The Anatomy of influence: Using the latest Social psychology, decision-making, persuasion, and new brain science research to create cooperation

1
The Anatomy of influence Using the latest
Social psychology, decision-making, persuasion,
and new brain science research to create
cooperation

• Bill OHanlon
• billohanlon.com

2
Introduction
3
Three Small Words

• An infomercial copywriter (Colleen Szot) changed
  the call to action from
• Operators are standing by please call now.
  to
• If operators are busy, please call again.
• Sales increased significantly shattering a
  20-year sales record
• Why? Youll soon find out and know very well.

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ONE WORD Because

• Students were waiting in a long line for a busy
  copy machine at a major university library
• A person comes to the front of the line and asks
  if he or she can use the copy machine, with no
  explanation
• 75 of people agree to let the person use the
  machine
• In another condition, the person asking adds a
  phrase beginning with because (sometimes
  because I have to make a some copies) and
  compliance increases to 96
• E. Langer, A. Blank, and B. Chanowitz, (1978).
  The mindlessness of ostensibly thoughtful
  action The role of placebic information in
  interpersonal interaction, Journal of
  Personality and Social Psychology, 36635-642.

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Two Words Warm or Cold

• Students at Harvard Business School were told
  they had a guest instructor and were asked to
  rate him since he was being considered for a
  faculty position
• They were all given a description of him, with
  one slight difference. In one, he was described
  as very warm and in the other, rather cold.
  Otherwise, the descriptions were identical. The
  class got the same lecture, but at the end, when
  asked to rate the instructor for possible hiring
  as an instructor, the students who had read the
  description of a very warm person rated him as
  good-natured, considerate of others, informal,
  sociable, popular, humorous, and humane, while
  those who read that he was rather cold rated
  him as self-centered, formal, unsociable,
  unpopular, irritable, humorless, and ruthless.
• Reference Kelley, H.H. (1950). The warm-cold
  variable in first impressions of persons,
  Journal of Personality, 18, 431-439.

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These influence principles are based on recent
research

• Persuasion research
• Social influence/social psychology research
• Non-rational/non-conscious decision-making
  research
• The new brain science

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The 3 Major PrinciplesOF INFLUENCE

• SOCIAL FOLLOWING
• PRIMING
• LOSS AVOIDANCE

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Influence Principle 1Social influence factors
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Humans are social animals
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Social Comparison, following and Norms

• People tend to look to others, especially a
  majority of others, to decide how to behave in
  and perceive situations
• Any messages that show that many (or most) others
  are doing or perceiving a certain way will
  influence ones actions, choices and perceptions

12
The Hotel Re-Use Studies

• Social psychologists, led by Dr. Robert Cialdini,
  investigated how the percentage of re-using
  towels more than once per stay was influenced by
  messages about how others behaved
• When a message was left saying it was good for
  the environment to re-use towels, a certain
  percentage of people re-used
• When the message was changed to suggest that most
  people re-used towels in that hotel, re-use went
  up 26 when it was more specific (most people
  who stayed in that particular room re-used)
  re-use increased 33
• Goldstein, Noah Cialdini, R.B. and
  Griskevicius, Vladas. (2008). A room with a
  viewpoint using social norms to motivate
  conservation in hotels, Journal of Consumer
  Research, 13 (2), 21420.

13
Petrified Forest Study

• In an effort to reduce stealing of wood pieces
  from the Petrified Forest, officials put up a
  sign reading
• Your heritage is being vandalized every day by
  theft losses of petrified wood of 14 tons a year,
  mostly a small piece at a time.
• The study was suggested when a graduate student
  reported that his fiancée, who was usually
  scrupulously honest, read this sign and nudged
  him and whispered, Wed better get ours now.

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Petrified forest study

• Researchers specially marked wood pieces so they
  could measure theft on various trails.
• Then they created alternate signs
• Many past visitors have removed petrified wood
  from the park, changing the natural state of the
  Petrified Forest. This sign showed people
  picking up wood.
• Please dont remove wood from the park, in order
  to preserve the natural state of the Petrified
  Forest. This one showed a lone person picking
  up wood with a red X superimposed.

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Petrified forest study results

• Compared to a control condition (no sign) 2.92
  stolen
• Social following sign Increased theft to 7.92
  of pieces stolen.
• Lone wolf sign Decreased theft to 1.67.

