How to influence other people to follow your wants

There is a strong but sad parallel in the human jungle. We too have

exploiters who mimic trigger features for our own brand of automatic

responding. Unlike the mostly instinctive response sequences of non

humans, our automatic tapes usually develop from psychological

principles or stereotypes we have learned to accept. Although they vary

in their force, some of these principles possess a tremendous ability to

direct human action. We have been subjected to them from such an

early point in our lives, and they have moved us about so pervasively

since then, that you and I rarely perceive their power. In the eyes of

others, though, each such principle is a detectable and ready weapon—a

weapon of automatic influence.

There is a group of people who know very well where the weapons

of automatic influence lie and who employ them regularly and expertly

to get what they want. They go from social encounter to social encounter

requesting others to comply with their wishes; their frequency of success

is dazzling. The secret of their effectiveness lies in the way they structure

their requests, the way they arm themselves with one or another of the

weapons of influence that exist within the social environment. To do

this may take no more than one correctly chosen word that engages a

strong psychological principle and sets an automatic behavior tape

rolling within us. And trust the human exploiters to learn quickly exactly

how to profit from our tendency to respond mechanically according to

these principles.

Remember my friend the jewelry-store owner? Although she benefited

by accident the first time, it did not take her long to begin exploiting

the “expensive = good” stereotype regularly and intentionally. Now,

during the tourist season, she first tries to speed the sale of an item that

has been difficult to move by increasing its price substantially. She

claims that this is marvelously cost-effective. When it works on the

unsuspecting vacationers—as it frequently does—it results in an

enormous profit margin. And even when it is not initially successful,

she can mark the article “Reduced from _____” and sell it at its original

price while still taking advantage of the “expensive = good” reaction

to the inflated figure.