Robert Cialdini

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Robert Cialdini
Born (1945-04-27) April 27, 1945 (age 78)
Alma mater University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (BS)
University of North Carolina (PhD)
Occupations

Robert Beno Cialdini (born April 27, 1945) is an American psychologist. He is the Regents' Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University and was a visiting professor of marketing, business and psychology at Stanford University. [1] [2]

Contents

Education

Cialdini received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee [3] in June 1967. He then went on to Graduate studies in Social Psychology at the University of North Carolina and earned his PhD in June 1970 and received postgraduate training in social psychology at Columbia University. He has held visiting scholar appointments at Ohio State University, the University of California, the Annenberg School of Communications, and the Graduate School of Business of Stanford University. Currently, Cialdini is Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University. [4]

Work

Cialdini wrote the 1984 book on persuasion and marketing, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. It was based on three "undercover" years applying for and training at used car dealerships, fund-raising organizations, and telemarketing firms to observe real-life situations of persuasion. He found that influence is based on six key principles: reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, authority, liking, scarcity. [5] In 2016 he proposed a seventh principle. He called it the unity principle. The more we identify ourselves with others, the more we are influenced by these others. [6]

The book has sold over five million copies and has been translated into 41 languages. [7] It has been listed on the New York Times Best Seller list and Fortune lists it in their "75 Smartest Business Books". [8] It is mentioned in 50 Psychology Classics. [9] [10]

One of Cialdini's other books, Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, was a New York Times Bestseller; and another of his books, The Small BIG: Small changes that spark a big influence, was a Times Book of the year. [11] In 2016, Cialdini published Pre-suasion, which became a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller. [12]

The Robert B. Cialdini prize from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology is named after him in honor of psychological research that demonstrates societal relevance using field methods. [13] He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in April 2019. [14]

Projects

Cialdini was hired alongside many other behavioral scientists for the Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2012. [15] He also advised in the early stages of the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, 2016. [16] [17]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

Behavior or behaviour is the range of actions and mannerisms made by individuals, organisms, systems or artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or organisms as well as the inanimate physical environment. It is the computed response of the system or organism to various stimuli or inputs, whether internal or external, conscious or subconscious, overt or covert, and voluntary or involuntary.

Brainwashing is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwashing is said to reduce its subject's ability to think critically or independently, to allow the introduction of new, unwanted thoughts and ideas into their minds, as well as to change their attitudes, values, and beliefs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Persuasion</span> Umbrella term of influence and mode of communication

Persuasion or persuasion arts is an umbrella term for influence. Persuasion can influence a person's beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, or behaviours.

Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the relationship between mental states and social situations, studying the social conditions under which thoughts, feelings, and behaviors occur, and how these variables influence social interactions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Media manipulation</span> Techniques in which partisans create an image that favours their interests

Media manipulation is a series of related techniques in which partisans create an image or argument that favors their particular interests. Such tactics may include the use of logical fallacies, manipulation, outright deception (disinformation), rhetorical and propaganda techniques, and often involve the suppression of information or points of view by crowding them out, by inducing other people or groups of people to stop listening to certain arguments, or by simply diverting attention elsewhere. In Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes, Jacques Ellul writes that public opinion can only express itself through channels which are provided by the mass media of communication – without which there could be no propaganda. It is used within public relations, propaganda, marketing, etc. While the objective for each context is quite different, the broad techniques are often similar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Zimbardo</span> American social psychologist (born 1933)

Philip George Zimbardo is an American psychologist and a professor emeritus at Stanford University. He became known for his 1971 Stanford prison experiment, which was later severely criticized for both ethical and scientific reasons. He has authored various introductory psychology textbooks for college students, and other notable works, including The Lucifer Effect, The Time Paradox, and The Time Cure. He is also the founder and president of the Heroic Imagination Project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Communication studies</span> Academic discipline

Communication studies or communication science is an academic discipline that deals with processes of human communication and behavior, patterns of communication in interpersonal relationships, social interactions and communication in different cultures. Communication is commonly defined as giving, receiving or exchanging ideas, information, signals or messages through appropriate media, enabling individuals or groups to persuade, to seek information, to give information or to express emotions effectively. Communication studies is a social science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge that encompasses a range of topics, from face-to-face conversation at a level of individual agency and interaction to social and cultural communication systems at a macro level.