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We all think we arent going along with the crowd

• Why do you have to be a nonconformist like
  everybody else? - James Thurber
• You are unique just like everybody else. -Bumper
  sticker

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Perceptual acuity Test
Choose the line, A, B, or C, that matches the
line without a letter under it
18
Asch perceptual studies

• Subjects were put in a room and told they were
  being tested for perceptual acuity
• Unbeknownst them, there were three confederates
  of the experimenter in the room
• They were shown three lines of various lengths
  and asked which of the three a fourth line
  matched. It was very obvious.

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Asch perceptual studies

• When three subjects all gave the wrong answer,
  the subject also gave the wrong answer 75 of the
  time
• But when even one of the subjects dissented, even
  giving another incorrect answer (even if that
  dissenter was shown to be visually impaired), the
  subject gave the correct answer almost all the
  time
• Asch, Solomon. "Effects of Group Pressure upon
  the Modification and Distortion of Judgment," in
  Groups, Leadership, and Men, ed. by Harold
  Guetzkow (Pittsburgh Carnegie Press, 1951), pp.
  177-190
• Asch, Solomon, (1955). "Opinions and Social
  Pressure," Scientific American, 19331-35.
• Allen, Vernon and Levine, John, (1971). "Social
  Support and Conformity The Role of Independent
  Assessment of Reality," Journal of Experimental
  Social Psychology, 7 48-58.

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Gazing skyward study

• Stanley Milgram had a person in NYC gaze skyward
  most people ignored him. When he was joined by 3
  others gazing skyward, 4 times as many people
  also stopped and looked up.
• Milgram, S. Bickman, L. and Berkowitz, L.
  (1969). Note on the drawing power of crowds of
  different sizes, Journal of Personality and
  Social Psychology, 1379-82.

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Mirror Neurons

• The ice cream cone and the monkey
• Gallese, V., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L.,
  Rizzolatti, G. (1996). Action recognition in the
  premotor cortex, Brain, 119593-609.
• Fogassi, L., Ferrari, P.F. (2007). Mirror
  neurons and the evolution of embodied language,
  Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17,
  136141.

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Subtle social mimicry

• A researcher subtly mimicked half the subjects
  while asking them survey questions, then
  accidentally dropped some pens those who had
  been mimicked were 2-3 times more likely to pick
  up the pens as those who hadnt
• Van Baaren, Rick Holland, Rob Kawakami, Kerry
  and van Knippenberg, Ad. (2004) Mimicry and
  Prosocial Behavior, Psychological Science, 15,
  71-74.

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Subtle social mimicry

• 37 Duke students tried out what was described as
  a new sports drink, Vigor, and answered a few
  questions about it. The interviewer mimicked
  about half the participants.
• The mimicry involved mirroring a persons posture
  and movements, with a one- to two-second delay.
  If he crosses his legs, then wait two seconds and
  do the same, with opposite legs. If she touches
  her face, wait a beat or two and do that. If he
  drums his fingers or taps a toe, wait again and
  do something similar. The idea is to be a mirror
  but a slow, imperfect one. Follow too closely,
  and most people catch on.
• By the end of the short interview, those who were
  mimicked were significantly more likely than the
  others to consume the new drink, to say they
  would buy it and to predict its success in the
  market. In a similar experiment, the
  psychologists found that this was especially true
  if the participants knew that the interviewer,
  the mimic, had a stake in the products success.
• Chartrand, T.L., Bargh. J.A. (1999). The
  Chameleon effect The perception-behavior link
  and social interaction, Journal of Personality
  and Social Psychology, 76, 893- 910.
• Chartrand, T.L., Maddux, W.W., Lakin, J.L. (in
  press). Beyond the perception-behavior link The
  ubiquitous utility and motivational moderators of
  nonconscious mimicry. In R. Hassin, J. Uleman,
  J.A. Bargh (Eds.), Unintended thought 2 The
  new unconscious. New York Oxford University
  Press.

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Subtle social mimicry

• At Stanford, a computer figure, an avatar, was
  programmed to mimic the movements and gestures of
  study participants. If the avatars movements
  were immediate and precise, people picked up on
  them, but if they were slightly out of sync
  (delayed 4 seconds) people did not pick up on
  them and rated the avatars as warm and
  convincing.
• Bailenson, J., Yee, N. (2005). Digital
  chameleons Automatic assimilation of nonverbal
  gestures in immersive virtual environments,
  Psychological Science, 16, 814819.

