Robert Cialdini, the author of Influence: Science and Practice, and the inspiration for this blog, wrote in his book about a woman who opened a jewelry store in Arizona.
It was the height of the tourist season, her store was unusually full of customers, and she’d got an allotment of good quality turquoise jewelry. No matter […]

• 2 Comments

Do you like stories? Do you ever find yourself listening, with rapt attention, to someone who can tell a great story?
Copywriters say you should “tell a story” when selling. Well, I’d go even further and say, tell a story whenever you want to influence and persuade.
Here’s a brilliant example of this, as an Ebay auction […]

• 13 Comments

The Internet never ceases to amaze me. It makes the concept of “six degrees of separation” (the idea that everybody is connected to everybody else by up to six connections”) sound as outdated as chastity belts. Thanks to blogging, in some cases people are now only one or two degrees away! Take a look…
On April […]

• 8 Comments

Over the past few weeks we’ve already seen many examples of social proof on this blog, but so far most of them have been about improving perception. Now let’s tackle a more direct question for marketers and bloggers: Can social proof be used to boost your sales?

The answer is a loud and bold YES. And […]

• 9 Comments

Have you ever decided against eating in a restaurant just because their parking lot was empty? Chances are, you’ve at least hesitated about going in. Have you ever been drawn to a club or bar, just because there was a large queue waiting to get in?
If either of these describes something you’ve experienced, then you’ve […]

• 6 Comments

Would you like to see some influence in action?
Over the coming weeks and months I’ll be interviewing people whom I consider to be masters at influence and persuasion in their particular fields of expertise, and I’ll be using some very dubious techniques learned from Japanese prisoner-of-war camps to extract their best-kept secrets just for readers […]

• 3 Comments

Women, which of the two guys in the picture do you find more attractive?
According to Ben Jones and his colleagues at the University Of Aberdeen in Scotland, you’re likely to find the guy on the left more attractive. Here’s why…
They showed pairs of male faces to 28 women, who were asked to rate their attractiveness. […]

• 10 Comments