The Six Weapons of Influencing, Research Paper Example

Influence

This is a research paper on the six weapons of influencing which have been interpreted from the book titled; Cialdini, Robert (2007). Influence: The psychology of persuasion. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.  The work of Bandura (2003), Carnahan (2007) and Slater et al. (2006) will be explored in reference to the weapons of influencing.

Automatic Behaviors

These are actions which individuals and organisms are conditioned to pursue. These types of behaviors may cause individuals to follow assumptions blindly as a result of the stimulus which is received. An example of stereotypical behaviors would be to witness someone with disheveled hair and disorganized clothing asking for money from strangers in public in order to purchase a cup of coffee. The strangers would respond favorably and supply this individual with money in order to purchase a cup of coffee due to the automatic behaviors which are associated with perceiving strangers with disheveled hair and disorganized clothing asking for money in public in order to buy a cup of coffee. If the same person were to wear a refined business suit and demonstrated organized attire, the same individuals who had given coins in order for the individual to procure a cup of coffee would respond differently. This is an example of automatic behaviors (Cialdini, 2007).

Reciprocity Principle

This is the behavior of returning a favor for a favor.  It causes individuals to respond kindly to those who have responded kindly (Cialdini, 2007).

Commitment Principle

The commitment principle causes us to react well with individuals with whom we are familiar. Examples may be neighbors, close associates and family members (Cialdini, 2007).

Social Proof Theory

The social proof theory demonstrates that individuals learn by imitating other individuals (Bandura, 2003; Cialdini, 2007).

Liking Principle

The liking principle causes individuals to react favorably to those who they perceive have good qualities that they would like to imitate. These qualities include charisma and physical appeal (Cialdini, 2007).

Authority Directed Theory

The authority directed principle is the principle which causes individuals to be deferent to those whom are in authority. The Stanford prison experiment and the experiments which were carried out by Milgram are excellent examples of what type of behaviors individuals will tolerate from those who are in authority (Carnahan & McFarland, 2007; Cialdini, 2007; Slater et al., 2006).

Scarcity Principle

The aspect of opportunity acquires greater value when there is limited availability of an item. The principle of scarcity is frequently applied in marketing when the potential buyers are informed that there are limited supplies of an item available (Cialdini, 2007).

Examples of Automatic Behaviors

On Thanksgivings Day, I had gone shopping with my family at the local mall. It is normal for the malls to be filled with people. This is attributed to the aspect that the day after Thanksgiving’s day is the busiest time of the year and the most marketed occasion for retailers. As I had emerged from the shopping center, I saw a man with a red suit and a beard ringing a bell. Automatically, my first reaction was to give the man some change for his collection. My reaction caused me to assume that the man who was ringing a bell with a red suit and a beard was with the Salvation Army and working for a charitable cause (Cialdini, 2007).

Another example of an automatic behavior which is based on the contrast principle is when I wanted to sell an automobile. I am a collector of what I call early American junk and frequently buy used automobiles at vehicle auctions. I would place an advertisement in the local newspaper and the curious would respond to my advertisements. I noticed that when I parked the car in my driveway with no other cars present that many of the buyers would look at the car, kick the tires ask me how much I wanted and walk away saying that my price had been too high (Cialdini, 2007).

What I endeavored to do one day is to park the car in my neighbor’s driveway and place the older car which I was selling next to a newer, shinier, late model automobile. When the potential buyers would come, they would look at the vehicle which was a later model which possessed a shinier finish and ask how much do I want for the shinier, newer car. I would pretend as if I were selling the newer car and give them an unreasonable price. The unreasonable price would scare some of the curious away. Others would look at the older vehicle and ask me how much I was willing to take for the older vehicle. This is an example of the contrast principle (Cialdini, 2007).

Example of the Social Proof Principle

I have a nephew who had an unreasonable friar of clowns when he was a child. After my nephew had been invited to a party which had been thrown by some friends where there had been clowns present, he started to cry uncontrollably. We took him home in order to avoid causing any further disturbance to the party. Over the course of the next few weeks, we showed my nephew videos of the party which he missed where the clowns were present. My nephew had the opportunity of seeing all of his friends playing with the clowns on the video which had been taken during the party.

