Bias from Disliking/Hating
(This is a follow-up to our post on the Bias from Liking/Loving, which you can find here.) Think of a cat snarling and spitting, lashing with its tail and standing with its back curved. Her pulse is …
Robert Cialdini
Bias from Liking/Loving: Why We Comply With Those We Love
The decisions that we make are rarely impartial. Most of us already know that we prefer to take advice from people that we like. We also tend to more easily agree with opinions formed by people we …
Commitment and Consistency Bias
We have an instinctual desire to remain consistent with our prior actions and beliefs. This can lead us to behave in irrational ways. Here’s how the commitment and consistency fallacy can lead us to …
Maria Konnikova on How we Get Conned
There’s a scene in the classic Paul Newman film The Sting, where Johnny Hooker (played by a young Robert Redford) tries to get Henry Gondorf (played by Newman) to finally tell him when …
The Psychology of Persuasion: Six Timeless Principles To Get Your Way
Influence is one of the defining texts on the psychology of persuasion. In this post, we explore the six major principles of persuasion and how you can use them in your life to supercharge your …
The Most Effective Way to Retain What You Read
One of the keys to getting smarter is to read a lot. But that’s not enough. How you read matters. But reading is only one part of the equation. It’s nearly worthless if you can’t …
The Destructive Influence of Imaginary Peers
Tina Rosenberg with a thoughtful op-ed in the NYT on the influence people around us have on our decisions, even, oddly, when they are imaginary. Bad behavior is usually more visible than good. It’s …
What Lovers Tell Us About Persuasion
“The thing that is most likely to guide a person’s behavioral decisions isn’t the most potent or familiar or instructive aspect of the whole situation; rather, it’s the one that is …
Secrets from the Science of Persuasion
A great animation describing the fundamental principles of persuasion based on the research of Dr. Robert Cialdini, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University. Dr. …
Why We Overpay at Auctions
Tom Stafford discusses a lot of the psychological principles that make rational bidding hard. Auctions also hit on many psychological persuasion techniques: First, auctions use the principle of …
How Raising Prices Can Increase Sales
I have posed at two different business schools the following problem. I say, “You have studied supply and demand curves. You have learned that when you raise the price, ordinarily the volume you can …
Master of Influence Robert Cialdini Recommends Five Books
Psychologist Robert Cialdini wrote two of the the most important books on influence: Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive and The Psychology of Persuasion. Now he recommends five books …
The Principles of Influence
A great short video of psychology and marketing professor Robert Cialdini introducing the universal principles of influence. Cialdini has dedicated most of his life to figuring out why it was so easy …
Daniel Kahneman Answers
In one of the most in-depth and wide-ranging Q&A sessions held by the Freakonomics blog, Daniel Kahneman answered 22 new questions about his book Thinking, Fast and Slow. Three of the questions …
An Incredible Offer — But Wait…There’s More
You’ll never look at infomercials the same after reading this post. Robert Cialdini calls But Wait…There’s More “A wholly fascinating account of a wholly fascinating …
The Best Persuasion Technique for Job-Seekers
The Monitor spoke with Robert Cialdini, who wrote the now infamous Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, about his work and its influence. At one point in the interview, Cialdini talks about the …