Book Review: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (1983). Robert B. Cialdini.

In this important work from many decades ago, Dr. Cialdini laid out the six major psychological levers by which people get other people to do what they want.  This book is a classic from the 1980s, which has been heavily mined ever since by advertisers, marketers, social media developers and others who hope to get our attention and influence our behavior.

 

Some techniques based on his principals don't work as well as they once did in areas like mass-mailing campaigns, because they have been so heavily over-used, and in the course of this cynical exploitation, some of the underlying norms of society he describes have been worn away.  

 

But in general these principals still apply, they still work, and are still at the core of how advertising and social media operate, as well as being heavily used in many scams and other malevolent applications of social engineering.  

The six  weapons of influence include reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority and scarcity.  His explanations of how these methods work, and the related psychological research that demonstrates how and why each approach functions are clear, classic and timeless.

This book is still in print in a revised version.  Highly recommended.