76. Change My Mind: Using “Pre-suasion” to Influence Others
Jan 24, 2023
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Robert Cialdini, a psychology and marketing expert, discusses the power of pre-suasion in influencing others. He explains how priming and managing attention can impact behavior. The podcast explores studies on hotel towel reuse and the use of social norms and social proof to influence behavior. It also highlights the significance of word choice in persuasion.
Pre-suasion involves directing people's attention towards motivators before they encounter the message, influencing their reception of the message.
Establishing unity between the communicator and the audience increases collaboration and reduces resistance to influence, resulting in higher success rates.
Deep dives
The Distinction Between Persuasion and Pre-Suasion
Persuasion involves motivating people towards a specific action by incorporating factors like quality, price, or popularity in the message. Pre-Suasion, on the other hand, focuses on directing people's attention towards these motivators before they encounter the message. For example, a study with a furniture store found that exposing visitors to images of fluffy clouds or pennies prior to selecting sofas influenced their preference for either comfortable or inexpensive furniture.
The Role of Unity in Persuasion
The principle of unity states that people are more likely to say 'yes' if they perceive the communicator as someone who shares an important personal or social identity. This includes being a member of a group that the person identifies with. Research shows that simply adding the sentence 'I'm a student here too' to a donation request led to four and a half times more contributions. By establishing unity, resistance to influence decreases and collaboration between the communicator and the audience increases.
The Power of Language and Word Choice in Persuasion
Language and word choice play a crucial role in persuasion. For instance, using the term 'advice' instead of 'opinion' can significantly change the dynamics of a conversation. Asking for someone's advice positions them as a partner and collaborator rather than a critic. Research shows that this shift in language not only improves the evaluation of ideas but also elicits better input and feedback.
Want to change someone’s mind? First, explains Robert Cialdini, you have to change their framing.
For Cialdini, the Regent's Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University, persuasion begins before we even deliver our pitch or presentation. Through what he calls “Pre-suasion,” communicators can prime audiences to receive messages in a specific way, simply by drawing their attention in specific directions.
“It involves focusing people on—putting them in mind of—those motivators before they encounter [them] in the communicator’s message,” Cialdini says, “bringing people’s focus of attention onto something that is nested in the message…before that message is delivered, so they have been readied for the concept.”
In this episode, Matt Abrahams and Cialdini talk about the motivating power of FOMO, getting better advice from others, and how your next wine purchase could be influenced by what music is playing in the shop.