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Summary: Phenomenal marketing book by - incredibly - a psychologist!!
Review: Srikumar S. Rao is Louis and Johanna Vorzimer Professor of Marketing at Long Island University.I have known about and used "Influence" for more than a decade. This new edition is the best yet and updated with recent references and examples. Can you be manipulated into taking actions against your intent, actions that might even be against your interest? Absolutely. Most consumers have a vague notion that this is true but they don't know why or how easily this manipulation can take place. Cialdini lays out the methods by which such "persuasion" happens with surgical precision. He describes the method, the reason why it works and gives dozens of examples from fields ranging from business to social interatcion. Take reciprocation, the instinctive reaction of "giving back". Cialdini shows that this instinct has tremendous societal benefit. It makes persons more likely to help others and creates a reserve of "available resources" that functions exactly like credit in an economy. One can even argue that this has helped make our economy so dynamic and society so prosperous. It can be - and is - used unscrupulously in fields as diverse as fund-raising and Ponzi schemes. Reading this book not only tells you how, it also arms you with the ability to resist when this technique is used against you. The same comments are true of the other techniques Cialdini describes: Commitment and consistency; Authority, Scarcity; Social proof and Liking. It is a scholarly book in the sense that Cialdini makes you aware of the research on which he bases his conclusions. There are also several pages of references if you care to delve deeper into the subject. But, unlike the vast majority of "scholarly" books, this one is eminently readable, useful to a vast general audience and actually makes sense. I am chary of recommending books unreservedly. I do recommend this one. I have used it as a required text in many courses at graduate and undergraduate levels. My students have invariably loved it and frequently classify it as the best marketing book they have come across. Its too bad that Cialdini hangs his hat in the psychology department. He belongs in business school.
Rating: 
Summary: Short but Good!
Review: The headline already sums up why you should read this book - it is very good in general - and why on the other hand it didn't get 5 stars - it is too short and often sadly superficial. But lets start from the top. With his very engaging writing style, the author seeks to establish that there are six little secret 'buttons' with which to influence other people: 1) Authority 2) Commitment 3) Liking 4) Social Proof 5) Scarcity 6) Reciprocation. Those six points correspond, according to the author, to underlying mechanisms, instincts so to speak, which make it very probable, that people will react in a preprogrammed way to certain situations.
This predetermining of responses of course makes a lot of sense in an evolutionary context; after all, we or our distant forbearers cannot afford to ponder every single decision endlessly, what makes following 'shortcuts' that consist of proven paths tried and tested over many generations quite useful.
In our modern day world though, while still in general helpful, we have to be careful to not follow our intuitive response non-thinking or we might be quite misled.
A straightforward example is that a scientific statement coming from a Prof. Dr. So-and-so is more likely to be taken serious than coming from someone without the academic credentials, whereby it doesn't matter if the subject is in any way connected to the 'authorities' field of expertise. Another everyday occurrence is that if we like someone, we are more inclined to help or follow that person, which can lead to quite silly
decisions as the one or the other might have experienced already. Not only does Cialdini outline these and more elaborate mechanisms, along with some tidbits of scientific research to the respective topics (one of the parts where one would have wished for more, especially the almost complete lack of references is quite an embarrassment), he also shows a considerable number of common schemes with which people around us, for the most part sales professionals, try to use our built-in responses to their advantage. Each chapter is topped off by some guidelines of how to detect such 'misuse' of our inborn reaction patterns. This is another part of the book I find a tad unsatisfying, since in the end all he says in those chapters can be summed up with 'Be careful, don't stop thinking for yourself, keep your eyes open, be aware of the methods of deceit you just learned.'
I do hesitate though to give the book a minus for this, since to be honest, I cannot come up with better advise myself, nor do I know of anyone who did. Overall, this book is highly recommendable, and if you do read it, I cannot imagine anyone being dissatisfied with it, apart of course, that it does treat its subject in such brevity.
If you have any further questions or comments regarding this review, feel free to contact me.
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Summary: Influence - is it useful for technical professionals?
Review: Many reviews have previously highlighted the value of this book in everyday life situations. I limit my comments to technical professional life.
I am a technical professional who has to work with practicioners of other technical disciplines. The reason I came across this book because I wanted to learn how I can influence other technical professionals to take my point of view into account in their work. After reading this book I recognize why some of my colleagues have much stronger influence than others. It is not because they are technically more competent or offer a better solution. They practise the influence techniques discussed in Cialdini's book.