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Take-Away

• You probably already mirror people naturally, but
  you might be able to improve your skill at
  gaining rapport if you attend to people more
  closely. Listen to and watch them as they speak
  and interact with you.

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Neurological Empathy

• When study participants are asked to imagine how
  they would feel in reaction to emotion-laden
  familiar situations, including painful events,
  and to imagine how another person would feel if
  she was experiencing the same situations, common
  neural circuits are activated both for the self
  and the other.
• Another study using fMRI showed that when
  children and adults attend to other people in
  pain, the neural circuits underpinning the
  processing of first-hand experience of pain are
  activated in the observer.
• Decety, J., Lamm, C. (2006). Human empathy
  through the lens of social neuroscience, The
  Scientific World Journal, 6, 1146-1163.
• Decety, J., Michalska, K. J., Akitsuki, Y.
  (2008). Who caused the pain? An fMRI
  investigation of empathy and intentionality in
  children, Neuropsychologia, 46, 2607-2614.
• Jackson, P. L., Brunet, E., Meltzoff, A. N.,
  Decety, J. (2006). Empathy examined through the
  neural mechanisms involved in imagining how I
  feel versus how you feel pain, Neuropsychologia,
  44, 752-61.

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Take care how you use Social Norm messages

• Womens Voices, during the 2004 presidential
  campaign, sent out 1 million postcards with this
  message Four years ago, 22 million single women
  did not vote.
• Oops! Voter turnout for single women was
  especially low that year, even lower than in 2000.

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Take care how you use Social Norm messages

• An anti-littering campaign ad showed people
  waiting for a bus. After the bus left, it showed
  the empty bus stop with lots of litter. Then it
  cut to a poster of the well-known pervious
  anti-littering ad, with a Native American on
  horseback with a tear running down his cheek. The
  message said Back by popular neglect.
• The inadvertent message was Littering is common
  and the social norm.

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Take Care how you use Social Norm messages

• California households energy use were monitored
  and then doorknob cards were delivered to each
  house telling them how their energy use compared
  to the norm (some had used more than average and
  some less).
• Over the next few weeks, those households who had
  had above average usage reduced their consumption
  by 5.7 but those whose usage was below average
  increased their consumption by 8.6. Dont
  worry, they figured out how to fix this middle
  magnet by putting smiley faces on the cards or
  those whose energy use was low and frowny faces
  on the cards of those whose usage was high.
• Schultz, P. W. Nolan, J.M. Cialdini, R.B
  Goldstein, N.J. and Griskevicius, V. (2007).
  The constructive, destructive, and
  reconstructive power of social norms,
  Psychological Science, 18429-434.

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Modeling

• Albert Banduras Social Learning Theory posits
  that people learn from one another, via
  observation, imitation, and modeling.
• Famous for the Bobo Doll studies, which showed
  social learning through modeling. 
• Bandura, A. (1986). Social Foundations of Thought
  and Action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall.

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Bobo Doll Studies

• Bandura made a film of one of his students
  beating up a doll that bounced back up after
  being punched. The woman punched the clown,
  shouting sockeroo! She kicked it, sat on it,
  hit with a little hammer, and so on, shouting
  various aggressive phrases. Bandura showed his
  film to groups of kindergartners. They then were
  let out to play. In the play room were several
  observers with pens and clipboards in hand, a
  brand new Bobo doll, and a few little hammers.
• Most of the kids beat the daylights out of the
  Bobo doll.  They punched it and shouted
  sockeroo, kicked it, sat on it, hit it with the
  little hammers, and so on. They imitated pretty
  closely what they had seen.
• Responding to criticism that Bobo dolls were
  supposed to be hit, he even did a film of the
  young woman beating up a live clown.  When the
  children found the live clown in the other room
  after watching the film,  they proceeded to punch
  him, kick him, hit him with little hammers and so
  on.

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Social Proof

• Testimonials
• Indirect evidence of popularity (It sold out last
  time Billions served)
• Success stories about others
• Statistics that show a majority of people are
  doing something desirable
• 97 of visitors do not take pieces of wood from
  the Petrified Forest
• 93 of Americans are on time with mortgage
  payments in the midst of economic crisis

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A SIMPLE USE OF SOCIAL FOLLOWING/NORMS

• Studies have shown that most people get and feel
  better after they come to therapy.

