Rating: 
Summary: Best of a good class
Review: You can not judge a book by it's cover and it's a good thing because the cover isn't that impressive. Everything beyond the cover is quite useful.I work in a win/lose profession. Someone has to. Every immediately applicable tool makes the difference between winning and losing and The Psychology of Persuasion offers many tools that other books about influence don't. Some of this book is clearly geared to the salesperson, which is fine, but the more general writing is quite useful for just about anyone. We've tested a lot of the claims that some of the "power words" are truly influential and it turns out to differing degrees that they really do play a role in winning and losing. The hypnotic language patterns weren't quite as useful but offered something for salespeople who are in more of a win/win game. The nonverbal communication sections provided some excellent introductory material and have definitely impacted my practice in and out of court. The information offered about proxemics has been quite helpful in getting people to respond in the way I need them to. In addition the rapport buiding tools have been remarkably helpful. I particularly liked the final few chapters that integrate some NLP/Hypnosis techniques into more traditional social psych theory. Overall The Psychology of Persuasion is probably required reading for salespeople, entrepreneur's, anyone who needs to gain compliance and yes, the trial attorney. The book is completementary to Aronson's excellent book, "The Social Animal" and Dillard's text, "The Persuasion Handbook." The one difference is that this book is remarkably well organized for a book that takes pride in the number of techniques it offers.
Rating: 
Summary: Concrete, usable information
Review: A solid volume of information from Hogan. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because I kept wanting Hogan's opinion on the current world events, as opposed to the events of the Clinton/Gore era. But everything applies beautifully to the world as a larger arena, all the way down to the one-on-one sit down negotiation. Hogan's Laws of Persuasion are right on, and he doesn't just flaunt them in front of you, he gets down to the nitty gritty details, even giving examples of what exactly to say at times. Thanks, some of those exact phrases have made my pocketbook thicker! Excellent information, excellent advice (for those who follow it).
Rating:
Summary: Psychology of Persuasion better than the Field
Review: I saw the author at a seminar about selling skills at our company last week. So I decided to read The Psychology of Persuasion. I wish I had read the book first. I've read a lot of books about influence and selling. Hopkins, Ziglar, Childini, Tracy, Aronson. This one isn't better than all the rest in all respects but it is probably the best of the field overall. Here's what I liked about the book:
1) It is organized better than any book on persuasion. You can follow the process of influence step by step. I've never seen anyone do that before. 2) The material in the book is collected from the authors personal experience as a salesperson and a cluster of scientific studies. 3) The author directs you to other sources that are credible and useful. 4) You learn about body language and proxemics which was really helpful. I learned so much in this chapter. My only gripe is I wish there was a lot more of this. 5) I've never seen any sales or influence book talk about gathering intelligence. This was an eye opener and something I frankly hadn't thought about. 6) I thought the Win/Win theme stressed throughout the book was very important as it keeps persuasion in the context of ethical influence. 7) I liked the appendixes about ethics and brainwashing. These could have been full chapters and I would have been even happier! This book really doesn't have any big flaws. I would have liked to have seen more on body language and more on the closing aspects of influence. Aside from that, this really is a great book. It helped put in perspective all the new material Dr. Hogan talked about at our company sales meeting.
Rating: 
Summary: Catch phrases and anecdotes in abundance, but not useful
Review: It appears to be that this book is nothing more than a collection of catch-phrases thrown together in a haphazard fashion interlaced with anecdotes. For example, Hogan mentions many times in his book that Saddam Hussein is a villain, who uses the same tricks in persuasion as other great leaders. However, his examples are direly lacking in both scientific validity as well as relevance to the theme of the book. Instead of informing the readers *why* Hussein hold power and is able to persuade followers, Hogan uses very bad metaphors, which do nothing but show his own lack of scientific knowledge. In the beginning of Chapter 4, Hogan describes Saddam Hussein as "using and manipulating laws of gravity and aerodynamics... In addition, Hogan's neat classification of everyone into various sub-categories is entirely too simplistic for the real world. In Chapter 6, he neatly files Americans into Belongers (37%), Emulators (20%), Achievers(18%), Societally Conscientious (22%), and Need Driven(3%). Well, I don't know about the other 200 million Americans, but I personally would like to think that being an "Achiever" doesn't disqualify me from being Societally Conscientious! Hogan vacillates between walking a scientific path and an empirical one. While to an uninformed reader this trick would elevate his status to sage-level, who is to be revered for both his practical experience as well as his broad and deep knowledge into the bio-physical reasonings for human behavior, to anyone with a basic knowledge in biology or psychology, Hogan is simply reciting the Psych 101 textbook, and adding in his own warped view of the sciences. On page 222, Hogan describes physiology as "our actual body position...and the movement of our eyes." I'll bet that if anyone tries to answer that on a pop-quiz to the question, "What is physiology?" they're guaranteed to fail the quiz. It is, at least for me, a truly disappointing book. My recommendation is to buy "The 48 Laws of Power" which focuses on an purely empirical approach.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books in its class
Review: The Psychology of Persuasion has to be the most practical, most useful, and the most ethical book on the topic I have yet seen. I have found the techniques in it to be truly excellent. The style is very readable and the ideas are easy to practice in everyday life. A must for everyone interested in the subject.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing,
Review: This is a very powerfull book on persuasion, Hogan does a amazing job with his work. I've read countless books on persuasion and negotiating none even come close, his style of writing is clear fun to read and extremely informative as well as very logical. Persuasion is a psychological understanding not just tactical menuvors and fast talking, although any book on techniques of selling or negotiating would complement this book very well. I recommend this before any other to better prepare yourself and give you a better understanding of persuasion.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Book with Powerful Tools and Strategies!
