The Science of Persuasion
“In Jobs’s presence, reality is malleable. He can convince anyone of practically anything.”
- Andy Hertzfeld, a member of the team that built the original Apple Macintosh
A couple of years ago, I read Walter Isaacson’s famous biography of Steve Jobs. For all of Jobs’s many talents, I was particularly intrigued by his formidable persuasive powers. Those close to Jobs even had a nickname for it, dubbing it his “reality distortion field”. In an article from the Harvard Business Review, Isaacson shares this example of Jobs’s reality distortion field at work:
“One day Jobs marched into the cubicle of Larry Kenyon, the engineer who was working on the Macintosh operating system, and complained that it was taking too long to boot up. Kenyon started to explain why reducing the boot-up time wasn’t possible, but Jobs cut him off. ‘If it would save a person’s life, could you find a way to shave 10 seconds off the boot time?’ he asked. Kenyon allowed that he probably could. Jobs went to a whiteboard and showed that if five million people were using the Mac and it took 10 seconds extra to turn it on every day, that added up to 300 million or so hours a year—the equivalent of at least 100 lifetimes a year. After a few weeks Kenyon had the machine booting up 28 seconds faster.”
Every human interaction is done mostly to change or reinforce attitudes, opinions, or behaviours. So in most encounters you have with a person, you are busy persuadING or being persuadED. But although Jobs had a particular flair for it, persuasion is a skill that you can learn. So today, I’m sharing the basics to help you become a master persuader.
I hope you have your Friday morning cup of coffee ready. ☕️
Enjoy today’s read.
Facts don’t matter
In a previous post on cognitive biases, I mentioned that our brains make more than 30 000 decisions each day. If we were to follow an analytical, fact-based exercise to make each of these decisions, it would paralyse us. In the book Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (a psychologist who won the Nobel Prize for Economics), the author distinguishes between the two modes of thinking followed by the human brain:
System 1 (Fast)
Look at the picture below and make a mental note of the thought that immediately comes to mind?
Odds are, you were quick to think something along the lines of anger or frustration. This is system 1 at work. It’s rapid and automatic with little or no effort and without voluntary control.
System 2 (Slow)
Now, let’s look at the following problem:
13 × 37 = ?
You immediately know the answer is neither 12 nor 5000 (system 1), but a precise answer probably doesn’t come to mind immediately. So you follow a series of computational steps to get to the answer using maths you learned at school or by whipping out a calculator.
This is system 2 thinking. It’s thoughtful and deliberate and requires mental effort.
The bat and the ball
Here’s one more example to illustrate the two systems at work. Try to give a quick answer to this question (answer the question in your mind before reading on):
A bat and ball cost $1.10. The bat costs one dollar more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
If you answered $0.10 (like most people), you were thinking only in automatic, intuitive and effortless system 1 mode. However, if you took some time to do the math (system 2), you would have correctly answered $0.05.
This question highlights how lazy we are as decision-makers. Almost all of our decisions are made relying solely on system 1 thinking. This is because our brains like to follow the path of least resistance, and we rely on facts much less than we think we do.
Cialdini’s six principles of persuasion
This brings me back to the topic of persuasion. To be persuasive, you need to tap into a person’s system 1 thinking, and thanks to research, we know how to do this. The godfather of the topic of persuasion is Robert Cialdini, an American psychology professor who wrote the book Influence in the 1980s. The book is mandatory reading for marketers and is as relevant today as it was then.
In the book, Cialdini explains these six principles of persuasion that will significantly increase your chances of getting someone to say “yes”:
Liking
Social proof
Scarcity
Authority
Reciprocity
Commitment and consistency
Let’s take a closer look at each one.
1. Liking
People prefer to say yes to those that they like.
This seems obvious. If you dislike someone, it’s unlikely you’d be open to being influenced by them or to accommodate their requests. But that prompts the question - what makes someone likeable?
According to Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People (one of the best selling books of all time), here are a few proven methods to make you more likeable:
Smile. It instantly drops another person’s guard.
Use a person’s name. As Carnegie says, "A person's name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language."
