Product Description

"Influence", the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say "yes" - and how to apply these understandings. Dr. Robert Cialdini is the seminal expert in the rapidly expanding field of influence and persuasion. His thirty-five years of rigorous, evidence-based research along with a three-year program of study on what moves people to change behavior has resulted in this highly acclaimed book. You'll learn the six universal principles, how to use them to become a skilled persuader - and how to defend yourself against them. Perfect for people in all walks of life, the principles of "Influence" will move you toward profound personal change and act as a driving force for your success.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #450 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Synopsis
"Influence", the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say "yes" - and how to apply these understandings. Dr. Robert Cialdini is the seminal expert in the rapidly expanding field of influence and persuasion. His thirty-five years of rigorous, evidence-based research along with a three-year program of study on what moves people to change behavior has resulted in this highly acclaimed book. You'll learn the six universal principles, how to use them to become a skilled persuader - and how to defend yourself against them. Perfect for people in all walks of life, the principles of "Influence" will move you toward profound personal change and act as a driving force for your success.

About the Author
Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D. holds dual appointments at Arizona State University. He is a W. P. Carey Distinguished Professor of Marketing and Regents' Professor of Psychology, and has been named Distinguished Graduate Research Professor. Dr. Cialdini is also president of Influence At Work, an international training and consulting company based on his groundbreaking body of research on the ethical business applications of the science of influence.

Customer Reviews

Disappointing - over promises and under delivers
Well, let's start by an admission, I'm only 1/2 way through so far. I'm writing because I feel the book is underdelivering on its core promise - that of being a way to improve ones own ability to persuade.

I work in marketing and am always interested in new ways to increase the persuasiveness of what I do - both to persuade customers to buy more, but more importantly to be more persuasive with the internal stakeholders I need on my side in order to be able to do anything at all.

And this is where it falls flat. Yes, the book is well researched. And yes, it's useful to help yourself stop being a 'patsy' (Caldini describes himself as the ultimate mug who learned to recognise how he was being played by persuasive salesmen). However, the book has two main failings.

1) it's old, old, old. The examples used are from 30+ years ago. Read through examples of Encylcopedia salesmen going door to door and you'll think... "hmmm, how is this relevant in helping me sell in the C21st?"

2) it's highly general, and not applied. Caldini (so far) has set up 6 attributes of persuasiveness, which he's researched and can support with lots of interesting personal anecdotes. But the attributes are so general (likeability), and the anecdotes either so lab-based ("we put a likeable student in a room with other students...") or so shallow ("when a salesman smiles at you...") that you again can't take anything specific and useful away.

A pity. But I'd strongly suggest that this one is worth a visit to the library to read, but not the £5-£10 that it'll cost to buy.

It is a great book but not 100% what im after, reccomend it though..
This book is definetly worth gettin because it is an interesting read and the author clearly knows what he is talking about. What i like about the book is it is based on research and science, not half guesses and assumptions.

It does make you more aware of sales techniques and how to not fall victim to their techniques. I do think some chapters he tends to go on abit too much for the sake of making the chapter and book longer ( feels that way when you read it) because when you read the book you will find a summary at the end of each chapter which explains 40 pages worth on 1 page.

Though he does go deep into the principles and logic of the science of persuasion if you think that you will become a master persuader after reading this then you will be dissapointed. I have seen Derren Brown and other masters of NLP influence people ( with extraordinary skill ) into making decisions with indirect suggestions, clever word play and body lanuguage without them even realising and this is the type of persuasion that interests me and this book does not go into any of this really.

As i said some interesting facts and research and a good read but for the reason above is why i rated it 3 stars

Wonderful book
I read this book in less than 4 days.
I reckon this is a must read not just for Marketers but everyone involved in business.

I found the informal style really engaging but yet rigorous and supported by plenty of facts and research.
I have already started to spot at work some of the topics discussed and I am starting to use some of the tecniques.

I can only highly reccomend this enjoyable and interesting reading, especially if you liase with people in your daily job.