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Summary: Great Balance of Theory and Practice
Review: Here's a recipe for an enjoyable and useful book. Begin with one respected professor of psychology from Arizona State University. Sweeten with Regents Chair and Distinguished Graduate Research Faculty distinction. Mix in comments from readers of previous editions ("we get mail"). Fold in pop psychology twist and plenty of examples. Season to taste with just enough irreverence to spice up the text. Bake with three previous editions, improving on each version. Absorb and chill for 262 pages and gain a deep, fun, yet realistic understanding of how humans influence each other. Marketers will benefit tremendously from this book. So will executives, managers, business owners, students, and everyone who has an interest in how we are influenced to make decisions. Those decisions may affect what we buy, where we work and live, and what relationships we have with others. The illustrations sprinkled throughout the volume offset the small print used to cram a tremendous amount of content into a book that is small enough not to be intimidating. No wonder over a quarter million copies have been sold. It's an Everyman's book on the topic, yet it's an academic treatise as well, with 16 pages of references preceding the index. Each chapter includes a summary and study questions-both on content and to stimulate critical thinking. All those features you'd want in a book like this are all there, waiting for you. Expect to curl up with this book, nod your head, laugh, shake your head, and wonder in amazement while gaining insight. Cialdini grabs your attention and won't let go. Expect to make notes, write in margins, underline or highlight, and repeat your reading. Readers of "Influence" will look differently at the world around them. Even if you merely scan through this book, you'll gain a new appreciation for advertising, group behavior, and even how you're treated by salespeople, co-workers, bosses, parents and friends. The conscious and unconscious heightened awareness will be well worth the time and money you invest in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Buyer Beware
Review: This is a fine book. So why the low rating, you ask. Like me, you may have read this same author's book entitled <Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion>. I bought this one expecting a different book. Not so. Pretty much the same stuff with a different title. So, if you've read one, don't mess with the other, is my advice. And if you've read neither, go the used book route and save yourself money.
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Summary: Fantastic Analysis of human psichology
Review: This is a fantastic book on how to understand human psichology.
Not only it is fun to read with a lot of cases and real-life examples, but it is also very well documented (references and bibliography) and based on hundreds of published scientific studies. If you want to know how "mechanically" we react to things without "thinking" about them; you want to understand why humans can only function in a hierarchical system (wether military, political or social system), then this book will bring you some insights about it.
You can see why Communism is not applicable to humans, why we are sold things we don't want to, why we react in a pre-determined way to basic situations (that override the reasoning and "thinking" processes).
All other reviews of this book talk about the ways you can use (or that someone can use in you) to force someone to buy things they don't want to. I think this book goes way beyond that... Psichology and Sociology students can get quite of good insights from this book also.
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Summary: PROTECT YOURSELF by reading this book!!!
Review: =====> This well-referenced book first published in 1985 and authored by Robert Cialdini, an experimental social psychologist, deals with the dynamics of interpersonal influence processes. Specifically, this book deals with the compliance of "automatic influence" which Cialdini defines by a question: "Just what are the factors [or principles] that cause one person to say yes [without thinking first] to another person?" The principles mentioned in the above question are the subject of this book and, in fact, this book is organized around them. There are six principles discussed. Cialdini calls these principles "weapons of influence." Each principle or "weapon" has a well written and thorough chapter devoted to it. Parts of these chapters are occasionally humerous. As well, each chapter has plenty of examples to illustrate each principle. However, just knowing these principles is not enough! You have to know the practical techniques or "compliance tactics" that are based on these principles in order to get the desired result of automatic compliance. This book is packed with these techniques as well as examples of how they're used. Why bother to learn these principles and techniques? Answer: to protect yourself. Protect yourself? From whom? To protect yourself from "compliance professionals" (for example, sales people, fund raisers, and advertisers) who utilize these principles and their associated tactics to help them get their own way. Where money is at stake, having them get their own way could be costly. Cialdini suggests ways of thinking to defend yourself against such people after you realize a specific technique is being used on you. Of course, the compliance pros aren't the only ones who know about and use these principles and tactics. We all use them and fall victim to them to some degree in our interaction with neighbors, friends, spouses, and so on. A handy feature of this book is the summary sections at the end of each chaper. These effectively highlight the main ideas in each chapter. After reading this book, you'll be able to answer questions such as these: (1) Imagine you're a lawyer representing someone who broke his leg in a store and is suing the store for $25,000.00 in damages. What would you do during the trial to make the jury see that this amount is reasonable, even a small, reward? (2) Why is the "free" sample really not so free? (3) What is there about written promises that make them so effective? (4) Which naturally occurring