Dr. Robert Ciadini’s book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion is an enjoyable read with colorful examples throughout.  The book focuses on six “Weapons of Influence.”

The first, Reciprocation, is about how people tend to return a favor. Ciadini uses examples of how people are more likely to buy after being given a free sample, and how you can identify these marketing techniques properly and say no to them.

The second weapon is Commitment and Consistency. It states that once a person is committed to an action or goal, either orally or in writing, that they are likely to follow through in their commitment even after enthusiasm wanes. Ciadini sites interesting examples of how prisoners of war were forced to write pro communist essays to attempt to make them more sympathetic to Communism. He states that written testaments are effective in bringing about genuine personal change because they can easily be make public.

The third weapon is Social Proof and it states people will do things that they see other people doing. Ciadini talks about how laugh tracks are inserted into sitcoms to encourage the audience and direct them to the points in the show they should laugh at. He also talks about how people are unlikely to help a stranger in distress unless they see other people helping. Ciadini then gives advice on how we can identify when social proof is incorrect.

The fourth Weapon of Influence is Authority. This focuses on how people tend to obey authority figures even if they are asked to perform objectionable tasks. Ciadini uses a great example of how an experiment was performed where a person was giving what they thought was a test subject electric shocks. More times than not the person administering the shocks would continue to do so at the orders of a lab coat wearing scientist even when the test subject was screaming in pain and begging them to stop.

The fifth weapon Ciadini cites is Liking aka tThe friendly thief. This section talks about how people are easily persuaded by other people that they like. He uses examples of viral marketing, the physical attractiveness of a sales person, and even Tupperware parties.

The sixth weapon is Scarcity. Ciadini talks about how saying products are available for a “limited time only” can increase desire and demand for that product.

By the end of the book I almost had the impression that Dr. Ciadini was in favor of using these “Weapons of Influence” which seemed more like “Weapons of Deception.” However, he goes full circle at the very end by stating that we are at war with profiteers who are exploiting these six weapons. In all, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion was very technical in its definitions, but very entertaining in it’s examples. A fun read with content everyone can relate to.

Reviewed by Mike Emrick