In this article, the Harvard Business Review interviews Robert Cialdini, considered the leading social scientist in the field of influence.
In his 2001 book, Influence, Robert laid out the 6 principles of persuasion:
- Liking: if people like you, they are more apt to say yes to you
- Reciprocity: if you help people, people will help you
- Social proof: if people see similar people doing things, they are prone to do those same things
- Commitment and consistency: people want to be consistent, if they make a private or public commitment, they will follow through
- Authority: people defer to experts or those in authority
- Scarcity: people value things more if they perceive them to be scarce
This book explained the dangers of these tecniques in the wrong hands. Later, he published a Harvard Business Review article, "Harnessing the Science of Persuasion," which looked at the positivie side of persuasion.
In this article, Robert is interviewed about how to apply the the good and bad types of influences in every day situations at the office.
