Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion

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I don't even recommend this as a historical example of how salespeople and other influence experts may have been taught; it's that bad. You'll learn the six universal principles, how to use them to become a skilled persuader—and how to defend yourself against them. This ‘shortcut’ of ours is exploited, almost everyday by people who are trying to sell us something.

Then they made those commitments even more public, which the American soldiers had to stand by to be consistent. For our convenience, our brain has evolved some fixed-action patterns, patterns that we follow almost blindly without any recourse to reason or logic.

Using memorable stories and relatable examples, Cialdini makes this crucially important subject surprisingly easy.

I read recently that if you trace the locations (by location-aware cell phones) of a small population in an American city over a 6-month period, on average, the movement collapses into standard predator patterns. A leader, instead of simply using a poll, should communicate to the team that each member's input will be a factor into the equation of a decision, although might not be the deciding factor. You could say that it is even better if the person fallaciously believes they do know themselves and are confident in that understanding, these are even more gullible than the naiveté. The author must have read about the device of repetition just before writing this book and used the book for practice.The main thing though is the fascinating concepts explained in the book with principles which I think will be very useful for me in my life. People like and believe in commitment because their image and reputation is on the line (ie the Chinese concentration camp example above). Ethopia had been reciprocating for the diplomatic support Mexico provided when Italy invaded Ethopia in 1937.

It's hard not to dislike this guy just for his inane bio on the back cover as it is vomit-inducingly cutesy. Example: cults, where people who convince or convert others become more convinced (that’s why so many are evangelical).This is a top-notch book on psychology, and seems quite comprehensive on the subject of how we are persuaded to do things. If you're pretty self aware or have contemplated how difference in you behavior can affect that of others then you're going to just find most of the things in these books to be obvious. Another important technique is to first obtain a small commitment, followed by ever-increasing commitments.