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Influence

Robert Cialdini

Robert Cialdini's foundational book on persuasion, cited across episodes: for a dentist-appointment commitment-writing example (Episode 7), a real-estate example of scarce/unique features raising perceived value (Episode 8), the $5-gift-vs-$50-payment reciprocity study (Episode 12), research on media-driven suicide contagion (Episode 25), the Hare Krishna free-flower and free-mint tipping reciprocity studies (Episode 35), and a dishonest-leader cheating-conformity study (Episode 130, where the book is named on-air as "Persuasion" — almost certainly this book, misremembered). Cited again in Episode 195 for the 1950s doomsday-cult study, used to illustrate how confirmation bias intensifies rather than weakens under high commitment (see Festinger Doomsday-Cult Confirmation Bias Study). Its expanded edition is cited again in Episode 199 for the declassified account of the Cuban Missile Crisis's actual resolution by secret compromise (see JFK Cuban Missile Crisis Reciprocity Case), the McDonald's balloon study, and the "much obliged"/"obrigado"/"sumasen" cross-cultural language evidence for reciprocity's universality.

Episode 207 is a full retrospective on whether the book's six 1984 principles remain relevant 40 years later, featuring Bas Wouters arguing they do (and, per a 2017 A/B-test meta-analysis, may be growing more powerful) — see Cialdini Principles A/B-Test Meta-Analysis (2017). Also cited there for the Amway "Bug" case (see Amway 'The Bug' Reciprocity Case).

Episode 137 treats the reciprocity chapter as the book's centrepiece and the first behavioural science Phill Agnew ever read — Philip Kunz's 200 Christmas cards from strangers, Dennis Regan tripling raffle sales with a free Coke, the waiter's mint raising tips 23%, the Dutch prepaid-survey study, and Alvin Gouldner's 1960s finding that reciprocity holds across cultures. See Reciprocity.

Episode 216 covers the latest edition's newly added seventh principle, unity — most of that episode's studies (the Facebook "I Voted" close-friend detail, Warren Buffett's shareholder letter, the WWII "we are all Asian" story, the Ohn and Basil 1994 donation study) are drawn directly from this edition's unity chapter, presented by Bas Wouters. See Unity (Cialdini's Seventh Principle).

Cited again in Episode 271 for the Purdue University book age-restriction reactance study (see Purdue University Book Age-Restriction Reactance Study).

Episode 277 draws on the 2021 expanded edition for the West cafeteria reactance/scarcity study, the two-cookie-jar demand-vs-mistake distinction, the Wilson 1968 Cambridge height-perception study, and a Polish reader's letter describing being persuaded by a sequence of reciprocity, commitment, and scarcity tactics at a tasting booth despite having just read the book (see West Cafeteria-Food Reactance/Scarcity Study (1975), Wirtsch Cookie Jar Scarcity Study, Wilson 1968 Cambridge Height-Perception Study, Poland Tasting-Booth Multi-Tactic Reader Letter).

Cited again in Episode 290, via Richard Wiseman, for a 1960s New York experiment in which prisoners given plastic surgery to correct facial disfigurements reoffended significantly less than a control group with uncorrected disfigurements (see Wiseman Criminal-Stereotype Jury-Bias Study).

Discussed in

  • Episode 207 — 207-is-the-godfather-of-influence-still-relevant (full retrospective on the book's continued relevance)
  • Episode 216 — 216-i-changed-one-sentence-and-got-20-more-views (unity, the newly added seventh principle)
  • Episode 228 — 228-99-9-of-ads-are-genuinely-awful-tom-goodwin (banner-ad repeated-exposure study)
  • Episode 7 — 7- How the UK government nudges British people
  • Episode 8 — 8- The power of scarcity and why less is more
  • Episode 12 — 12- The science behind influencer marketing
  • Episode 25 — 25- Coronavirus- The psychology behind panic buying
  • Episode 35 — 35- How to get your side hustle off the ground
  • Episode 130 — 130-why-working-at-a-large-organisation-will-kill-your-creativity
  • Episode 137 — 137-the-nudge-behind-this-200k-side-hustle
  • Episode 271 — 271-don-t-listen-to-this-podcast (Purdue book age-restriction study)
  • Episode 277 — 277-this-common-pricing-strategy-is-completely-wrong-robert-cialdini (West cafeteria study; cookie-jar demand/mistake distinction; Wilson height study; Poland reader-letter anecdote)
  • Episode 290 — 290-prof-wiseman-this-is-how-you-spot-a-liar (plastic-surgery prisoner recidivism case, via Richard Wiseman)

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