Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive
By Noah Goldstein, Steve J Martin, and Robert Cialdini
These results show that what most others are doing acts as a "magnetic middle," meaning that people who deviate from the average tend to be drawn to the average like metal filing to a magnet--they change their actions to be more in line with the norm regardless of whether they were previously behavior in a socially desirable or a socially undesirable way. -27
Giving children choices in what books they'd like to read or what dinner they'd like to eat can undoubtedly be beneficial, but too many choices might be overwhelming and ultimately demotivating. The old saying may well assert that variety is the spice of life, but as the scientific research demonstrates, in some circumstances, too much variety, like too much spice, can be the ingredient that spoils the dish and, as a result, spoils your efforts at persuasion. -34
For example, suppose you were part of organization that decided to pay for you to attend an educational conference taking place on a cruise shi, and that you wanted to stay in a room with a window. Rather than simply asking your manager his or her opinion about the window room, you can bookend that choice with two other possibilities--one that's not as nice (a windowless inside cabin) and one that's clearly better but may be viewed as too expensive (a room with a balcony.) -40
This research clearly shows the value of giving gifts that are significant, unexpected, and personalized. --55
This strategy, known as the labeling technique, involves assigning a trait, attitude, belief, or other label to a person, and then making a request of that person consistent with that label. -69
For instance, research one of us conducted with several colleagues showed that when teachers tell children that they seem like the kind of students who care about having good handwriting, the kids spent more of their free time practicing their handwriting--even when they thought no one was around to watch. -71
The lesson? Display your diplomas, certificates, and awards to those you want to persuade. You've earned those credentials, and, in turn, they'll help you earn your audience's trust. -97
Although many companies typically focus their training exclusively on the positive-in other words, on how to make good decisions- the results of this study suggest that a sizable portion of the training should be devoted to how others have made errors in the past and how those errors could have been (and can be) avoided. -108
In other words, be sure to follow your discussion of a drawback with a positive aspect that's related to, and that neutralizes, the drawback. In other words, when life gives us lemons, we should try to make lemonade, not apple juice. -118
[An example of the value of matching someone's language] To take one example, many food servers have found that they receive larger tips when they repeat their customers' orders back to them exactly as the customer verbalized it. -133
In fact, social psychologists Tanya Chartrand and John Bargh argue that matching the behavior of others creates feeling of liking and strengthens bonds between two people. In one experiment, the researchers set up a situation in which a research assistant either mirrored the posture and behavior of a subject. [. . . ]
The researchers found that the participants who had been mirrored liked the research assistant more and felt that the interaction was smoother than did participants whose behavior had not been mirrored. -134
With lead researcher Petia Petrova, one of us conducted a series of studies showing that encouraging customers to imagine themselves experiencing the delights of a restaurant or holiday destination only increases the desire to visit if it's easy to imagine doing so. -157
According to social scientists Adam Alter and Daniel Oppenheimer, people tend to have a greater affection for words and names that are easy to pronounce (that is, those that have a high degree of fluency) that those that are hard to pronounce. -159
[Could this principle apply to fluency in sentences?]
In a similar vein, researchers have found that the persuasiveness of a handwritten message is influenced by the quality of the handwriting: The worse the handwriting, the less persuasive the message will be. Readers mistakenly interpret the sense of difficulty they feel when they read a message with bad handwriting as a sense of difficulty believing the content of the message. -161
Additional research, by Oppenheimer has shown that using overly complex language like this can produce the exact opposite of the intended effect. Because the audience has difficulty interpreting the language, the message is deemed less convincing and the author is perceived to be less intelligent. -162
[Word Choice!]
The researchers found that even though all the participants in the study strongly held the belief that rhyming was in no way an indicator of accuracy, they nontheless perceived the statements that rhymed as more accurate than those that didn't.
The researchers explained that rhyming phrases are characterized by greater processing fluency: They're mentally processed more easily than nonrhyming phrases. Because peopel tend to base accuracy evaluations, at least party, on the perceived fluency of the incoming information, the rhyming statements are actually judged as more accurate. -165
Educators and parents can also benefit from such a strategy. Imagine taht you child is being particularly stubborn about doing his homework and you feel compelled to try incentives. If you decide to give him one full Saturday at the zoo for every six weekends in which he does his homework, you might find that he would be especially motivated to comply if you started him off with "credit" for one weekend before your little program officially begins. -172
Unexpected decriptive names, such as Kermit green, are effective because they act as a sort of puzzle to be solved, which typically leads people to consider more aspects of the products--particularly the positive ones. Although solving this little puzzle may not qualify consumers to join Mensa, it may create an "aha" moment that could lead them to associate positive emotions with the product. -175
Using a variety of names for jelly bean flavors and for swearer colors, Miller and Kahn confirmed that products with unexpected descriptive and ambiguous names were in fact regarded as more desirable thatn were those of hte other two category types. -175
Behavioral scientists Christopher Hsee and Yuval Rottensctreich have asserted that people's jusgment and decision-making abilities can be impaired by any emotionally charged issue., regardless of the positivity or negativity of the feelings it produces. They argue that emotions lead people to become less sensitive to differences in the magnitude of number, in other words, peopl are more lifely to pay attention to the simple presence or absence of an even as opposed to the specific numbers that characterize the event.
