I’m about half-way through reading Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive
As you might gather, the book is about how to be persuasive. It’s not about being manipulative, or I wouldn’t be talking about it … I don’t like being manipulated, so I don’t believe in doing it to others. No doubt you feel the same way.
Rather, it’s about several of the principles that are involved in our decision-making process. A few of those principles are:
- Reciprocation: we feel obligated to return favors
- Social Proof: we look to others to guide our behavior
- Scarcity: the less available the resource, the more we want it
One of the interesting things about the principle of reciprocation is how our perception of value changes over time. For example, if you do me a favor, then at the time you do the favor, you perceive it to be of some value, say x, and I perceive it to be of some value, say y. As the time between you doing me a favor and my returning it increases, then you will perceive the value to be x + a. That is, your perception of favor’s value increases. But, my perception of the value would be y – b: my perception of the value decreases. Interesting, isn’t it?
Another example from the book is something we have talked about before: people don’t like to have too many choices. Seems counter-intuitive doesn’t it? But, take the example of a grocer trying to sell some jellies. If the grocer sets up a tasting-table with 25 flavors of jelly, the grocer will sell less jelly than one who sets up a tasting table with a half-dozen flavors of jelly.
That sort of stuff fascinates me.
Anyway, if you want to know more about what it takes to be persuasive, my view is that this is a good book for it.