How to Coach Yourself and Others Beware of Manipulation | Page 241

8. Biographical References
I want to finish this book with biographical articles about the three people that have most influenced
this work. In fact, many articles in this book are directly based on their writings, on public domain
articles published on the internet or taken from their publications on the internet (blogs).

8.1. Robert Cialdini - Biography from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dr. Robert B. Cialdini
Born (1945-04-27) April 27, 1945
Occupation Psychologist, Author
Robert B. Cialdini is Regents’ Professor Emeritus of
Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University.
He is best known for his book on persuasion and marketing,
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Influence has sold
over 2 million copies and has been translated into twenty-six
languages. It has been listed on the New York Times
Business Best Seller List. Fortune Magazine lists Influence
in their "75 Smartest Business Books."
Influence:
The Psychology of Persuasion (ISBN 0-688-12816-5) has
also been published as a textbook under the title Influence:
Science and Practice (ISBN 0-321-01147-3).
In writing the book, he spent three years going "undercover" applying for jobs and training at used car
dealerships, fund-raising organizations, and telemarketing firms to observe real-life situations of
persuasion. The book also reviews many of the most important theories and experiments in social
psychology.
Harvard Business Review lists Dr. Cialdini's research in "Breakthrough Ideas for Today's Business
Agenda".
The Psychology of Persuasion was included in 50 Psychology Classics (ISBN 978-1-85788-386-2) by
Tom Butler-Bowdon, alongside works by Adler, Freud, Jung, Pavlov and Piaget.
6 key principles of influence by Robert Cialdini
Reciprocity - People tend to return a favor, thus the pervasiveness of free samples in marketing. In his
conferences, he often uses the example of Ethiopia providing thousands of dollars in humanitarian aid
to Mexico just after the 1985 earthquake, despite Ethiopia suffering from a crippling famine and civil
war at the time. Ethiopia had been reciprocating for the diplomatic support Mexico provided when
Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935. The good cop/bad cop strategy is also based on this principle.
Commitment and Consistency - If people commit, orally or in writing, to an idea or goal, they are more
likely to honor that commitment because of establishing that idea or goal as being congruent with their
self-image. Even if the original incentive or motivation is removed after they have already agreed, they
will continue to honor the agreement. Cialdini notes Chinese brainwashing on American prisoners of
war to rewrite their self-image and gain automatic unenforced compliance. See cognitive dissonance.
Social Proof - People will do things that they see other people are doing. For example, in one
experiment, one or more confederates would look up into the sky; bystanders would then look up into

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