Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

These notes are old and were written while reading — they don’t necessarily reflect my current views.

There are 6 weapons of Influence:

Reciprocity, Commitment & Consistency, Social proof, Liking the Friendly Thief, Authority Directed Deference and Scarcity

Most of our behaviour are subconscious patterns that we repeat without thinking about them. This can be exploited.

He is close to Harari by pointing out, that reciprocity is a defining factor of human behaviour and probably our best competitive advantage.

For exploiting reciprocity, giving can lead to the other person wanting to give back. This also works for concessions, when giving someone the feeling of making a concession to them they will probably retaliate in kind.

Consistency can be exploited, by getting people to do something very small and then follow up with a larger request. The self-image of the person will have changed in your favour. Here is an other connection to Harari.