conditions of city life reduce the chances of bystander intervention in an emergency? (5) What is the evidence that we tend to say "yes" to similar others in an automatic fashion? (6) What is the relationship between size and status in our society? Why did this relationship develop in this way? (7) During one mid-1980's Christmas season the most sought after toy in the U.S. and Canada was the Cabbage Patch doll, which was said to be in very limited supply. Why were people reported to have spent as much as 35 times the regular price for this doll at public auctions to own a doll that cost much less at department stores? (8) How can each weapon of influence be used in an exploitive way and how can each be used in a non-exploitive way? In conclusion, don't be easy prey to compliance professionals! Learn about the principles or weapons of influence and their associated compliance tactics. Most importantly, learn the ways to defend yourself against such weapons and tactics. This book explains all this and more!! <=====>
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Summary: wonderful, one of the best books i've read on the subject
Review: Possibly one of the most informative and eye-opening books I've read in my life. Many people criticize psychology and say the studies only produce "obvious" results. I say it's "obvious" only because the studies have shown them - it's now become part of collective knowledge, ingrained into our psyches. In hindsight it's easy to say the results are obvious - not so easy before the study has been done. Psychological studies in the past century have shown many things that were not evident to intelligent people. A lot of studies that seem to be "obvious" at first sight actually do generate counterintuitive results that contradict common sense, and most people tend to overestimate their conscious powers of free will and underestimate the strength of "subconscious" factors like the ones described in this book, when considering their actions. Yes, psychology is a new field and there is a lot of bad science out there. But it is still a growing area of study and combined with neuroscience it will definitely uncover many more revelations about the human mind. If you want to live your life in the "best" possible way, you would do well to read this book to try and free yourself from the auto-pilot reactions that are governing your behavior. It might seem "right", but really you're just a slave to your impulses. Of course many people deny the influence of factors like looks/reciprocation/liking etc. but that just means they're more inclined to act on those principles - they just rationalize them away as something else. That's not necessarily a bad way to go, but you're only deluding yourself. Others, like me, are fully aware of these subconscious influences but act on them anyway because it's the most convenient way - it just "feels right". In the end the choice is yours - to try and base your actions on rational thought rather than passive emotion.
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Summary: A great book on a fantastic topic!
Review: Influence: Science and Practice, by Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D. has sold over a 250,000 copies in nine different languages. Does that make you stand up and take notice? Of course it does, it is called social proof. Well, count my review among the rest of the five-stars out there; this book is top notch. I hope that influences you to not only buy his book but devour the content. Reviewed by: James L. Clark, MBA, MSc., PhD Candidate (Leadership) is a serial entrepreneur, lecturer, and consultant in the areas of success, achievement, personal development, influence and leadership. He is the author of the book Wading Through the Crap: How to Start Living the Successful Life You Have Always Wanted (ISBN 0972697551), which as received rave reviews.
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Summary: Influence: Science and Practice, is a must read!
Review: Influence: Science and Practice, by Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D. has sold over a quarter million copies and has been published in nine different languages. Perhaps not surprising for a psychology book, but this is neither a dry college text nor a "pop" how-to book. Cialdini is a professor of psychology at Arizona State University. He has studied why we buy things, often without much thought, and has broken down our "short-cut" (read knee-jerk) actions into six categories: Reciprocation, Consistency, Social Proof, Liking, Authority and Scarcity. Reciprocation is the experience we have when a member of a religious sect hands us a flower in an airport and then asks for a donation. We don't really want to, but we feel a social obligation to reciprocate. Same thing happens whenever we get an unsolicited gift. Consistency is about behaving in a way that is congruent with the expectations of others. What those around us think is true of us is enormously important in determining what we ourselves think is true. Social Proof is the influence that peer groups have on us. Cialdini quotes Cavett Roberts's advice to sales trainees, "Since 95 percent of people are imitators and only five percent initiators, people are persuaded more by the actions of others than by any proof we can offer." Liking is demonstrated by several traits and behaviors, but the bottom line is this: people have to buy into you personally before they buy your product. People do business with people they like. Authority is the demonstrated influence of anyone who sets himself up as knowing more than we do or having greater experience. This can be an Army general or a crafty restaurant waiter or any other self-proclaimed authority figure. Scarcity is demonstrated by the greater desirability of the product when it is harder to get or more exclusive. As Cialdini says, "The joy is not in experiencing a scarce commodity but in possessing it. It is important that we do not confuse the two." Hence the scarcity tactics used by many sales people. Cialdini devotes a lot of space to explaining both how we can use these principles to influence others, and how, jujitsu style, we can defend ourselves against all this. I hope this influences you to read this amazing book.
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