After my nephew viewed the video several times, he came to the realization that clowns were fun and agreeable. Subsequently, my nephew asked to be taken to the circus in order to be around the clowns. When we arrived at the circus, we saw that his unreasonable fear of clowns had subsided. We had been able to take pictures of my nephew playing with the clown. This aspect of my nephew’s behavioral change after having perceived the other children having fun with the clowns is attributed to social learning theory (Bandura, 2003; Cialdini, 2007).

Example of Reciprocity Principle

I went to the local bus station. As I was walking, a nice lady told me about reincarnation and the immortality of the soul. We had a nice conversation and she gave me a copy of what she said was an old text called the Bhagavad – gita. The book was brand new. I appreciated the nice young woman having given me a book and I wanted to give her some money. She would not accept any money. I took the book home and placed it in my library. Nowadays, whenever I see someone who is dressed in the same manner as the young woman who had given me the book, I feel compelled to altruistically donate money to their cause. This aspect is associated with the reciprocity principle.

Example of the Commitment Principle

My neighbor’s son decided that he wanted to open a car wash service last summer. I usually subscribe to the monthly membership at the local car wash. My neighbor’s son asked if he could wash my car. My wife said that the car was clean. I consented to let my neighbor’s son wash the car because he told me that he was using the money derived from the washing of the cars in order to attend college that fall. This is an example of the commitment principle.

Example of the Liking Principle

One of my favorite late night television commercials is the Juiceman commercial. I had been watching Jay Schrader market his Juiceman machine for years. I finally decided that I had to have one. Why? This decision had been attributed to the aspect of having seen Jay Schrader on television for years and finding his characteristics of presentation, age and physical aspect to be appealing. Consequently, I bought a Juiceman machine which I almost never use. This behavior is attributed to the liking principle.

Example of the Authority Directed Theory

The pastor at my local church wanted to open a local Boy Scouts of America chapter.  My sister did not consent to letting my nephew subscribe to the local Boy Scouts chapter and participate with the other neighborhood boys on camping trips. She stated that she had been afraid for her son’s well-being in the woods. I had to remind my sister that the scoutmaster would be the local pastor. She accepted to consenting to my nephew’s participation in the local Boy Scouts chapterbecause the pastor had been acknowledged as a well-respected authority figure. This is an example of authority directed behavior (Carnahan & McFarland, 2007; Slater et al., 2006).

Example of the Scarcity Principle

The scarcity principle became apparent to me when I had been commuting on the local railroad line. A young man asked me if I had wanted to purchase the Wall Street Journal to read on my way home. The young man told me that this was a marketing experiment. I had never seen anyone marketing the Wall Street Journal to commuters in that manner. I took the young man’s advice and purchased the Wall Street Journal. As the train was departing, I saw the young man approaching a bundle of what had appeared to be one hundred Wall Street Journal newspapers. The aspect which caused me to buy the Wall Street Journal from the young man in order to read on my commute home was the scarcity principle.

Conclusion

Considering all of the weapons of influencing people, I believe that the social proof theorem is the most influential. This aspect can be attributed by Dr. Albert Bandura’s Bobo doll experiments. In the bobo doll experiments, a teacher and teaching assistant assaulted a bobo doll in the presence of kindergarten age children. The children were witness to this behavior and had been shown this behavior repetitively on video. When the children became isolated with the bobo doll, they imitated the behavior which they had witnessed. Consequently, in my opinion, this is the weapon of influencing which I perceive as being the most effective.

References

Bandura, A. (2003). Observational learning. Encyclopedia of Learning and Memory, 2: 482-484.

Carnahan, T. & McFarland, S. (2007). Revisiting the Stanford prison experiment: Could participant selection have led to the cruelty? Personality and Social Psychology   Bulletin, 33(5): 603- 614.

Cialdini, R. (2007). Influence: The psychology of persuasion. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.

Salter, M. Antley, A. Davison, A., Swapp, D., Guger, C. …& Sanchez- Vives, M. V. (2006). A virtual reprise of the Stanley Milgram obedience experiments. PloS One, 1(1): e39.