Persuasion – August 26

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The science of getting a ‘Yes’ (Audio)
Ira Flatow, Science Friday (US public radio)
Mothers tell children that ‘please’ is a ‘magic word’ — but are there really key words, phrases, or behaviors that make it more likely someone will respond in a positive way to a request? What goes on at a psychological level as a person makes the transition from ‘no’ to ‘maybe’ to ‘yes?’ In this segment, Ira talks with a social psychologist about persuasion, and psychological tricks for helping you get what you want.

Guests
Robert Cialdini
Co-author, “Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive”
(22 August 2008)

Getting what you want: A Q&A with the authors of Yes!
Annika Mengisen, Freakonomics, New York Times
… The Rolling Stones made an excellent point: You can’t always get what you want.

Even one of the top experts in getting things from people, Robert Cialdini (author of the landmark book Influence: Science and Practice), and his co-authors, Noah Goldstein and Steve Martin, agree.

But in their new book, Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, they claim there’s a science to persuasion that can help increase anyone’s success rate.

… Before Cialdini and Goldstein jointly answer our questions about their book, they’d like to ask a question of Freakonomics blog readers:

What is the most persuasive tactic you use, or that has been used on you?

Post your answers and comments below.
(5 August 2008)

The persuaders: Robert Cialdini and the science of persuasion
Daniel Finkelstein, London Times
How can I jump a queue? A new book on the secret psychology of persuasion has the answer – and this correspondent is hooked

… reciprocity – our almost automatic instinct to return even quite small favours – is one of the main forms of social influence identified by the leading social psychologist Robert Cialdini.

His idea – and it’s not one of those bits of pop psychology dreamt up for the daytime TV couch; it’s real academic work based on published papers and careful experimentation – is that we react almost unconsciously, in fairly predictable but sometimes fairly odd ways, to a range of social situations.

Now he and his colleagues Dr Noah Gold-stein and Steve Martin have written a book entitled YES! which reveals what they call “secrets from the science of persuasion”.
(5 November 2007)