voluntary victim

January 17, 2013

Manipulation is part of our life.  People are willing to die because of it. They would go to war, they would take poison, they would choose a career, they would buy the dress everyone else does and buy stocks the brokers say are a 'sure thing'.  Mostly they spend time and money.

Let us look at words that mean moving us to do what we wouldn't necessarily have done:

- to Sell means to induce or persuade someone to buy.

- to Persuade means to prevail on, urge or convince.

- to Influence means to affect, sway, move or impel.

- to Manipulate means to adapt, change or influence to suit one’s own purposes.

After reading Cialdini's "Influence" and "Yes", I really took a wary look around the product world. I want to stop being a voluntary victim.

6 key principles of persuasion by Robert Cialdini (Wikipedia)

• Reciprocity - People tend to return a favor, thus the pervasiveness of free samples in marketing. In his conferences, he often uses the example of Ethiopia providing thousands of dollars in humanitarian aid to Mexico just after the 1985 earthquake, despite Ethiopia suffering from a crippling famine and civil war at the time. Ethiopia had been reciprocating for the diplomatic support Mexico provided when Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935. 
• Commitment and Consistency - If people commit, orally or in writing, to an idea or goal, they are more likely to honor that commitment because of establishing that idea or goal as being congruent with their self-image. Even if the original incentive or motivation is removed after they have already agreed, they will continue to honor the agreement. 
• Social Proof - People will do things that they see other people are doing. For example, in one experiment, one or more confederates would look up into the sky; bystanders would then look up into the sky to see what they were seeing. At one point this experiment aborted, as so many people were looking up that they stopped traffic. 
• Authority - People will tend to obey authority figures, even if they are asked to perform objectionable acts. Cialdini cites incidents such as the Milgram experiments in the early 1960s and the My Lai massacre.
• Liking - People are easily persuaded by other people that they like. Cialdini cites the marketing of Tupperware in what might now be called viral marketing. People were more likely to buy if they liked the person selling it to them. 
• Scarcity - Perceived scarcity will generate demand. For example, saying offers are available for a "limited time only" encourages sales.