Cialdini's Six Weapons Of Social Influence

The social psychology class I am currently enrolled provides me with inside knowledge on behaviors used by powerful figures and everyday people in society. These behaviors and learned skills persuade people’s decision radically influencing the outcome of situations. Robert B. Cialdini, author, public speaker, and Psychology Professor at Arizona State University, highlights the “six weapons of social influence” in his book Influence Science and Practice. The book is formatted to clearly explain each of the six weapons of social proof and provide many common examples on how these apply to everyday life. In this paper, I will go over the characteristics of Cialdini’s six weapons; rule of reciprocation, commitment and consistency, liking, authority,

Looking back on the first two weapons, liking feeds off of the rule of reciprocation and commitment. Liking is easily relatable to anyone on any level. People form relationships by doing favors and committing to certain beliefs. The desire to be liked and seen in positive outlook is essential to any person. Without the likeable characteristics someone would have no friends or others to talk and relate too. Cialdini narrowed down to three possible reasons on why people choose relationships; physical attractiveness, similarity, and compliments. It is interesting to think why people care about others physical attractiveness. It is believed when someone is more attractive people automatically associate other positive characteristics about them making them seem more desirable to know. Similarities play a huge role because people want to be around others with similar outlooks and beliefs. Compliments prompt any relationship, it is the first stepping stone to gain affection or acceptance. People love to be complimented because it makes them feel good, even when it comes across as insincere. This weapon is dangerous because people are prone to say yes more often to people they like or want to be liked by. People often feel obligated to agree to things because they want to be remained as likeable to their friends. If someone’s actions display undesirable traits people will show negative behaviors and ignore them. Today, being likeable in society is

This weapon is very dangerous by proving how obedient people are to people with higher knowledge. Growing up children are under constant authority of parents, teachers, and coaches. Kids are taught to listen and obey people of higher power and believe what they say to be true. Consequently, this allows people to make quick decisions based on other opinions due to authority status. Milgram’s famous experiment on the effects of authority are astonishing. The willingness of people to obey a person that looks of higher knowledge was frightening. Cialdini focuses on “blind obedience” explaining how we make decisions without thinking. He notes how people of special titles such as doctors and lawyers are seen as more trustworthy in public eye due to their knowledge and education. He also touches on the impact of attire and the believability one says. Authority can be dangerous by persuading people to make a decision based off what a “professional” backs. An example can be medical commercials such as toothpaste or weight loss ads. The commercial always states “doctor number one recommended” or something along those lines because initial people correlate doctor with good. Authority figures effect my life daily, between my parents and bosses. It is tough to go against authority because we were always taught to