Quotes About Influence

First, we seem to assume that if a lot of people are doing the same thing, they must know something we don't.

In general, when we are unsure of ourselves, when the situation is unclear or ambiguous, when uncertainty reigns, we are most likely to look to and accept the actions of others as correct.

Apparently we have such an automatically positive reaction to compliments that we can fall victim to someone who uses them in an obvious attempt to win our favor.

It is much more profitable for salespeople to present the expensive item first, not only because to fail to do so will lose the influence of the contrast principle; to fail to do so will also cause the principle to work actively against them. Presenting an inexpensive product first and following it with an expensive one will cause the expensive item to seem even more costly as a result—hardly a desirable consequence for most sales organizations.

a communicator who references a weakness early on is immediately seen as more honest

He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. —

Without question, when people are uncertain, they are more likely to use others' actions to decide how they themselves should act.

audiences have been successfully manipulated by those who use social evidence, even when that evidence has been openly falsified.

once we realize that obedience to authority is mostly rewarding, it is easy to allow ourselves the convenience of automatic obedience.

What we present first changes the way people experience what we present to them next.

We will use the actions of others to decide on proper behavior for ourselves, especially when we view those others as similar to ourselves.

The principle of social proof says so: The greater the number of people who find any idea correct, the more the idea will be correct.

Once again we can see that social proof is most powerful for those who feel unfamiliar or unsure in a specific situation and who, consequently, must look outside of themselves for evidence of how best to behave there.

The aim is to get someone to want to buy quickly, without thinking too much about it.

The drop from abundance to scarcity produced a decidedly more positive reaction to the cookies than did constant scarcity.

Once we have made a choice or taken a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment. Those pressures will cause us to respond in ways that justify our earlier decision.

Psychologists have long understood the power of the consistency principle to direct human action.

The second important thing to understand is that we, too, have our preprogrammed tapes; and, although they usually work to our advantage, the trigger features that activate them can be used to dupe us into playing them at the wrong times.

Social scientists have determined that we accept inner responsibility for a behavior when we think we have chosen to perform it in the absence of strong outside pressures. A

the main purpose of speech is to direct listeners' attention to a selected sector of reality. Once that is accomplished, the listeners' existing associations to the now-spotlighted sector will take over to determine the reaction. For

If a gift, favor, or service incorporates all three features of meaningfulness, unexpectedness, and customization, it can become a formidable source of change.

frequently the crowd is mistaken because they are not acting on the basis of any superior information but are reacting, themselves, to the principle of social proof.

The obligation to receive reduces our ability to choose whom we wish to be indebted to and puts that power in the hands of others.

tactic can be particularly successful when the audience is already aware of the weakness; thus, when a communicator mentions it, little additional damage is done, as no new information is added—except, crucially, that the communicator is an honest individual. Another enhancement occurs when the speaker uses a transitional word—such as however, or but, or yet—that channels the listeners' attention away from the weakness and onto a countervailing strength.