1. 6 Principles of Social Influence:
1. Norm of Reciprocity
2. Commitment & Consistency
3. Social Validation
4. Liking
5. Scarcity
6. Authority

2. 1) Norm of Reciprocity Pay every debt, as if God wrote the bill.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. 1) Norm of Reciprocity

4. Reciprocity Beware free gifts Offer small gift, then make request
Take advantage of “norm of reciprocity”

5. Reciprocity: Door-in-the-face technique

6. Reciprocity: Door-in-the-face technique
Begin with a very large request (which will be refused), then make a smaller request
Smaller request is what you want in the first place
Why?
Norm of reciprocity
When one person makes a concession, other feels obligated to reciprocate

7. Reciprocity: Door-in-the-face technique
EXAMPLE: Cialdini (1975)
First (large) request:
Counsel delinquent boys, 2hrs/wk/2yrs
Second (smaller) request:
Take delinquent boys to zoo?
Experimental group
Large then smaller
Control group
Smaller request only

8. Reciprocity That’s-not-all technique

9. Reciprocity That’s-not-all technique
Begin with high-priced product, then improve the deal
EXAMPLE: Burger (1986)
Bake sale
Control group:
Cupcake & 2 cookies = $.75
Experimental group:
Cupcake = $.75
Oh, we’ll throw in 2 cookies
Results:
Control: 40% purchased
Experimental: 73% purchased

10. 2)Commitment and Consistency
It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.
Leonardo Da Vinci

11. Commitment and Consistency
TACTIC
FIRST STEP
SECOND STEP
Foot-in-the-Door
Low-Ball

12. Gain Target’s Compliance With a Small Request
TACTIC
FIRST STEP
SECOND STEP
Gain Target’s Compliance With a Small Request
Foot-in-the-Door
Foot-in-the-Door
Example:
“Would you sign a petition to help feed starving children?”

13. Gain Target’s Compliance With a Small Request
TACTIC
FIRST STEP
SECOND STEP
Gain Target’s Compliance With a Small Request
Make a Related, Larger Request
Foot-in-the-Door
Foot-in-the-Door
Would you sign a petition to help feed starving children?
“Would you work for 2 weeks in the local soup kitchen?”

14. Commitment and Consistency: Foot-in-the-Door
EXAMPLE: Freedman & Fraser (1966)
Went door to door
First request: Sign petition
Second request: Huge, ugly sign on lawn
Experimental group: small then large
Control group: large only

15. Commitment and Consistency: Foot-in-the-Door
EXAMPLE: Freedman & Fraser (1966)
Telephoned homemakers
First request: Questions about household products
Second request: Team of men to inventory house?
Experimental group: Small then large
Control group: Large request only

16. Get an Agreement to a Specific Arrangement
TACTIC
FIRST STEP
SECOND STEP
Get an Agreement to a Specific Arrangement
Low-Ball
Low-Ball
Get the Customer to Agree to Buy a New Car for $15,000

17. Get an Agreement to a Specific Arrangement
TACTIC
FIRST STEP
SECOND STEP
SECOND STEP
Get an Agreement to a Specific Arrangement
Change The Terms of The Arrangement
Low-Ball
Low-Ball
Get Customer to Agree to Buy a New Car for $15,000
“Oh, you wanted tires and seats? Then that’ll be $15,999.”

18. Commitment and Consistency: Low-Ball Technique
EXAMPLE: Cialdini (1978)
Initial request
Participate in experiment on cognitive processes?
Additional hidden costs:
Start at 7:00am, will you still come?
Experimental group:
Initial agreement + full cost
Control group:
Full cost right up front

19. 3) Social Validation Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.
Walter Lippmann

20. Social Validation

21. Social Validation
An interpersonal way of locating & confirming “correct choices”
People look to similar others to decide what to do
The more people who perform the behavior, the more convincing
Most influential under two conditions:
Uncertainty
Similarity

22. Social Validation National Public Radio fund drives
“Salting" the tip jar
Amazon.com shows you list of books others with similar interests have purchased
Canned laughter

23. Social Validation Example: Nosanchuk & Lightstone (1974)
Is canned laughter effective?
Procedure:
Ss rated 10 jokes with laugh track and without laugh track
DV:
Private judgments and amount of laughing
Results:
Laugh tracks make people laugh longer, more frequently, and rate material as funnier
Canned laughter most effective for poor jokes

24. Social Validation and Suicide

25. 4) Liking
The main work of a trial attorney is to make a jury like his client.
Clarence Darrow

26. Liking: The Tupperware Party

27. Liking: Attractiveness
Physical beauty engenders a halo effect
to favorable impressions of other traits such as talent, kindness, and intelligence
Study of the 1974 elections in Canada:
Attractive candidates received more than 2.5 times the votes of unattractive candidates.
Simulated employment interview
Good grooming of applicants accounted for more favorable decisions than job qualifications
Good looking people likely to receive highly favorable treatment in the legal system.
Handsome men received lighter sentences
Attractive defendants 2x as likely to avoid jail than unattractive people

28. Liking: Similarity Example: Emswiller, Deaux, and Willits (1971)
Experimenters donned hippie or strait attire
Asked hippie or strait college students for a dime to make a phone call.
Results
When dressed the same:
Request was granted 2/3 of the time
When dressed dissimilarly:
They gave the dime less than 50% of the time.

29. Liking: Familiarity
In elections people often just choose voters because the name looks familiar.
Try this:
Get a true and reverse image of yourself.
Show it to yourself and your friends
Gauge which picture you prefer
Mita, Dermer, & Knight (1977)
The human face isn’t perfectly symmetrical
People prefer the way they look in the mirror, but their friends prefer their actual appearance

30. Liking: Compliments Flattery gets you everywhere…
Example: Drachman, deCarufel, & Insko (1978)
Ss (men) receive comments from someone who needed something
3 conditions: positive comments, negative comments, or both
People who gave only positive comments were liked the best
Even when the Ss knew that the flattery was motivated to gain something
Even when the flattery untrue

31. Liking: Association

32. 5) Scarcity
The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.
G.K. Chesterton

33. Scarcity

34. Scarcity Scarcity principle
Opportunities seem more valuable when they are scarce
Scarcity increases appeal!
Why?
Freedom of choice--don’t want choices taken away
Scarce= valuable, popular
*****************
Consumer Beware!!

35. Scarcity Example: West (1975) Procedures:
Ss completed a survey, giving a rating of their cafeteria food.
9 days later they randomly received 1 of 3 communications:
(a) elimination- eliminating their cafeteria use for 2 weeks due to fire
(b) control- eliminating carbonated beverages;
(c) control- announcing a movie presentation.
DV: New ratings of cafeteria food
Results:
Although most rated food low, only the elimination condition showed a more positive rating of food

36. Scarcity: Limited Time

37. Scarcity: Limited Supply

38. 6) Authority
Follow an expert.
Virgil

39. Authority

40. Authority: Milgram’s Experiment

41. Authority

42. Authority: Symbols

43. Symbols Clothing Example: Brickman (1974) Titles
Stopped people on the street and asked them to comply with a small request
 IV:
Dressed either in street clothes or dressed as a security guard
 Results:
Many more people obeyed the man in the guard costume
Titles
Example: Hofling et al. (1966)
Nurses were called, caller claimed to be a doctor, instructed nurse to administer a drug to a patient
Nurses should not have obeyed:
1—phone prescriptions not allowed
2—medication was unauthorized
3—prescribed dosage was too high
4—nurse didn’t know the "doctor“
 Results:
95% of the nurses complied