Encourage others to talk about themselves by asking questions. It’s important, though, to show genuine interest.
Talk in terms of the other person’s interests so try to learn about their opinions, hobbies and background.
Make the other person feel important — and do it sincerely.
Nelson Mandela perfected the art of likeability more than anyone. Always smiling, calling people by their names (he even called The Queen by her name, Elizabeth), learning the interests of others (even his former oppressors), and despite his stature, he made everyone in his presence feel important.
2. Social Proof
People look to the actions and behaviours of others (similar) to determine their own actions.
Imagine you are exploring a new city and you have to choose a spot for dinner. You walk down the street, and there are two restaurants next to one another - one buzzing with people and one empty. Without knowing anything else, which of the two would you assume to be the better restaurant? My bet, based on the principle of social proof, is on the full one.
Research has shown that the potential to be influenced by social proof is even stronger if we deem the people we look at as similar to us. Amazon’s recommendation algorithms, for example, are designed to perfection based on the social proof principle. Not only do they recommend items that customers with similar interests as you were interested in, but they double down on the social proof by recommending items that have good reviews or are “Best Sellers”.
3. Scarcity
We want more of the things we can have less of.
A great example of the psychological power of the scarcity principle is the madness that descends upon shoppers on Black Friday. The doors open, and frenzied zombie-like shoppers stampede shops to snap up deals like their lives depend on it.
Here’s an example of online travel sites like Airbnb and Booking.com cleverly using the scarcity principle to drive sales.
4. Authority
You are much more likely to follow a request from someone who has authority (in your eyes).
When you hear adverts that include phrases like “scientists say”, “experts say”, “research shows”, or “scientifically proven”, it’s the authority principle at work.
This is especially true in fields where we aren’t experts, so we rely on a perceived authority figure rather than do our own research. We are easily swayed by titles such as Dr, Professor or CEO and make conclusions on authority based on appearances such as clothing, badges or uniforms.
Another great way of building authority is by improving your communication capabilities. Speakers who are confident and energised are way more persuasive than those who aren’t.
5. Reciprocity
When we are on the receiving end of a gift or an act of generosity, we feel indebted to the giver and feel compelled to cancel the debt.
Essentially, people are more likely to say yes to those who have helped them in the past. If someone invites you to a party, you’re more inclined to invite them to your own. If someone pays you a sincere compliment, you are more likely to meet their request. The “30-day free trial” marketing trick we often see with products stems from this principle.
Cialdini cites this example from a study of waiters and waitresses at restaurants leaving a mint in customer’s bill:
“Giving diners a single mint at the end of their meal typically increased tips by around 3%. Interestingly, if the gift is doubled and two mints are provided, tips don’t double. They quadruple—a 14% increase in tips. But perhaps most interesting of all is the fact that if the waiter provides one mint, starts to walk away from the table, but pauses, turns back and says, “For you nice people, here’s an extra mint,” tips go through the roof. A 23% increase, influenced not by what was given, but how it was given.
6. Commitment and consistency
People like to be consistent with the things they have previously said or done.
Have you been invited to an event and eagerly accepted the invitation, but on the day that the event arrives, it’s the last thing you feel like doing? Finally, however, you end up going, and the main motivation is “because I said I would go”. This is what underlies this principle.
People regard their own behaviour as the primary source of information about their beliefs, values, and attitudes and will go the great lengths not to seem inconsistent. If a commitment is made in public or writing, people have an especially tough time going back on it.
Whoever you are, you will dedicate a considerable amount of effort in your life to persuading people to do one thing or another. Your colleagues, customers, friends, spouse, children - you name it. Becoming a good persuader is like developing a lifelong magic power. Of course, the field is deep, and there is a lot to learn, but you’ll develop a potent skill in time. Perhaps one day, you’ll have your own reality distortion field.
Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend.
Further reading
This article lists some of the best books on influence and persuasion if you want to do extensive reading.
Cialdini has just released a revised edition of his book wherein he shares his newest principle, Unity. The new principle builds on the idea of similarities by focusing on shared identities. The more we perceive people are part of “us,” the more likely we will be influenced by them.