Social influence comprises the ways in which individuals adjust their behavior to meet the demands of a social environment. It takes many forms and can be seen in conformity, socialization, peer pressure, obedience, leadership, persuasion, sales, and marketing. Typically social influence results from a specific action, command, or request, but people also alter their attitudes and behaviors in response to what they perceive others might do or think. In 1958, Harvard psychologist Herbert Kelman identified three broad varieties of social influence.

  1. Compliance is when people appear to agree with others but actually keep their dissenting opinions private.
  2. Identification is when people are influenced by someone who is liked and respected, such as a famous celebrity.
  3. Internalization is when people accept a belief or behavior and agree both publicly and privately.

Social proof is a psychological and social phenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others in choosing how to behave in a given situation. The term was coined by Robert Cialdini in his 1984 book Influence: Science and Practice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Automaticity</span> Ability to do things without occupying the mind with the low-level details required

Automaticity is the ability to do things without occupying the mind with the low-level details required, allowing it to become an automatic response pattern or habit. It is usually the result of learning, repetition, and practice. Examples of tasks carried out by 'muscle memory' often involve some degree of automaticity.

Influence: Science and Practice (ISBN 0-321-18895-0) is a psychology book examining the key ways people can be influenced by "Compliance Professionals". The book's author is Robert B. Cialdini, Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University. The key premise of the book is that in a complex world where people are overloaded with more information than they can deal with, people fall back on a decision making approach based on generalizations. These generalizations develop because they allow people to usually act in a correct manner with a limited amount of thought and time. However, they can be exploited and effectively turned into weapons by those who know them to influence others to act certain ways. A seventh lever on "unity" has been added to the most recent edition. To date, the book has sold over two million copies and been published in 25 different languages.

Influence or influencer may refer to:

The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) of persuasion is a dual process theory describing the change of attitudes. The ELM was developed by Richard E. Petty and John Cacioppo in 1980. The model aims to explain different ways of processing stimuli, why they are used, and their outcomes on attitude change. The ELM proposes two major routes to persuasion: the central route and the peripheral route.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Gifford (psychologist)</span>

Robert Gifford is professor of Psychology and Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria. His main research interests are environmental psychology, social psychology and personality psychology. He has worked on nonverbal behavior and on climate change behavior barriers. Gifford is the author of five editions of Environmental Psychology: Principles and Practice, which has also been translated into Japanese, and edited Research Methods for Environmental Psychology (2016). From 2004 to 2016, he was the editor in chief of the Journal of Environmental Psychology. Gifford is also on the editorial boards of Architectural Science Review and Applied Psychology. He has been president of the environmental divisions of the American Psychological Association, the International Association of Applied Psychology and the Canadian Psychological Association.

In negotiation, consistency, or the consistency principle, refers to a negotiator's strong psychological need to be consistent with prior acts and statements. The consistency principle states that people are motivated toward cognitive consistency and will change their attitudes, beliefs, perceptions and actions to achieve it. Robert Cialdini and his research team have conducted extensive research into what Cialdini refers to as the 'Consistency Principle of Persuasion'. Described in his book Influence Science and Practice, this principle states that people live up to what they have publicly said they will do and what they have written down. Cialdini encourages people to have others write down their commitments as a route to having others live up to their promises.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moral suasion</span>

Moral suasion is an appeal to morality, in order to influence or change behavior. A famous example is the attempt by William Lloyd Garrison and his American Anti-Slavery Society to end slavery in the United States by using moral suasion. In economics, moral suasion is more specifically defined as "the attempt to coerce private economic activity via governmental exhortation in directions not already defined or dictated by existing statute law." The "moral" aspect comes from the pressure for "moral responsibility" to operate in a way that is consistent with furthering the good of the economy. Moral suasion in this narrower sense is also sometimes known as jawboning. In rhetoric, moral suasion is closely aligned with Aristotle's concept of pathos, which is one of the three modes of persuasion and describes an appeal to the moral principles of the audience.