Review: I couldn't put this book down. Everyone in any business should have this book as a desk top reference! Kevin Hogan gives you an easy-to-read book so you understand the strategies and techniques that you can begin using immediately. Cody Horton - Author of "Consciously Creating Wealth" and "The High Magic of India"
Rating:
Summary: The Leader in the Field
Review: The Psychology of Persuasion hits on most but not all of the criteria for being what I would consider to be the leader in the field of persuasion. The book starts with a clear exposition about the importance of utilizing influence with integrity. Hogan is probably overly zealous in his repetition of "the win win philosophy." This could be a habit from his religious background or possibly a simple concern that people utilize the principles of the book ethically. His discussion of outcome based thinking which at least in part appears to be based on the Harvard Negotiation Model is his first glimmer of genius. It's rare to see any author present a process of thinking as clearly as his model of outcome based thinking is presented. What makes this work is the multiple examples of how to think in a negotiation. This is an area generally untouched by most authors, who like Hogan, focus on how to do, but not how to think. The next chapter glosses over an area which Cialdini addresses more articulately in "Influence." The laws of persuasion are an expansion on Cialdini's six principles of influence. Hogan's additions are valid and I suspect that in time when Cialdini updates his text, these additions will be seen there as well. This chapter works, just not as well as it's most profound influence. Persuasion Techniques (Ch. 4) appears to be some of Hogan's oldest material as the examples date all the way back to Iraqui SCUD missiles and the fears of same. This chapter works as the author shares well thought out techniques for asking questions and rapidly assessing values. Again, this is Hogan's niche, teaching specific patterns of thinking. Chapter Five is one that the author seems to be most comfortable with. The Impact of Nonverbal Communication is a treat. Hogan's new research blends well with the likes of Birdwhistell and Knapp. My only complaint is that he could have gone more in depth in this fascinating area. The acquisition of "intelligence" is something that is rarely discussed in persuasion/influence literature but Hogan misses an opportunity when he doesn't detail how to acquire high level intelligence with the world's big players like GE and Cisco. Instead he sticks with the small business owner and sales person as his examples. Here again, the book excels, but an opportunity missed is an opportunity missed. A couple of other chapters breeze by when you again find Hogan passionate about passion. Here Hogan scores big. Difficult concepts of motivational thinking processes are dealt with in some detail and they actually transfer to the reader. This was my favorite chapter in the text. Instant Rapport comes next and I found this chapter a bit on the manipulative side. His modeling processes are so chameleon like that you almost voyeuristically observe someone who loves to teach others to play inside other people's minds. The chapter works well but it certainly is intense. The first half of the book ends with a discussion about how to make effective sales presentations and close the sale. He was obviously trained in the J. Douglas Edwards/Zig Ziglar tradition and these chapters add nothing that isn't available elsewhere. The second half of the book is absolutely intriguing. The author's ability to synthesize NLP with current psychology is impressive. Complex ideas from NLP become easy to understand and seem to actually work in real life applications. I'd like to see more research in these areas...perhaps in a sequel??? His Master Persuader chapters seem to fit the bill as once again, Hogan excels at sharing effective thinking processes to succeed at human communication. He closes with discussions about ethics and brainwashing in two appendices which one wishes would have been chapters. Hogan never discloses his intense passion for ethics and brainwashing but clearly his arguments for ethics and understanding brainwashing by the masses are well formed and worthy of every school teaching. Overall this is an excellent book. It misses in the area of big business applications but succeeds at the highest level for the salesperson and entrepreneur. The pragmatic and humanistic philosophy mixes well with a dash of Christian/Jewish story telling. Five stars.
Rating:
Summary: Very good, but not original
Review: This book provides an excellent, readable overview of recent research on persuasion. Unfortunately, however, I had read several other books in this field and did not learn a single new thing from this one.
Rating:
Summary: Persuassive Techniques on Persuassion
Review: We all have the skill to convince someone of what we believe in.But we may appear very unpro in such - the audio gives you an insight as to how to approach with the fine skill on making one believe you. A masterpeice that will help in all walks of life.
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