An interesting and thought-provoking article in the Times2 on Monday 5th November titled ‘The persuaders – How can I jump a queue? A new book on the secret psychology of persuasion has the answer – and Daniel Finkelstein is hooked.’
The article was so good that I really need to blog about it. Daniel explains how social psychology plays a pivotal role in our society and he goes on to use a Big Issue example. I quote “There I was, waiting for my wife to emerge from the exit with some shopping, and all the while watching a man selling copies of The Big Issue to people going into the shop’s entrance. Or at least, trying to sell copies. He wasn’t having much luck. People were sweeping past him.
Now the thing about the doors at M&S – as anyone who has popped in to spend almost £10 on some cherries, then come to their senses, will know – is that you can’t go out of the “in” doors. But then one lady shopper tried to do exactly that. And Big Issue man was kind enough to push the door open form his side.
At that moment I knew what would happen next. Absolutely knew it. And it did. The lady shopper bought a copy of The Big Issue.
I’m sure that she didn’t connect the door-opening and the mag-buying, but connected they were. For reciprocity – our almost automatic instinct to return even quite small favours – is one of the main forms of social influence identified by the leading social psychologist Robert Cialdini” and his colleagues Dr Noah Goldstein and Steve Martin in their new book entitled Yes.
This article got me thinking about how this could be applied to literally anything in our society. Think about it, people in everyday life's use this power to influence others, but for most of us, we don’t even realise we are doing it. Now flip the coin over… What a fantastic tool this is for persuasion and it can be applied to absolutely anything! Imagine if you, as an individual or as a company, knew exactly how, when and where to use it. I urge everyone connected in the advertising industry to purchase this book.
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