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Questions to ponder

• How can you use this social following/social
  norms principle in your work?
• How have you been inadvertently using social
  comparisons and norms ineffectively?
• What is one small shift you can make in the way
  you work that reflects what you have learned or
  clarified in this section?

35
RECIPROCITY

• This is another social phenomenon
• People feel obliged to return the favor if they
  are given something by someone
• Free samples or gifts
• Acts of kindness

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Reciprocity

• A waiter brought a piece of candy to each diner
  at a table at the end of the meal compared with
  a no-candy condition, tips increased an average
  of 3.3.
• In another condition, the waiter brought two
  pieces of candy to each diner tips went up
  14.1.
• In the final condition, the waiter gave each
  diner a piece of candy, then as he was leaving
  the table, pulled more candy out of his pocket
  and gave each person another piece of candy. Tips
  increased 23.
• Strohemtz, D.B. Rind, B. Fisher, R. and Lynn,
  M. (2002). Sweetening the till The use of candy
  to increase restaurant tipping, Journal of
  Applied Social Psychology, 32 300-309.

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What Makes a Difference with reciprocity

• Gifts/favors are more valued when they are
  perceived as
• Significant
• Unexpected
• Personalized

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Liking

• This is another social phenomenon
• People are more likely to be influenced by people
  they like
• People they see as similar to themselves are
  usually liked better
• Compliments and praise increase liking for the
  praiser

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Similarity

• One experiment showed that people were more
  likely to do things (loan some money or sign a
  petition) for people who dressed/looked like them
• Emswiller, T. Deaux, K. and Willits, J.E.
  (1971). Similarity, sex, and requests for small
  favors, Journal of Applied Social Psychology,
  1284-291.
• Suedfield, P. Bochner, S and Matas, C. (1971).
  Petitioners attire and petition signing by
  peace demonstrators A field experiment, Journal
  of Applied Social Psychology, 1278-283.
• Another experiment showed that people were more
  likely to buy insurance from a person who was
  like them in terms of age, religion, politics,
  and cigarette-smoking habits
• Evans, F.B. (1963). Selling as a dyadic
  relationship A new approach, American
  Behavioral Scientist 6776-79

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Take Away

• Find as many commonalities as you can with the
  people with whom you work and find a way of
  letting them know about those commonalities

41
Psychotherapy outcome research

• The quality of the therapeutic relationship and
  working alliance accounts for 30 of the positive
  results in psychotherapy
• Hubble, M. A., Duncan, B. L., Miller, S. D.
  (Eds.) (1999). The heart and soul of change What
  works in therapy. Washington, D.C. American
  Psychological Association.
• Lambert, M. J. (1992). Psychotherapy outcome
  research Implications for integrative and
  eclectic therapists. In J. C. Norcross M. R.
  Goldfried (Eds.), Handbook of psychotherapy
  Integration. (pp. 94-129). New York Basic Books.

42
Compliments

• Men in a study were given three kinds of
  statements by someone who needed a favor from
  them
• Positive
• Negative
• Neutral
• The person who gave the men pure positive praise
  was better liked, even when the men knew the
  praise was untrue and the person wanted a favor
  from them
• Drachman, D. deCarufel, A. and Insko, C.A.
  (1978). The extra credit effect in interpersonal
  attraction, Journal of Experimental Social
  Psychology, 14458-467.

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The Kind of Compliment Can Matter

• Carol Dweck and colleagues gave children a fairly
  simple puzzle and told half the kids a comment
  that told them they were smart and the other half
  that they must have worked hard to solve the
  puzzles.
• Then they offered them a choice of simple or
  challenging puzzles.
• 90 of the kids who were praised for effort chose
  the difficult puzzles
• A majority of the kids who were praised for
  intelligence chose the easier ones.
• Then all the kids were given some difficult
  puzzles. Then some that were about as easy as the
  initial ones.
• The work hard kids did 30 better than they had
  in the initial scores, while the intelligence
  kids scores declined by 20.
• Cimpian, A. et. al (2007). Subtle Linguistic
  Clues Affect Childrens motivations,
  Psychological Science, 18314-316.

