Influence People with Persuasion Psychology

Hello and welcome to this exciting course on the psychology of influence. In this quick overview, I'd like to introduce you to the class and give you an idea of what you'll learn and how I'll be presenting the information.

In this quick video, I want to show you the evidence that suggests that you're already more persuasive than you think you are.

Let's start by understanding the principle of reciprocity. In this lecture, I'll go over the norms of reciprocity and how they can be utilized for powerful influence. I'll show you some scientific evidence of its effectiveness and show you how to think about applying reciprocity to your own influence attempts.

Pre-giving is the most basic reciprocity technique, and it involves a very simple way of gaining compliance through this principle of influence.

Although definitely an influence tactic in the "reciprocity" family, the That's Not All technique takes a different approach to utilizing this principle.

It's not as violent as it sounds--I promise! In one last instance of reciprocity in action, the "door-in-the-face" technique takes yet another perspective on how to take advantage of reciprocity norms.

One more principle of influence is reasoning. Providing some justification for your request can make it seem more legitimate, thus prompting greater compliance. In this lecture, we'll explore why this works and when it's most likely to.

The "because" technique is a famous case of mindless compliance that capitalizes on the reasons principle. Most interestingly, providing any reason for your request (even a bad one!) can boost your influence.

In this lecture, we'll cover the basics of social validation, including its relationship with conformity and the way psychologists have understood its effects.

Applying social validation to the compelling influence is pretty straightforward. I'll give you some specific examples of how social proof can be used and why it's so effective.

The second principle of influence is consistency. In this lecture, you'll come to understand what consistency is all about and why it's so powerful.

Think "Door-in-the-Face"...but opposite! The foot-in-the-door technique is a genius application of consistency norms to maximize the chances that someone will agree to do something for you.

The low-ball technique is one more way of utilizing the consistency principle to maximize your influence. Using this technique involves being careful about how you present all of the necessary information.

Liking can be a powerful influence strategy. In this lecture, I'll show you exactly what I mean by "liking" and why it can be such an important tool of influence.

One especially useful tool for increasing your likability and aiding in your influence attempts is the similarity technique. I'll show you a few examples of this technique in action and show you how to think about applying this strategy yourself.

Yet another tool based in liking is the familiarity tactic. You'll see several examples of familiarity in action, and I'll also dispel some myths about what has to occur for someone to benefit from "familiarity" (spoiler alert: it doesn't take much!)

Yet another influence principle is that of scarcity. In this lecture, we'll review the nature of this influence principle and why it does what it does.

One application of scarcity that you've probably seen a million times is the limited number technique. In this lecture, though, we'll review a classic study from the science of influence to discover a few refinements of the basics of limited numbers.

Another scarcity tactic is to employ a deadline. You know this one well--or do you? It turns out that the deadline tactic isn't all it's cracked up to be, and I'll show you when this strategy can actually backfire.

In this lecture, we'll explore by people might resist influence. Once we can understand these barriers, we can come up with new techniques that get around those roadblocks.

A new and powerful technique is the but you are free technique. It's a unique way of getting around people's resistance. It might sound ironic, but giving people to say no can actually increase the chances they say yes.