Social Psych Cialdini Book

What is an example of how conditioning/association can be used against us?

-Advertisements show us people/things we like next to the item they are attempting to sell -the connection doesn't have to be a logical one, just a positive connection

What are some ways we can defend ourselves against against reciprocation?

-Can reject the initial favor or concessioned request -----not a good option because you'll miss out on true favors -Accept favors for what they are ----shouldn't be a contingency with it

What power do people hold if they get us to make a commitment

-Our views of ourselves change to be consistent with the newly developed view -Now you know how they person will act in the future -If you get someones self image to change, they will comply NATURALLY with aligning requests

What factors cause us to like others?

-Physical attractiveness -Similarity -Compliments -Familiarity -Conditioning/Association

What are the six weapons of social influence Cialdini cites?

-Reciprocation -Commitment/Consistency -Social Proof -Liking -Authority -Scarcity

What factors make someone more or less consistent in their views?

-The more you like consistency, the more consistent you'll be -consistency increases with age -Individualistic cultures tend to be consistent

How to protect yourself against someone trying to use consistency and commitment

-Think about your actions before you perform them (are they just consistent or do you want to do them) -You tend to get a bad feeling in your stomach when you experience cognitive dissonance, listen to it

What do humans have an obligation for?

-To give, receive, and repay -Our need to receive allows us to be exploited -The power and choices are in the hands of the giver

Similarity and Liking

-We like people who are similar to us (people who dress similar) -compliance professionals try to appear similar to us (car salesmen look at what you have in your car to know what to talk to you about) -we are more likely to buy something from someone who is similar to us

Familiarity and Liking

-We like things that are familiar to us -Example: you will prefer an image of your face that is reversed and your friend will prefer a true image (Your friend typically looks at your true face while you look at the reverse image in the mirror) -compliance professionals get us to believe we are work towards a common goal, so you are familiar without being in competition

What are some ways we can defend ourselves against social proof?

-We need to know if the information being given to us is accurate (did that many people really tip?) -identify falsified social evidence (be aware of recorded TV laughter)

Why are urban environments more susceptible to having people rely on social proof?

-lots of people (unfamiliar) -unstable and constantly changing environments (unfamiliar) -you don't know your neighbors (unfamiliar)

What are some characteristics of the Werther effect?

-the suicide, if staged as an accident, will be much more lethal than an accident would be -they are likely to copy the suicide of those similar to them (young people copy young suicide)

Physical attractiveness and liking

-well groomed applicants do better in hiring processes -attractive people tend to be paid more -more likely to get help when needed if you are attractive

What conditions do commitments need to be made in for self image to be affected

Active Public Effortful Freely Chosen

Werther Effect

Certain troubled people who read of another's self-inflicted death kill themselves in imitation -if you are think of killing yourself, and you see another person do it, you think it's okay and this is how you should do it to

Foot in the Door Technique

Compliance is increased by starting off with a small request (that almost everyone would say yes to) and then move to a larger, but consistent request

Door in the face technique

Compliance is increased when you begin with a large request and then 'give in' to a smaller request -we feel we need to make concessions when the requester made a concession to us

Why do we act consistently?

It makes our lives easy -once we have made up our minds about something, if we stick to it we do have to think about it again -it is now automatic

Lowballing

Get someone to make a commitment to an offer then change the offer to a less appealing one

Why do we consistently fall into the trap of compliance professionals?

Humans have fixed action patterns, that if learned can be taken advantage of

What are internal and external pressures needed to maintain self-image?

Internal: we need to bring our self-image inline with our actions in order to understand why we did something External:We need to adjust our self-image to match how we think others view us

What principle does the door in he face technique fall under? What principle does it work well with?

It's under the rule of reciprocation -it works with the contrast principle

What do you need to be careful about when trying to induce liking through familiarity

Making someone familiar under a pleasant condition -school desegregation --more contact with others, so you are more familiar and should like them more -but schools are competitive, the people who aren't similar to you are seen as opponents which decreases liking -people need to work together for this to be successful

Does a friend have to be present for liking to have an effect in compliance? How is this used against us?

No -when someone asks you to buy something, they may ask for you to give a name of a friend who might like the product -when the friend is approached they are told ---- suggested that I contact you

Why would lowballing increase the desired behavior?

