Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion: Difference between revisions

*'''[[Reciprocity]]''': Which in turn boils down to a freebie. The classic example being the free flower from the Hari Krishna at the airport so pleasingly lampooned in ''[[Airplane!]]'' The idea is if you receive a gratuity, regardless of how insignificant, you feel morally obliged to reciprocate, (in the context of sales by purchasing the product).  

*'''[[Commitment]]''' and '''[[consistency (influence)|consistency]]''': early in the sales pitch, commit your target to an uncontroversial factual statement — especially one that by ego, the mark is disposed to agree with — which is consistent with product. (e.g.: “do you like fine arts and classical music?” Now, what self-respecting culture vulture would not agree with that? Who would want to come across to that nice young lady (see — “liking”) as some kind of Philistine? Then comes the sucker punch: “Great — so a person of such exquisite taste will want to buy this book of discount coupons for classical concerts...”. Your play here is to either climb down and admit to that nice young lady that you ''are'' a Philistine and not only that you were bluffing about it — or you could suck it up and buy the stupid coupon book.