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Recency

• Several studies have shown that whatever the most
  recent or last part of an experience is tends to
  color and strongly influence our overall memory
  or sense of that experience. A particularly
  graphic example involves people who were
  undergoing proctological exams. Patients were
  divided into two groups
• 1. Standard proctological exam
• 2. The scope (or digit) was left in but not moved
  for an extra minute at the end (sorry for the
  pun) of the exam.
• Those patients who experienced the longer exam
  were more willing to undergo the procedure again
  in the future. Ending on a good note makes a
  difference in how the whole (sorry again)
  experience is remembered.
• Redelmeier, D., and Kahneman, D. (1996).
  Patients memories of painful medical
  treatments Real-time and retrospective
  evaluations of two minimally invasive
  procedures, Pain, 1163-8.

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Take Away

• End sessions on a neutral or positive note
  people are more likely to schedule another
  appointment
• Compliment people on their efforts rather than
  just praise them generally

46
Influence Principle 2perceptual priming/biases
47
PRIMING

• CONTEXTUAL PRIMING
• PERCEPTUAL PRIMING
• CONCEPTUAL PRIMING
• LINGUISTIC PRIMING
• Associative priming
• For example, dog would prime cat dog would prime
  log and frog
• Semantic priming
• For example, dog would prime wolf

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Happiness influences Up to 3 degrees of separation

• Emotions such as happiness, seem to be
  contagious. In contrast to behaviors (like
  smoking or obesity), people must have direct
  contact with others (even by proxy) to catch
  the emotions in a social network.
• People who are happy and have friends, or friends
  of friends, tend to be happier. The amount of
  influence
• Next door neighbor 34
• Friends 25
• Close living sibling 14
• Spouse 8
• People at the center of the happy social
  network tend to be happiest (vs. people on the
  periphery. The more people one is connected to,
  the happier.
• Happiness spreads more readily than unhappiness.
• Fowler, James and Christakis, Nicholas. (2008).
  Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social
  network longitudinal analysis over 20 years in
  the Framingham Heart Study, British Medical
  Journal, 337a2338.

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anchoring

• Whatever numbers or words are mentioned before
  something is asked will strongly influence the
  answer or response to that question or request

50
Anchoring

• The experimenter had students write down the last
  two digits of their social security number
• Then they were asked whether they would pay that
  amount for several items that were to be
  auctioned
• The social security numbers influenced what
  students bid For example, for ne item, students
  with the highest numbers bid highest (e.g. 56
  average for the highest) and those with the
  lowest numbers bid the lowest (16 average)
• Ariely, D. Loewenstein, G. and Prelec, Drazen.
  (2003). Coherent arbitrariness Stable demand
  curves without stable preferences, Quarterly
  Journal of Economics, 118(1)73-105.

51
Take Away

• You might suggest that many people successfully
  resolve their issues within 4 to 6 sessions (the
  research indicates this is true)

52
Non-conscious influences and priming

• Exposing people to biased words and phrases
  influences their subsequent performance

53
Interspersal

• Milton Ericksons method of non-verbally
  emphasizing certain words or phrases
• Learn to rephrase problem words or phrases into
  solution/longing words or phrases
• For example, if someone is dealing with chronic
  pain, you might say, I know youd really like to
  find a way to feel more comfortable.

54
RESPONSE PRIMING

• Milton Ericksons YES SET
• NO SET

55
AUTHORITY

• People give credibility and are more swayed by
  people who are perceived as authorities

56
Milgrams Shock experiments
57
Milgrams Shock experiments

• The experimenter told subjects they must shock
  the learner when he got the answer wrong if
  the teacher balked, the experimenter merely
  told him he must go on
• 65 complied and went all the way to Danger
  severe shockAlmost all subjects went to 300v
• Even when the subjects heard the learner
  groaning, yelling in pain, pounding on the wall
  and finally stopped responding
• Even when the subjects had previously heard the
  subject mention he or she had a heart condition
• Milgram, Stanley. (1963). Behavioral Study of
  Obedience, Journal of Abnormal and Social
  Psychology, 67371-378.

58
HOW TO SHOW AUTHORITY

• Clothing/dress
• Degrees
• Knowledge/skill displays
• Accomplishments/portfolio
• Settings/furnishings
• Evidence of results

59
Value Attribution

• People make judgments about the value of things
  or people based on information provided by others
  or by context or trappings

60
Diagnosis bias

• When primed with a diagnostic label, we often
  ignore facts, data and perceptions that dont fit
  with this diagnosis

61
The Power of Labels

• Researchers interviewed a large number of
  potential voters and told 50 of them, based on
  their survey responses, that they were above
  average citizens likely to vote and participate
  in political events. The other half were told
  they were about average.
• The ones who were labeled above average were
  15 more likely to vote in an election held a
  week later and also saw themselves as better
  citizens.
• Tybout, A.M. and Yalch, R.F. (1980). The effect
  of experience A matter of salience, Journal of
  Consumer Research, 6406-413.

