February 14, 2011
KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES:
Tapping our powers of persuasion: Robert Cialdini’s research harnesses social norms to help you save the world and find a job. (Michael Price, February 2011, Monitor)
Cialdini distilled his findings into six “weapons of influence,” each grounded in how we perceive ourselves or others:*
Reciprocity: We inherently want to return favors.
*Commitment and consistency: We strive to do and think what we profess to do and think.
*Social proof: We look to our peers for deciding what’s acceptable and desirable.
*Authority: If not our peers, then those in charge.
*Liking: We’re easily persuaded by those we feel good about.
*Scarcity: We desire what is rare.
In recent years, Cialdini has been leveraging those weapons to address major world problems such as climate change by persuading people to reduce energy use. For example, an ongoing project where an energy management company places monthly door-hangers on homeowners’ doors letting them know where they stand in energy usage in comparison to their neighbors has reduced energy usage by up to 3.5 percent. And in 2006, he found that when hotel guests were told that most of the other guests reused their towels (thus saving water and energy), people were 26 percent more likely to reuse their own towels than if you simply informed them of the environmental impact of washing guest towels daily.
Which is why no one minds being wrong as long as their peers share the same error, a phenomenon that pretty much defines the Internet.
