Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Cialdini describes Amazon’s annual offer to buy out the contracts of its employees. While Amazon says their goal is to make certain those who work for them are happy in their jobs, Cialdini states that the actual motive is a desire to make employees commit to working for the company.

In “Streaming Along,” Cialdini talks about the fact that researchers have long studied the human tendency to value consistency. He writes, “[A] high degree of consistency is normally associated with personal and intellectual strength. It is the heart of logic, rationality, stability, and honesty” (295). Cialdini continues in “The Quick Fix” to say that consistency is a shortcut that helps us make decisions. He says that consistency becomes a luxury because once we have decided how to deal with something, we never have to think about it again.

In “The Foolish Fortress,” he lists a second attraction of continual consistency. He points out that if we did think about the decisions we have made—and cling to—we might discover new facts that challenge our thinking and make us uncomfortable. Being consistent means we never have to think about whether we are right or wrong. In “Seek and Hide,” Cialdini relates how he fell prey to the marketing schemes of toy companies by committing to buy certain toys that manufacturers intentionally held back until after Christmas, allowing toy companies to continue sales after the holidays.

Writing in his section “Commitment Is the Key,” Cialdini discusses the way marketers as well as salespeople use commitment to lock consumers into making a commitment of some kind. Subtly, salespeople get consumers to make a promise and then make them feel guilty if they try to diverge from that promise. He argues that human beings are remarkably consistent when it comes to following through with their commitments.

In “Imprisonments, Self-Imposed,” Cialdini breaks down the elements of a successful effort to get someone to make a commitment. He describes how Chinese Communists during the Korean War slowly got commitments out of US servicemen and, over time, caused the servicemen to change their view of their own country and of the Communists. Though the servicemen did not start out as collaborators, they discovered themselves slowly maneuvered into that position. The name for this technique of starting with a small commitment and slowly working up to a larger commitment is “the foot in the door technique” (310).

Continuing his discussion of the impact of a commitment upon those who make it, in “Hearts and Minds,” Cialdini describes what happens when somebody makes a commitment that they feel they must honor. He writes, “Once you’ve got a person’s self-image where you want it, that person should comply naturally with a whole range of requests aligned with this new self-view” (314). He relates that the true goal of the Chinese during the Korean Conflict was not to get written concessions but to alter the soldiers’ self-image.

Cialdini continues in “The Magic Act,” where he describes the technique of online researchers, who have learned how to get commitments by the way they design web questionnaires. Through the intentional formulation of questions, subjects not only commit to participate in research but also become pliable for researchers. Putting a commitment down in writing, Cialdini notes, creates a contract that increasingly draws the subject in and restricts the subject’s actions. In “The Public Eye,” Cialdini explains that, once a subject has made some commitment, the subject wants to appear as consistent as possible. He says, “For appearance’s sake, the more public a stand, the more reluctant we are to change it” (322).

Researchers have discovered that, even when commitments are written down secretly and even anonymously, many subjects feel compelled to honor them. The notion of expressing a commitment aloud or visibly often locks individuals into an unbreakable commitment. Jurors who verbalize their vote on the guilt or innocence of a defendant often feel they cannot change their vote once it has been spoken aloud. Cialdini comments in “The Extra Effort” that, the more energy that goes into making a commitment, the stronger the commitment may influence the attitudes and the actions of the person who makes it.

Cialdini uses examples from Indigenous tribes in Tonga and also from college fraternities to demonstrate the power of commitments. He connects these two disparate groups by demonstrating that many of the harsh elements used in one of these groups emerges within the other group as well, including beatings, exposure to cold, thirst, eating of unsavory foods, punishment, and threats of death. Such brutal rites form a bond between the person being inducted and the others in the group who have already gone through such mistreatment. Cialdini stresses that the willingness to go through such arduous, painful, and unpleasant experiences is significant because it reflects “The Inner Choice” made by those who are enduring it. The commitment to endure such extreme hardship is something individuals do for themselves, something they share only with others who have endured the same.

The consistent honoring of a difficult commitment is not relegated to adult rites of passage. Cialdini details the work of researchers with young boys who learned to commit, when no adult was present, not to play with a certain very attractive toy. This commitment cemented itself in the boys’ psyches, as over time they responded as if the toy were not present. Cialdini terms this interior change in the boys, which is mirrored by change in adult individuals who make a commitment, “Growing Legs to Stand On.”

Recognizing the impact of a commitment upon customers, compliance professionals work diligently to get a signed commitment from these individuals. He describes the “low-ball” technique of car salesmen who first obtain a commitment from a customer to purchase a car. Through a series of machinations, the vehicle price rises. Feeling committed, however, the customer accepts the increases, typically without complaint. Cialdini describes the experiments of researchers who, by garnering commitments and making promises, convince homeowners to conserve their utilities. Even when the researchers fail to come through with their promises, the homeowners continue to conserve beyond their initial goals.

In “Cueing Consistency: Reminders as Regenerators,” Cialdini describes the way that reminding people of their past commitments causes them follow through with those commitments. He calls out doctors who must be reminded to wash their hands upon entering the room. Once reminded, their willingness to follow through with handwashing improves measurably.

For “Defense” against those who would unscrupulously use the commitment and consistency principle, Cialdini mentions two particularly effective tools: “Stomach Signs” and “Heart-of-Heart Signs.” When asked to make a commitment that results in a queasy feeling in the stomach, Cialdini counsels that one should accept this as a warning and explain to the compliance professional precisely what they are doing. Likewise, when faced with a decision to commit to something, one may experience a momentary feeling of fear or sadness. This is because humans register emotions before registering thoughts. Such a heart-of-heart feeling should prompt one to ask, “[K]nowing what I know now, if I could go back in time, would I make the same choice?” (356).

Some individuals have “Special Vulnerabilities” to commitments and therefore must guard carefully against scam artists. Another significant factor to consider is “Age.” Predators tend to cluster around older adults. Another key vulnerability is “Individualism,” something that Cialdini perceives to be a uniquely American trait. This trait means that, as a people, Americans value trusting their own judgment. Thus, sometimes Americans decide, having made a foolish commitment, that they must follow through with it.