Cialdini on Influence

[via CapitalIdeasOnline and Yuvaraj] Robert Cialdini has a book on “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” which is a must-read. This interview from 1999 lays out his key ideas: “I really want to talk about a practice of influence. How it is that one person can arrange more successfully to get another person to say yes to a request. And I realize that the way to do that was to go beyond my university environment, where I currently work, and get into the world where the influence wars are being fought all around us, everyday. And it seemed to me that there were professions and practitioners within those professions whose business it is, after all, to get others to yes to them. Whose business, whose economic livelihood depends on the success of the strategies they use to influence others in their direction.” The six strategies discussed by Cialdini are: Scarcity, Likeability, Social Proof, Reciprocation, Authority, and Commitment and Consistency.