Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Collins Business Essentials),   ISBN:9780061241895

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This book may not help you sell ice to an Eskimo but it will certainly help you identify people who are

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Cialdini is known in the academic as the Einstein of Influence, well at least his research into influence. He has a great structure to the book in that he outlines influencing strategies and tactics. Then he gives you the bonus on how to block these tactics when they are used against you. For example, top influencers are titles, uniforms and cars.

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Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert B. Cialdini, explores how and why people can be influenced by others.

The First aspect of the book I noticed was that it was easy to pick up and read. Cialdini is often wordy, but explains complicated psychological experiments in simple yet clear terms for you to understand.

The book covers six different ways in which people are influenced: Weapons of Influence, Reciprocation, Commitment and Consistency, Social Proof, Liking, Authority, and Scarcity. You might be asking yourself, "Isn't that a little short?" Not at all. The amount of evidence, ranging from Cialdini's personal experience to studies, will have overwhelmingly convinced you by the end of each chapter. While reading numerous examples does prove a point, it does get redundant at times and interferes with the flow of the book.

In his epilogue to the book, Cialdini discusses his disdain for those who use these techniques against others with false or counterfeit information. Ironic, because as a Marketing man myself, I find it hard not to think about how I could incorporate these techniques while reading about them. In order to offset this, Cialdini has a "HOW TO SAY NO" section in each chapter spelling out how one can counteract the practices. However, some of Cialdini's counter-measures do not seem plausible. For example, when Cialdini talks about how not to let a likable person affect, you he says, "Once we discover that we have come to like Dan more than we would have expected to, we don't have to know why. The simple recognition of unwarranted liking should be enough to get us to react against it." That type of behavior, if put into practice, may come off as paranoid and something people simply would never do. Although, Cialdini's counter-measure for authority does make sense. Simply recognize that symbols of authority can be easily faked and you will have the proper guard against that type of influence.

One of the most interesting parts of the book comes during the epilogue, when Cialdini offers his explanation on why people are susceptible to this type of conduct. He believes the rush of modern life is forcing people to develop quick, automated responses to certain types of actions and that people should resist this with force, using this book as their tool.

Being a little wordy and redundant are my only complaints about Influence. Other than that Influence, exposes many weaknesses in people that allow them to be influenced in a thoughtful way. With some critical thinking not only can one conquer these disadvantages, but they can be used for your own gain as well.

By Eric Fechter

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Summarizes some very widely known (and other lesser known) psychological experiments on human behavior and influence in an easy-to-understand format that forces you to realize why you might make certain choices.

I am very glad to have read this and hope more people read it. The sections about brainwashing of American troops in Communist China, and the parts describing reciprocation society are fascinating. The most shocking thing I learned from the book was how suicide rates show a predicable and consistent increase in local areas where a suicide story is published as a newspaper/media headline. Amazing yet terrifying study.

This book describes a study where a shy child is shown a short video depicting other shy children joining playgroups of eager and receptive peers. Continuous exposure to the video actually persuaded other shy kids to start joining playgroups on their own. Where can parents get a copy of this video? Why not have that available on A website? I am sure many parents worry about their shy children, and this seems to be a simple way to help. I'm just surprised there isn't something like this for parents to help nudge their kids toward breaking tough social barriers.

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Good information, but written in a style that fails to
cut to the chase when the author give examples of basic
concepts.