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Person

Bas Wouters

Guest; co-founder and CEO, Cialdini Institute; author, Online Influence

Co-founder and CEO of the Cialdini Institute (in partnership with Robert Cialdini) and author of Online Influence. Argues Robert Cialdini's six principles of influence — first published in 1984 — remain fully relevant 40 years later, walking through modern evidence for each: Reciprocity (Amway's "Bug" free-sample program, see Amway 'The Bug' Reciprocity Case), liking (name-similarity studies, see Liking Name-Similarity Studies), Social Proof (the "Opposing Torture" study, online wording tests, see Opposing Torture Social-Proof Study (2012), Online Social-Proof Wording Studies), Authority Bias (Bickman's security-guard studies, see Bickman Security-Guard Authority Study), Commitment & Consistency (Sherman's volunteer-prediction study and several modern digital cases, see Sherman Volunteer-Prediction Consistency Study, HatHunter and Restaurant Consistency Cases), and Scarcity (a 2017 meta-analysis of 6,700 A/B tests, see Cialdini Principles A/B-Test Meta-Analysis (2017)). Also cites cross-cultural research on which principle is most persuasive by region (see Citibank Cross-Cultural Persuasion Study), and corrects Phill Agnew's own reciprocity test as mistakenly using a "reward" (an email-gated download) rather than a true unconditional "gift."

Returns for a second full-guest appearance in Episode 216, on Robert Cialdini's newly added seventh principle, unity — distinguishing it from liking and social proof as specifically about a shared identity ("I say yes because you belong to me"). Covers field evidence (Indian loan-officer regional favoritism, US financial-advisor misconduct copying, Hong Kong restaurant surname-blame effects — see Cialdini Unity In-Group Favoritism Field Studies), the Facebook "I Voted" experiment's close-friend-photo detail (see Facebook 'I Voted' Button Social Proof Study), Warren Buffett's shareholder letter (see Buffett Family Shareholder-Letter Unity Case), a toddler helping-behavior study (see Toddler Picture-Condition Unity-Helping Study), the WWII "we are all Asian" persuasion story (see WWII Japan-Jews Unity-Persuasion Case), the Ohn and Basil 1994 campus donation study (see Ohn Basil 1994 Campus Donation Unity Study), co-creation and the advice-vs-opinion wording lever (see Lu Gal 2011 Advice-vs-Opinion Unity Study), unity-themed ad slogans (see Unity-Themed Ad Slogans Cases), and a warning that unity is the principle most often mistakenly conflated with liking or social proof.

Returns for a third appearance in Episode 240, sharing seven scientifically-backed online marketing tips: a three-criteria framework for social-proof copy, tested live on Phill Agnew's own newsletter (see Online Social-Proof Wording Studies, Nudge Podcast Social-Proof Email Subject-Line Test); the neuroscience of anticipatory, uncertain rewards (see Anticipatory-Dopamine Monkey Study, Nudge Podcast Surprise-Reward Cafe Review Case); visualizing rewards and punishments (see Reward and Punishment Visualization); breaking large asks into smaller escalating steps (re-citing HatHunter and Restaurant Consistency Cases); loss-aversion messaging (see Back-Pain Ad Loss-Aversion Study, Dutch Lottery Loyalty-Points Unsubscribe Case); giving a reason, even an invalid one (re-citing the exact 1978 Xerox Copy-Machine Because-Word Study figures; see BPost Reason-Why Landing-Page Case); and choice-count effects at both extremes, including his own named "Hobson's Choice and the +1 Rule" (see Unbounce Demo-Timeslot Reduction Case, Boots Webshop Filter-Reduction Case, Dutch Bank Survey Maybe-Later Button Case, Insurance Company Share-on-LinkedIn Button Case).

Returns for a fourth appearance in Episode 243, explaining the Fogg Behavior Model (Motivation-Ability-Prompt) via Instagram's origin story (see Instagram Bourbon Fogg Model Pivot Case) and his own Stopping Power (Four-Principle Prompt Framework) for designing attention-grabbing prompts: curiosity (see World's Deepest Bin Curiosity Study, Wouters This-Word Headline Curiosity Test), exceptional benefit (see Beer52 Exceptional-Benefit Subscription Case), simple questions (see Bol.com Simple-Question Review-Request Case), and the unfinished-journey/Zeigarnik principle (see Airbnb Zeigarnik Unfinished-Journey Review-Prompt Case).

Discussed in

  • Episode 207 — 207-is-the-godfather-of-influence-still-relevant
  • Episode 216 — 216-i-changed-one-sentence-and-got-20-more-views (unity, Cialdini's seventh principle)
  • Episode 240 — 240-learn-7-scientifically-backed-marketing-tips-in-27-minutes (seven marketing tips)
  • Episode 243 — 243-instagram-failed-until-it-made-this-simple-change (Fogg Behavior Model; Stopping Power framework)

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