Okay, I have a book to recommend. It is not a new book, and I find that most people I recommended to have already read it, but I am posting this little mini review just in case you haven’t.
The book is titled “Influence” by Robert B. Cialdini.
In this book he very carefully a scientifically looks at various “stimuli” that tend to influence our decision-making processes . . . sometimes to an extraordinary degree.
There are six main sections to the book. These are: reciprocation, consistency, social proof (i.e., conformity), authority, and scarcity. He looks at these one by one and gives fascinating data from scientific studies on how these elements affect our decision-making processes.
One item that really stood out for me was the power of apparent authority. To test this, a call was placed by a total stranger to a nursing station at a hospital. The caller identified himself as Dr. Smith, and instructed the nurse on duty to give an obviously fatal dose of medication to a patient on the floor. This was not only in violation of hospital policy (to give verbal orders for medication), but the nurse was well aware of the fatality of the dose. Even so, 95% of the time, the nurse just hung up the phone, got the medication, and headed for the patient. That’s right. 95%. (Don’t worry, members of the research team intercepted the nurse before they were able to kill anybody.)
The book is supposed to be a very moral look at how to defend yourself from these manipulative techniques, but I wonder how it is that anybody who is in marketing and sales is going to conscientiously avoid using such powerful techniques. Oh well, most of them already knew how to do it. Now we do too. I confess, next time I do a book signing, there will seem to be only one copy of my book available, so you had better grab it quick before someone else does! (See influence of "scarcity"!)
This book makes a very compelling point that we are very vulnerable to certain kinds of manipulative techniques from salespeople, advertisers, and con artists, and offers many techniques to counter their influence. I am so glad I read it.
© Justin Locke
