Risk Taking for Losses, to Safety for Gains
In a study by cognitive psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, 72 percent of respondents chose the sure savings offered by Program A. Tversky and Kahneman found that only 22 percent chose the sure savings in Program C—the same sure savings chosen . by 72 percent of the people in the first round under Program A. Seventy percent chose the bet on Program D—the same bet that was approved by only 28 percent of the people under Program B!9 One of my art teachers used to say that the frame is even as important as the image.
Rule Six: Let the Consumer Buy Now, Pay Later
For example, some companies encourage you to purchase “on approval.” Or there is the hugely successful cousin of this approach: 'buy now, pay later'. Many magazines include subscription cards that ask you to check one of two boxes: one that says "Payment Attached" and the other that says "Bill me later." The return card is pre-paid. Other companies have written to me because I am 'a connoisseur of good wines'. Or I “recognize the value of a dollar.” Or 'take care of my children's future'. Or 'the future of my environment'. I guess I'm just a very special kind of man. A famous mail-order book club takes a decisive approach to the call for freedom with the slogan: “4 books, 4 dollars, no obligation, no joke.” (My friend Martin said he used this phrase when he proposed to his wife.) The last offer the club sent me – because, they said, I am someone “who appreciates good books AND a good deal” – added a free booklight if I accepted their $1 books.
Rule Seven: Frame It as an Opportunity Forgone Rather Than an Out-of-Pocket Loss
If the salesperson met with you in person, you need to rationalize the expense you incur to that friendly, hardworking salesperson by taking home a new product and returning it in used condition; or why you knowingly took advantage of the seller's generosity by accepting a free gift when you never intended to buy the product. Rule Seven: Frame it as a missed opportunity, not an out-of-pocket loss. They realize that it is less painful to part with money you don't have yet than with money in hand.
Rule Eight: Emphasize Sunk Costs
To fall into this way of thinking is to succumb to the "sunk cost trap," a problem I'll have more to say about later. If professional bankers fall into the sunk cost trap, it's no wonder amateurs fall into it too. Salespeople know that if they can get you to make a small investment, you'll be much more likely to make a larger investment later.
Rule Nine: List High, Sell Low
In fact, those who read the $799 ad were significantly more likely to agree with the statement that "I don't believe the amount of this advertised reduction is a true claim" than those shown on other retail prices for the group. They were less likely (in a computerized shopping simulation) to bother calling other stores to compare prices. Hence, as one business writer observed, "the great challenge of modern retail: how to discount cheap skates without giving shoppers a free ride."17.
Rule Ten: Never Exceed the Reference Price
Note that warning that prices would be higher if the customer did not order soon was not the often effective technique. Imagine you're in a store buying a new $1,500 computer and your companion whispers that you can get the same computer across town for $15 less. But economically, if one drive across town exceeds your "too-small-a-bill" index, the second shouldn't.
The Hot Button
The key to engaging customers was clearly the phrase "for a good cause." The words were like a switch that simultaneously turned people on (to their sense of charity) and off (to listen to further details of the charity). As one sociologist raised in the South put it, "Like the words to 'Blessed Assurance,' the yo-yo technique, or the belief that okra is edible, it is absorbed largely without reflection. If you are drawn to the image—if you want to play the role - the product becomes a prop in your performance.
Gradually Escalating the Commitments
For example, there is a variation on the foot-in-the-door technique known in the trade as "throwing the lowball." “The low ball,”. The big question I ask is, “If I could, would you?” That's the key to a phone conversation. Step six, after the customer has gotten into the car, is the turning point: the test drive.
Winning Hearts and Minds
Ultimately, it is an art form that, like any exercise in persuasion, must be adjusted according to the characteristics of the persuader, the audience, and the message in question.
Watch Out for the Invisible
A committed cult member also won't take no for an answer because he has been indoctrinated into believing that if you don't join, he is to blame.” The member feels enormous pressure to succeed in winning you over. When outsiders portray the members as brainwashed – which is a regular occurrence in a Moonie's life – the condemnation has a counterproductive effect. His resistance is undermined, his urge to give in is strengthened, until he finally defeats himself.” The training manual adds that “psychologically manipulating the subject into compliance without using external methods to force him to submit sounds more difficult than it is.”9 Unfortunately, it is.
Beware the Illusion of Choice
Someone with elegance can apply power selectively, like a laser, and carefully, almost imperceptibly, so that you don't feel like you're being overpowered. What her lawyers and the jury overlooked, however, was that Patty's conversion was not produced by the SLA's brute force as much as their own psychology. At the last second before Tania took her eyes off Cinq [SLA leader Cinque] reminded her that she was free to walk out the door and that we would help her get back to her family and friends. one of her captors, William Harris, later testified.
Rewards: Less Is More
It's humbling to realize that every student's favorite class doesn't seem to be a class at all: if I tell students I'm canceling the next class, they greet the news with cheers and open applause, the likes of which I haven't heard in even one of my best classes. It's just that all the papers, exams, and other assignments take precedence, so that any intrinsic interest students once had is relegated to the background. For example, when I'm hired to speak to community groups—often giving the same lecture that I might give in my regular classes—the audience is there simply because they want to be, and we all know that he's the one who's expected to will be produced by me.
Guilt and Shame Are More Powerful Than Rules and Laws
Take the money away and the recipient now asks, "Why bother?" When offered in a less controlling way, external reinforcers can actually increase internal interest.
