Jean is an Internet and Multimedia specialist with a keen interest in music, technology, business, sports and psychology.
Jean Galea
Internet Consultant in Malta
Jean Galea: entrepreneur and internet specialist. Holding an M.Sc. in Multimedia & Internet Computing from Loughborough University, Jean specialises in web design and development, email marketing systems and general internet consultancy.
How to persuade and influence people
A couple of years back Dr Robert Cialdini, an expert psychologist came up with a set of principles that can be applied in order to harness the power of persuasion and thus influence people. In today’s article I will talk about these six principles and how they can be used.
Principle No. 1 – Liking
People like those who are like them and who create bonds with them. It is important to create early bonds with new acquaintances by informally discovering common interests. This will make them more comfortable and increase their willingness to trust you. Praising other people will also generate more willing compliance.
Principle No. 2 – Reciprocity
People repay in kind, therefore you should develop a habit of giving what you want to receive. Help someone in need and it will be much more likely that he will help you back later.
Principle No. 3 – Social Proof
People follow the lead of similar others. Harness the power of peer power by getting one person from a group to approve your new initiative, the others will most likely follow.
Principle No. 4 – Consistency
People fulfill written, public, and voluntary commitments. Get things down in writing and publicise commitments, then it is more likely that people will fulfill those commitments.
Principle No. 5 – Authority
People believe experts who provide shortcuts to decisions requiring specialised information. The key here is to establish your expertise beforehand by for example describing how you solved a problem similar to the one at hand, or talking about your qualifications and experience, without being boastful.
Principle No. 6 – Scarcity
People value what’s scarce. This is a fact that can be observed in all areas of human behaviour eg. relationships, buying trends etc. You can also use it to your advantage by using exclusive information to persuade. Arouse their curiosity and attention by offering them something nobody knows about eg. “Very few people have heard about this technique…”
Apply these 6 principles in your relationships and you will see that your persuasion power will be better than ever before!
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4 Responses to “How to persuade and influence people”
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What a Machiavellian approach to Psychology. It’s repulsive!
Everyone is entitled to his opinion Malcolm, however I think the 6 principles described above are quite practical and can be observed in everyday life. The point being made here is not to use these principles in order to gain any unfair advantage but to help you establish better relationships and communicate better.
Well Machiavelli was very practical but still very manipulative. The points being made do not establish better communication but establish better manipulation from those that follow them. As I said before a Machiavellian approach par excalance. For, (as an example), you only use people’s value of scarcity by saying “Very few people have heard about this technique…” as a way to manipulate them into persuading them to your point of view, rather than help them understand your point of view better.
I see your point Malcolm, I think it all depends from what angle we look at these points, to take the same example as the one you used, I have used the principle of scarcity while teaching in order to get the class’s attention to a particularly exciting and important point I was about to make, which would also be something that not many people know, so I wouldn’t be manipulating them in that case. I would just be emphasizing the truth.
Again thanks for your comments it is always good to get feedback, through such discussions we can understand things better.