Now that there's no external justification (low price) they are relying only on their new internal justifications, which they came up with on their own -they want to do it, there's no other reason!

The influence of consistency and commitment

Once we make a choice or take a stand, we will have personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment

Halo Effect

One positive characteristic of a person dominates the way that the person is viewed by others -physical attractiveness tends to do this -attractive people are also seems as honest, kind, talented, and intelligent

Norm of Reciprocity

People feel obligated to do something for someone who has done something for them

How is consistency and commitment used against us

People get other to say/do/think something, then they ask them to do something that is consistent with what they just said or did -works with cognitive dissonance

Conditioning/Association and Liking

People respond to things they see as merely connected to other another -example: kill the messenger -we like people who bring us pleasant information and we dislike those that bring us unpleasant information

What type of compliance strategy did the Doomsday group turn to when the world did not end?

Social Proof -originally they didn't want outsiders to join but after the world did not end, they needed justification for their belief -they got others to also believe, and now that there was a large group of believers, it made sense to believe too

Explain how the suicide at Jonestown was effected by social proof

Social proof is likely to occur if the situation is uncertain and the people around you are similar. -Uncertain: the group was relocated to South American rainforests, which they had no knowledge of or experience with -Similarity: the only people similar to them were those in the group They all looked to those around them to see what to do, creating pluralistic ignorance

What does effort have to do with commitment?

The more effort that goes into a commitment, the stronger the commitment and influence -When you join Greek life you are hard so it feels more worth joining the group

Why are written testaments good to get people to make?

They can easily be made public -public commitments tend to be long lasting because we want others to think of us as consistent

How can people profit from commitment and consistency?

Toy companies and Christmas Time -Toy companies play ads for a specific toy -the child asks for the toy so you promise you will get it for him -During Christmas, when you go to buy the toy they are all sold out (under stock the toy) -You have to buy other toys -When you go back a month later, the toy is back in stock -You buy it, even though Christmas is passed and they got another toy, because you said you would

How do you avoid the bystander effect?

Use the word help to identify that there is an emergency-gets rid of the ambiguousness of the situation Specify an individual responsible for getting help-avoid pluralistic ignorance

Give an example of the door in the face technique

Watergate Scandal -Liddy proposed an extremely costly idea, to bug Nixon's opponent -They had agreed because months earlier he proposed a plan that was even costlier and involved hijacking and kidnap, which they denied -he then reduced his request to a still costly plan and proposed it to the same group, which they denied -then when he proposed this idea, it didn't seem as bad -WAS THE SAME GROUP EACH TIME

How does the rule of reciprocation work?

We feel indebted when people do things for us and we need to get rid of that feeling -we often give more than we recieve

Liking Principle of Compliance

We prefer to say yes to the requests of people we know and like -Example: Tupperware Parties success -we are more likely to buy because the request is coming from a friend not a stranger -we are nice as likely to purchase a product due to a social bond, than the actual liking for the product

Rule of Reciprocation

We should repay anyway we can, what another has given us -all cultures use it

Social Proof

We view a behavior as correct in a given situation depending on the degree we see others performing it -Example: bartenders salt the tip jar to insinuate that others tip, you should too

Compliments and Liking

We want to believe praise and we like those who give t to us -the praise does not have to be accurate to work successfully

Pluralistic Ignorance

When each person looks to the next to determine if something is wrong -everyone is looking at eachother and no one does anything -Kitty Genovese

What are situations where we are susceptible to social proof?

When the situation is uncertain -we look to others to see what is correct since we don't know ourselves When the situation is unfamiliar -people weren't familiar with the shopping cart, but started to use it when they saw others use it When the situation contains those who are similar to us

When is consistency most effective?

When there is a small external incentive -The less detectable the outside pressure, the better and more effective the attitude change is -We accept responsibility of our behavior if we feel we have chosen to perform it without being pressure

Are people aware of this principle?

Yes -when our school's sports team wins we talk about it as "our school" but when they lose, it's their school

Bait and Switch

saying an item is one price and then changing the price after the person agrees -Car dealerships -get you to agree to the car price, then take the price to their manager, who said "no", and then you agree to the higher price because now you've created justifications for the choice -it has great gas mileage, can park anywhere