Douglas T. Kenrick is professor of psychology at Arizona State University. His research and writing integrate three scientific syntheses of the last few decades: evolutionary psychology, cognitive science, and dynamical systems theory. He is author of over 170 scientific articles, books, and book chapters, the majority applying evolutionary ideas to human cognition and behavior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Neuberg</span>

Steven L. Neuberg is an experimental social psychologist whose research has contributed to topics pertaining to person perception, impression formation, stereotyping, prejudice, self-fulfilling prophecies, stereotype threat, and prosocial behavior. His research can be broadly characterized as exploring the ways motives and goals shape social thought processes; extending this approach, his later work employs the adaptationist logic of evolutionary psychology to inform the study of social cognition and social behavior. Neuberg has published over sixty scholarly articles and chapters, and has co-authored a multi-edition social psychology textbook with his colleagues Douglas Kenrick and Robert Cialdini.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonah Berger</span> American marketer

Jonah Berger is a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, an author, and a viral marketer. He has published over 50 articles in academic journals and has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. More than a million copies of his books Contagious: Why Things Catch On, Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior, and The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone's Mind are in print in over 35 countries.

Elaine Hatfield is an American social psychologist. She has been credited, alongside Ellen S. Berscheid, as the pioneer of the scientific study of love. She is employed as a professor in the psychology department of the University of Hawaii.

References

  1. ↑ University, Arizona State. "ASU Staff Directory: Robert Cialdini". ASU.EDU. Retrieved June 29, 2015.
  2. ↑ University, Stanford. "ASU Staff Directory: Bob Cialdini". Stanford.EDU. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
  3. ↑ "Award Recipients | Alumni" . Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  4. ↑ Cialdini, Robert. "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). Robert Cialdini Bureau Friendly. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  5. ↑ Cialdini, Robert (2009). Influence: Science and Practice. Boston, MA: Pearson Education. ISBN   978-0-205-60999-4.
  6. ↑ Cialdini, R. B. (2016). Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN   978-1501109799.
  7. ↑ Josephson, Brady (April 22, 2015). "6 Principles of Influence You Can Use For Your Cause". Huffington Post. Retrieved June 29, 2015.
  8. ↑ Useem, Jerry (March 21, 2005). "The Smartest Books We Know – March 21, 2005". Money.cnn.com. Retrieved January 27, 2013.
  9. ↑ Schaefer, Mark (2012). Return On Influence. McGraw-Hill.
  10. ↑ Butler-Bowdon, Tom (2010). 50 Psychology Classics . Boston, MA: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. p.  62. ISBN   978-1-85788-386-2 . Retrieved June 29, 2015.
  11. ↑ The New York Times (4 October 2008). "New York Times Best Seller List October, 2008". The New York Times. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  12. ↑ "Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persu…". Goodreads. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
  13. ↑ "Cialdini Prize". SPSP.
  14. ↑ "2019 NAS Election". National Academy of Sciences. April 30, 2019.
  15. ↑ Carey, Benedict (November 12, 2012). "Academic 'Dream Team' Helped Obama's Effort". The New York Times.
  16. ↑ "How to persuade people (hint: not by telling them they're stupid)". the Guardian. March 9, 2018.
  17. ↑ Kellaway, Lucy (6 September 2016). "Persuasion tactics fit for a presidential campaign: Psychologist and business book author Robert Cialdini on how to sway people". FT.com. The Financial Times Ltd. Retrieved 15 October 2019. I rang Mr Cialdini to ask if he was helping Mrs Clinton, what he did in the moment before he replied struck me as unusually important. This amounted to a longish pause, and an intake of breath. Very slowly he said: 'It's my policy not to speak about any campaign that's ongoing. The emotions are too deep.'
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