Rating: 
Summary: What side is this guy really on?
Review: I had always held Caldini's work in high regard. But this was before I understood that he means not to educate the public in order to empower them to withstand the techniques of advertisers, but rather to give advertisers, marketers, and other salespeople new weapons in their ongoing battle against human consciousness.From reading his first book on influence, I thought Cialdini believed that persuasion professionals posed a problem. I thought he was on the side of autonomous thinking by individuals, and hoping to persuade the persuasion professionals to cease their debilitating attacks on the public through advertising and public relations. This book, and his consulting practice, reveal that he is just another advertiser - just another person using the most advanced psychological techniques against human beings. His is an especially dark art, given how much America needs to wake up right now.
Rating: 
Summary: Influence: Science and Practice (4th Edition)
Review: I cite this book as often as I can! I am in grad. school and also teach at our local univerisity here in Tampa, Florida. This book so motivated me that it would be an honor to get my PHD at Arizona State under Dr. Cialidini. A must read for anyone in marketing, management, education,and business.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to read and eye opening
Review: I read the book on a recent business trip. Very easy to read and follow... and sure did open my eyes to some sales and marketing tactics currently deployed. Highly recommended to sales people who want another edge in on their potential customers.
Rating:
Summary: The Power of Persuasion and Manipulation
Review: Robert B. Cialdini concisely explores six strategies that persons with good and/or bad intentions can use in influencing others to do something or not to do it. These strategies are authority, commitment and consistency, liking, reciprocation, scarcity, and social proof. Cialdini convincingly demonstrates the power of each strategy with examples belonging to a wide range of disciplines. These stratagems often work because the target audience has been preprogrammed to react to specific situations in a certain way. Cialdini clearly explains which counter-strategies the target audience can use in defeating the six strategies mentioned above, whenever appropriate. To his credit, Cialdini refrains from using jargon that makes "Influence Science and Practice" a very enjoyable read that is easily accessible to a wide audience. As a side note, in "Simplicity Marketing", Steven M. Cristol and Peter Sealey explore the increasing need for shortcuts that businesses and consumers in the most developed economies have in making choices. Cristol and Sealey show with panache that marketers can use four strategies called the 4 R's -- Replace, Repackage, Reposition, and Replenish -- to simplify the life of businesses and consumers who are overwhelmed with choices in an increasing number of product categories.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best on this subject
Review: I've reviewed many books on influence and persuasion and this is one of the top books in the category. Easy to read, excellent writing style, it is a hard book to put down and begs you to read it slowly so that you don't miss something important. One of the fun things about reading it is when the author makes a point and you can look back and realize that you have dealt with someone who used just that technique to get you to buy that candy bar, car, or change your mind about something. Persuasive speaking is an important part of what I do and I am very successful at it. The ability to persuade others has been very hard to pass on to employees and other speakers who have asked me how I do it. This book allowed me to look at what I do and see how I can transfer that ability to others. It has also helped me see some of the tricks of persuasion that snare the unwary and how they are used by unscrupulous people.
Cialdini not only makes his case by carefully presenting the techniques and the experiments on which they are based, but also details how they are used and how you can use them. For each technique he also indicates how to know when it is being used against you and how to resist the influence.
A highly recommended book and one of the best on this subject, Cialdini's work is often quoted in other books on influence and persuasion.
Rating:
Summary: My best friends are attorneys . . .
Review: Last year, I asked a social psychologist to give me the name or names of books about influence and persuasion. Without hesitation, he recommended the book "Influence: Science and Practice." I bought the book, read it, and I am glad that I did. Cialdini's book is "user-friendly," informative, and to the point. I am a trial attorney and have since suggested the book to many of my close friends - most of whom are also trial attorneys. Right now, I am on a quest to learn all that I can about influence and persuasion. My clients depend on me and my ability to lay out the facts in a persuasive, simple and straightforward manner. Law school helped me learn the law (or at least where to go to find it), but it did little in the way of explaining how to go about arguing a client's cause in a compelling manner. Thankfully, we have Cialdini's book for that. Influence is great. After having read it, I better understand cases that I won, that is, why I won ... as well as re-examining those that I have lost and what I could have done differently. No doubt about it, I recommend this book. I only wished that I had read it years ago. Finally, I suggest that anyone interested in persuasion be sure to also order a copy of Gerry Spence's "How to Argue and Win Everytime." A wonderful book about relationships and how to get along with others, as well as argue - if necessary.
Rating:
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: influence people
Review: This is an easy to read book on how to influence people. When you are finished you should be able to avoid the standard salesman trick. It also helps if you have a boss like mine.
Rating:
Summary: A remarkable book
Review: This book is a classic in the field of marketing psychology. I first heard about it in workshops and discovered it was an outstanding, easy to read handbook on how to influence people; and conversely, how to avoid the standard salesman's traps. Beautifully written, a perennial classic.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, but watch out!
Review: First off this is a great book and is written in a very accessable style. Just be aware that this book is the same (although updated I think) as "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion". I got them both with "buy both and save" only to find that out when I started to read the second one.
| 
