tailieunhanh - Ebook Influence - The psychology of persuasion: Part 2

(BQ) Part 2 book "Influence - The psychology of persuasion" has contents: Liking - The friendly thief; authority - Directed deference, scarcity - The rule of the few, primitive consent for an automatic age. | Chapter 5 LIKING The Friendly Thief The main work of a trial attorney is to make a jury like his client. —CLARENCE DARROW , we most F prefer to say yes to the requests of someone we know and like. What EW PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO LEARN THAT, AS A RULE might be startling to note, however, is that this simple rule is used in hundreds of ways by total strangers to get us to comply with their requests. The clearest illustration I know of the professional exploitation of the liking rule is the Tupperware party, which I consider the quintessential American compliance setting. Anybody familiar with the workings of a Tupperware party will recognize the use of the various weapons of influence we have examined so far: reciprocity (to start, games are played and prizes won by the partygoers; anyone who doesn’t win a prize gets to reach into a grab bag for hers so that everyone has received a gift before the buying begins), commitment (each participant is urged to describe publicly the uses and benefits she has found in the Tupperware she already owns), and social proof (once the buying begins, each purchase builds the idea that other, similar people want the product; therefore, it must be good). All the major weapons of influence are present to help things along, but the real power of the Tupperware party comes from a particular arrangement that trades on the liking rule. Despite the entertaining and persuasive salesmanship of the Tupperware demonstrator, the true re- Robert B. Cialdini / 127 quest to purchase the product does not come from this stranger; it comes from a friend to every woman in the room. Oh, the Tupperware representative may physically ask for each partygoer’s order, all right, but the more psychologically compelling requester is a housewife sitting off to the side, smiling, chatting, and serving refreshments. She is the party hostess, who has called her friends together for the demonstration in her home and who, everyone knows, makes a profit .