62
The Power of Labels

• Researchers told some schoolchildren that they
  seemed like the kind of students who care about
  good handwriting.
• Those kids subsequently spent more of their free
  time practicing handwriting, even when they
  thought no one was watching them.
• Cialdini, R. Eisenberg, N. Green, B. Rhoads,
  K. and Bator, R. (1998). Undermining the
  undermining effect of reward on sustained
  interest, Journal of Applied Social Psychology,
  28249-263.

63
Diagnosis bias

• Bandura study subjects shock others when they
  make mistakes
• When subjects overheard experimenter tell
  assistant
• Theyre here.
• They seem nice.
• Theyre like animals. Significantly more shock
  given

64
Revisiting Two Words Warm or COLD

• Students at Harvard Business School were told
  they had a guest instructor and were asked to
  rate him since he was being considered for a
  faculty position
• They were all given a description of him, with
  one slight difference. In one, he was described
  as very warm and in the other, rather cold.
  Otherwise, the descriptions were identical. The
  class got the same lecture, but at the end, when
  asked to rate the instructor for possible hiring
  as an instructor, the students who had read the
  description of a very warm person rated him as
  good-natured, considerate of others, informal,
  sociable, popular, humorous, and humane, while
  those who read that he was rather cold rated
  him as self-centered, formal, unsociable,
  unpopular, irritable, humorless, and ruthless.
• Reference Kelley, H.H. (1950). The warm-cold
  variable in first impressions of persons,
  Journal of Personality, 18, 431-439.

65
Self-Diagnosis

• In a recent study, Carol Dweck and colleagues
  found that people who believe personality can
  change were more likely than others to bring up
  concerns and deal with problems in a constructive
  way. Dweck holds the view that a fixed mind-set
  can foster a categorical, all-or-nothing view of
  peoples qualities this view tends to lead to
  ignoring festering problems or, at the other
  extreme, giving up on a relationship at the first
  sign of trouble.
• Blackwell, Lisa S. , Trzesniewski, Kali H.,
  Dweck, Carol Sorich. (2007). Implicit Theories
  of Intelligence Predict Achievement Across an
  Adolescent Transition A Longitudinal Study and
  an Intervention, Child Development,
  78(1)246263.

66
Diagnosis Bias Context and Clothing signals
matter

• Joshua Bell, one of the top violinists in the
  world, gave a free performance in a Metro DC
  station in 2007. He was there for 45 minutes,
  playing in blue jeans and a baseball cap. He
  played several Bach pieces on a violin worth 3.5
  million.
• Very few people even stopped and listened he got
  32 in tips
• Several days before, Bell had played to a sold
  out audience in Boston at an average ticket price
  of 100.

67
Von Restorff Effect

• Take a look at this paragraph. What stands out
  for you?
• Application Anything you can do to make the
  message you want remembered to stand out from the
  rest of the message will probably help.

68
Think Different

• Think different think different think different
  think different think different think different
  think different think different think different
  think different think different think different
  think different think different think different
  think different think different think different
  think different think different think different

69
Von Restorff Effect

• Also called the isolation effect, it holds
  that we are more likely to remember the unusual
  or what stands out in a larger context
• Von Restorff, H. (1933). Über die Wirkung von
  Bereichsbildungen im Spurenfeld (The effects of
  field formation in the trace field), Psychologie
  Forschung, 18, 299-34

70
The Serial Position Effect

• Certain items are more likely to be remembered
  than others
• Thos in the first part of a list or experience
  and those most recent (or the last part of the
  list or experience)
• Murdock, B.B., Jr. (1962) The Serial Position
  Effect of Free Recall, Journal of Experimental
  Psychology, 64, 482-488.

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The Ziegarnik (Zajonc) Effect

• Discovered by a social psychologist
  (Zeigarnik/sometimes spelled Zajonc) when the
  waiter at a group table remembered the
  interrupted order but not the others
• An interrupted task will be remembered
  more/longer than a completed task
• Zeigarnik, B. (1967). On finished and unfinished
  tasks. In W. D. Ellis (Ed.), A sourcebook of
  Gestalt psychology. New York Humanities press.

