Dr. Robert Cialdini’s work in the marketing and communications community is influential, as well as remarkable. He goes over his six principles of persuasion– reciprocity, commitment (and consistency), social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity. He even introduces a new seventh principle, which has been consistently present in his findings: unity, the shared identity between the person being influenced, and the person who is trying to influence them.
Key Takeaways:
- The idea of reciprocity says that people by nature feel obliged to provide either discounts or concessions to others if they’ve received favors from those others.
- Once we have publicly committed to something or someone, we are much more likely to go through and deliver on that commitment…hence consistency.
- Unity principle moves beyond surface level similarities (which can still be influential, but under the Liking principle). Instead, he says, “It’s about shared identities.”
“A key characteristic of these categories is that their members tend to feel at one with, merged with, the others. They are the categories in which the conduct one member influences the self-esteem of other members.”
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