Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive

Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin and Robert B. Cialdini

Retail Price: $25.00 LS Price: $17.00 You Save: $8.00 (32%) Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours Format: Hardcover, 272pp. ISBN: 9781416570967 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: June 10, 2008 Average Customer Review:

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Small changes can make a big difference in your powers of persuasion

What one word can you start using today to increase your persuasiveness by more than fifty percent?

Which item of stationery can dramatically increase people's responses to your requests?

How can you win over your rivals by inconveniencing them?

Why does knowing that so many dentists are named Dennis improve your persuasive prowess?

Every day we face the challenge of persuading others to do what we want. But what makes people say yes to our requests? Persuasion is not only an art, it is also a science, and researchers who study it have uncovered a series of hidden rules for moving people in your direction. Based on more than sixty years of research into the psychology of persuasion, Yes! reveals fifty simple but remarkably effective strategies that will make you much more persuasive at work and in your personal life, too.

Cowritten by the world's most quoted expert on influence, Professor Robert Cialdini, Yes! presents dozens of surprising discoveries from the science of persuasion in short, enjoyable, and insightful chapters that you can apply immediately to become a more effective persuader. Why did a sign pointing out the problem of vandalism in the Petrified Forest National Park actually increase the theft of pieces of petrified wood? Why did sales of jam multiply tenfold when consumers were offered many fewer flavors? Why did people prefer a Mercedes immediately after giving reasons why they prefer a BMW? What simple message on cards left in hotel rooms greatly increased the number of people who behaved in environmentally friendly ways?

Often counterintuitive, the findings presented in Yes! will steer you away from common pitfalls while empowering you with little known but proven wisdom.

Whether you are in advertising, marketing, management, on sales, or just curious about how to be more influential in everyday life, Yes! shows how making small, scientifically proven changes to your approach can have a dramatic effect on your persuasive powers.

"This easy-to-read summary of the social-psychological research on persuasion really does tell people how to get to 'yes.' Since we are all selling something, including ourselves, all the time, everyone can, and will be, reading this amazing book."

—Jeffrey Pfeffer, professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and author of What Were They Thinking? Unconventional Wisdom About Management

"Yes! is the single best introduction to and distillation of research and wisdom on how to change people's minds, including your own."

—Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business, University of Southern California, author of On Becoming a Leader and coauthor of Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls

"Yes! is the Freakonomics of social psychology. This book changed my way of looking at the world. This thinking is the real deal. Don't miss out!"

—Daniel Finkelstein, Comment Editor, The Times (London)

"If you had a team of bright guys looking for research that you can actually use to improve your effectiveness, and they wrote it up for you with wit and style, putting it in nifty little reports of three to five pages, would that be useful? YES! This book is the trifecta: first-rate research, lively writing, and practical advice. Read it, enjoy it, use it."

—Dale Dauten, nationally syndicated King Features columnist and author of The Gifted Boss

"Meld[s] social psychology, pop culture and field research to demonstrate how the subtle addition, subtraction or substitution of a word, phrase, symbol or gesture can significantly influence consumer behavior....illustrate[s] the simple and surprising approaches that can hone a company's marketing strategies."

—Publishers Weekly

Preface     xi Introduction     1 How can inconveniencing your audience increase your persuasiveness?     9 What shifts the bandwagon effect into another gear?     15 What common mistake causes messages to self-destruct?     19 When persuasion might backfire, how do you avoid the magnetic middle?     26 When does offering people more make them want less?     30 When does a bonus become an onus?     35 How can a new superior product mean more sales of an inferior one?     38 Does fear persuade or does it paralyze?     42 What can chess teach us about making persuasive moves?     45 Which office item can make your influence stick?     50 Why should restaurants ditch their baskets of mints?     53 What's the pull of having no strings attached?     56 Do favors behave like bread or like wine?     60 How can one small step help your influence take a giant leap?     64 How can you become a Jedi master of persuasion?     69 How can a simple question drastically increase support for you and your ideas?     72 What is the active ingredient in lasting commitments?     76 How can you fight consistency with consistency?     80 What persuasion tip canyou borrow from Benjamin Franklin?     83 When can asking for a little go a long way?     86 Start low or start high? Which will make people buy?     89 How can we show off what we know without being labeled a show-off?     93 What's the hidden danger of being the brightest person in the room?     98 Who is the better persuader? Devil's advocate or true dissenter?     102 When can the right way be the wrong way?     107 What's the best way to turn a weakness into a strength?     110 Which faults unlock people's vaults?     115 When is it right to admit that you were wrong?     119 How can similarities make a difference?     124 When is your name your game?     127 What tips should we take from those who get them?     133 What kind of smile can make the world smile back?     137 When is a loser a winner?     141 What can you gain from loss?     144 Which single word will strengthen your persuasion attempts?     150 When might asking for all the reasons be a mistake?     155 How can the simplicity of a name make it appear more valuable?     159 How can rhyme make your influence climb?     164 What can batting practice tell us about persuasion?      167 How can you get a head start in the quest for loyalty?     170 What can a box of crayons teach us about persuasion?     174 How can you package your message to ensure it keeps going, and going, and going?     177 What object can persuade people to reflect on their values?     183 Does being sad make your negotiations bad?     187 What can make people believe everything they read?     193 Are trimeth labs boosting your influence?     197 How can technology impede persuasive progress?     200 How do you get to yes in any language?     205 How can you avoid driving your cross-cultural influence into the rough?     209 When does letting the call go to voicemail cause a hang-up in your influence?     213 Epilogue     217 Feedback from Those Who've Used These Methods     221 Notes     233 Acknowledgments     247 Index     249

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion