1st Edition
100 Effective Techniques of Social Influence When and Why People Comply
100 Effective Techniques of Social Influence provides a revolutionary look into the effectiveness of many techniques of social influence, providing an overview of the ways in which people use techniques to persuade others to meet various requests, suggestions, and commands.
For each technique, the authors explore the idea behind it, what empirical research says about it, and what the psychological mechanism behind its effectiveness is, aka, why it works. The techniques included span across multiple areas in people’s everyday lives, ranging from business negotiations, managements, marketing, and close relationships, to people’s behavior in public as well as in their private sphere. Covering research from the 1970s to the present day, the book describes techniques of social influence with the purpose of provoking certain behaviors, such as convincing an individual to donate to a charity or purchase a certain product. By exclusively focusing on techniques influencing human behaviors, rather than beliefs, biases, or emotions, the authors show how humans can be reliably convinced to behave in a certain way in a huge range of situations and contexts. Rather than being based on anecdotal evidence or legends of famous people, the authors have only included techniques that have been proven to be effective through scientific research.
With each technique described in an engaging manner, this is ideal reading for students and academics in fields such as social psychology, leadership, marketing, sociology, management, and communication. It will also appeal to professionals who need to influence others, and any readers who desire a better and more contemporary understanding of how people interact and influence others on a daily basis.
Introduction
1. Sequential techniques
2. Emotions
3. Framing
4. Agency and freedom
5. Time and space
6. Self and social self
7. Wording the request
8. Miscellaneous
Concluding remarks
Biography
Dariusz Dolinski is a Professor at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Wroclaw Faculty in Poland, and editor of the Polish Psychological Bulletin. He was formerly the president of the Polish Association of Social Psychology and president of the Committee for Psychology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is the author of Techniques of Social Influence (Routledge, 2016) and (with T. Grzyb) The Social Psychology of Obedience Towards Authority (Routledge, 2020) and The Field Study in Social Psychology (Routledge 2022).
Tomasz Grzyb is a Professor at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Wroclaw Faculty in Poland and President of the Polish Social Psychological Society. His main area of interest is social influence and manipulation techniques. He is also a supporter of courses concerning the basics of social influence studies organized for military officers engaged in PSYOPS. He has published a number of articles about marketing, social psychology, advertising, and education.
"Never before have I seen a book covering this many techniques of social influence. The authors are the highest authorities currently researching in this area, so if they tell you a technique works, you can trust them. But just in case you are reluctant to take their word for it, each technique's summary includes an easy to understand description of the research that demonstrates the technique's effectiveness."
Professor Christopher J. Carpenter, Western Illinois University
"Dariusz Dolinski and Tomasz Grzyb have produced an exceptionally readable and very entertaining survey of many—yes, 100!—social influence techniques. Each is described with an illustrative narrative, an account of one experiment that shows the technique can be effective, and a brief discussion of the underlying mechanism. Readers wanting an engaging introduction to the variety of available social influence techniques need not look further."
Professor Daniel J. O'Keefe, Northwestern University"Dolinski and Grzyb have done us all a great favor with this book. Not only have they described 100 effective influence practices, they have also reported on the psychological mechanisms that make the practices work. I can’t imagine a more useful book for anyone looking to build persuasive success."
Professor Robert Cialdini, Arizona State University