72
Influence Principle 3Loss aversion/avoidance
73
Loss Aversion/Avoidance

• People are very driven to avoid loss
• Lost opportunities
• Loss of freedom

74
Loss Aversion/Avoidance

• Experiment done many times
• Professor holds an auction among MBA students for
  a 20 bill
• Bids can start anywhere, but the rules say that
  the top bidder wins the 20 bill and the second
  highest bidder must also pay the amount he or she
  bid
• The 20 bill has been sold to the highest bidder
  for more than 20 every time the auction is held
  the highest bid was for 204

75
TakeAway

• When introducing interventions and suggesting
  change, link lack of compliance with possible
  loss
• E.g., If you walk away from this marriage now
  and dont give everything youve got, you may
  find yourself regretting it later.

76
Influence Principles 5Misc.
77
Commitment and Consistency

• Once people verbally or otherwise commit to some
  position, they are much more likely to act
  consistently with that committed position

78
Commitment and Consistency

• Once restaurant owner decreased no shows for
  dinner reservations from 30 to 10 by changing
  what the receptionist said from Please call if
  you have to cancel, to Will you please call if
  you have to cancel? and then waiting for a yes
  response.
• When people verbally commit to something, they
  are more likely to follow through.
• From Goldstein, Noah Martin, Steve and Cialdini
  , R. (2008).Yes 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to
  Be Persuasive. NY Free Press.

79
Commitment and Consistency

• The foot in the door technique
• Small actions/commitments open the door lead to
  bigger ones

80
Would you put this in your window?
81
Would you put this in your Front Yard?
82
Would you put this in your Front Yard?
83
Commitment and Consistency

• One researcher set a blanket with a radio on the
  beach, listened to the radio for a few minutes,
  then went for a stroll on the beach
• A second researcher pretended to be a thief who
  took the radio and began to run away with it
• Very few (4 out of 20) onlookers stopped the
  thief until the next condition, in which the
  first researcher asked the onlooker to watch my
  stuff.
• Then, 19 of the 20 onlookers ran after the
  thief, snatched the radio out of his hand, and,
  in some cases, restrained him until the owner
  returned
• Moriarty, T. (1975). Crime, consistency, and the
  responsive bystander, Journal of Personality and
  Social Psychology, 31370-376.

84
Take Away

• Get people to publicly, verbally and with small
  actions, commit to some course of action or value
  that would be good for them and in the direction
  in which you are trying to lead them
• They are much more likely to follow through if
  they do

85
The Paradox of choice

• Too many choices often leave people overwhelmed
  and paralyzed

86
The Paradox of Choice

• Researchers discovered that for every ten
  additional retirement fund options employees were
  offered, participation rates dropped almost 2
  For example, when 2 funds were offered,
  participation rates were 75 when 59 funds were
  offered, participation rates were 60
• Iyengar, S.S. Huberman, G. and Jiang, W.
  (2004). How much choice is too much?
  Contributions to 401(K) retirement plans, In
  Mitchell, O. and Utkus, S. (eds.). Pension Design
  and Structure New Lessons from Behavioral
  Finance. pp. 83-96. Oxford, UK Oxford University
  Press.

87
The Paradox of Choice

• When consumers were offered samples of jams at a
  supermarket and their subsequent purchases were
  tracked (using coupons), those who were offered
  samples from 24 different jams bought only 3 of
  the time those who were offered 6 jams bought
  30 of the time.
• Iyengar, S.S. and Lepper, M. R. (2000). When
  choice is demotivating Can one desire too much
  of a good thing?, Journal of Pesonalityand
  Social Psychology, 79995-1006.

88
The Paradox of Choice

• When Procter and Gamble reduced the number of
  versions of Head and Shoulders shampoo from 26 to
  15, sales increased 10.
• Osnos, E. (1997, September 27). Too many
  choices? Firms cut back on new products.
  Philadelphia Inquirer, D1/D7.

89
TAKEAWAY

• When offering interventions, keep the number of
  options small

90
What have you learned?

• What will be one thing you take away from this
  seminar and can use right away?
• What do you want to explore more?

91
Bill OHanlon

• 223 N. Guadalupe 278
• Santa Fe, NM 87501
• www.billohanlon.com
• Bill_at_billohanlon.com
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