THE CUES OF LIFE
This is based on the work of a researcher who is vitally
concerned with persuasion in real life. His name is Robert Cialdini
and his ideas are extremely interesting to teachers and anyone else
who uses influence for a living.
As Cialdini describes in his very readable book, (See Below) he learned about
real life persuasion by living with professionals. He took part-time
jobs with sales groups that pushed vacuum cleaners or aluminum
siding or dance lessons. He hung out with cops who worked the bunco
squad. He worked with fund-raising groups and advertisers. And he
did this as a trainee, not as a scientist, so that the people felt
comfortable with him.
From his experiences, he derived six general Cues of influence.
These Cues appear to transcend occupation, region, personality, and
education. In other words, they work in many different situations.
These six Cuess also share another important similarity: They
operate as mental short cuts. That is, a person can use each rule
with very little thought. This is the heuristic mode as we learned
in the Dual Process Models.
This is a critical point about the Cues. They work best when the
receiver is not carefully, deeply, and systematically thinking. The
Cues apply only when the receiver is being the lazy thinker, the
cognitive miser who uses mental shortcuts to save time and effort.
As soon as the receiver changes the mode of thinking from heuristic
to systematic, the Cue evaporates.
For each Cue, I will give you a one word label, then a statement of
the Cue. By the way . . . can you figure out what CLARCCS is?
THE CLARCCS CUES
Comparison . When Others Are Doing It, You Should, Too. Few can
resist this. You are walking down the street and you notice ahead of
you three or four people just standing there on the street looking
straight up in the air. As you move closer to them, what do you do?
You look straight up in the air.
Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it's the Comparison Rule. When
others are doing it, you should, too.
When we are not thinking very carefully, we use the behavior of
other people as a guide to what we should think or do. We
essentially compare our behavior against the standard of what
everybody else is doing. If there is a discrepancy between our
actions and what we observe in others, we change. Here are more
examples of the Comparison Rule.
TV producers will add a laugh track to even the most witless
situation comedy as a way of inducing our laughter. And it works. If
there are two audiences watching the same comedy, but one comedy has
a laugh track added to it and the other doesn't, guess which
audience will laugh more? Right. The one with the laugh track.
I suspect TV producers learned this trick from the theater. In the
past (and it may still go on today) theatrical producers hired
professional audience members. These highly skilled people would
show up to a new play or musical or opera and provide the "proper"
response at the right time. They would start applauding when the
star entered or begin crying when the heroine died or erupt into
gales of laughter when the clowns walked on. This would elicit the
desired response from the audience who would automatically start
clapping or sobbing or giggling on this cue.
And even religious groups are aware of and use the Comparison Rule.
There is a practice known as "salting the collection plate." Before
the collection plates are handed out to the faithful, ushers will
throw several different bills or checks onto the plate. Thus, no one
ever gets an empty plate. This makes a considerable difference in
contributions. People are slow to fill up an empty collection plate
and a little salt gets things going. Also, the heavier the salt, the
stronger the contribution. That is, you get more contributions if
you salt the plate with tens and twenties than if you salt it with
ones and fives.
Liking . When You Like the Source, Do What Is Requested. Joe Gerard
sells cars and trucks. He sells a lot of them as a matter of fact.
Some consider him to be the Greatest Car Salesman in the World. What
is his secret?
Every month Joe Gerard sends a hand written card to every customer
he has ever had and signs it, "I like you, Joe Gerard." That's all.
"I like you, Joe Gerard."
Now, he does send out a lot of cards every month (13,000 he
estimates), but he swears by the tactic. Is such a simple thing as,
"I like you," sufficient for influence? Another example.
What happens at a Tupperware party? A group of people who know each
other come over to the house of a mutual friend. Everybody eats a
little. Everybody chats a bit. Everybody has a little fun. Then the
mutual friend steps up and introduces a new person. And the new
person breaks out the product, Tupperware.
Gee, isn't that new person friendly? Isn't that Tupperware grand?
Everybody smiles, everybody laughs, everybody buys something.
Of course, Tupperware is not the only product sold in this way. Mary
Kay Cosmetics has pushed a lot of powder with these kind of parties.
The important point is this: The basis of the sale is liking. The
receiver likes somebody involved in the transaction. Maybe you like
the sales person. Maybe you like the friend throwing the party.
Exactly who you like is less relevant than the fact that you like
somebody. (I'll also bet some Comparison is operating here, too. You
see other people buying things, so you buy too.)
Last example . . . physically attractive people are very influential
in our society, but the primary reason appears to be that we like
attractive people. (If you do an experiment where you have one
source who is attractive and likable, and another source who is
attractive and dislikable, only the likable source will be
influential. So, it appears that attractiveness operates through
liking. Now, back to the example.)
A researcher trained courtroom employees to rate the attractiveness
(and, indirectly, the likability) of people accused of crimes as
they came before a judge for the first time. The people were accused
of a wide variety of misdemeanor charges. The meeting with the judge
was to determine the amount of fines for the misdemeanors. The
courtroom employees were not involved in the arrest and were only
escorting the person.
What happened? Less attractive people received fines two to three
times larger than more attractive people. (Sometimes it is better to
look good than to be good, right?)
Authority . When the Source Is An Authority, You Can Believe It. I
am old enough to remember the TV series, "Marcus Welby, M.D." The
actor, Robert Young, portrayed a friendly, wise, and incredibly
available physician who never lost a patient except when it would
increase the show's Nielsen ratings.
Most interesting was the fact that Robert Young parlayed his fame as
Dr. Marcus Welby into a very productive sideline. He sold aspirin on
TV ads. And he sold aspirin, not as Robert Young, the actor, but as
Dr. Marcus Welby.
There were enough lazy thinkers out there that they did not realize
that the guy on the ad selling aspirin was merely an actor and not
the real thing. It didn't matter. Robert Young looked and acted like
an authority. And sales of his brand of aspirin increased.
Eventually the federal authorities got wise to this gimmick and
cracked down on it. It is now illegal to use an actor in this way.
So what have advertisers done? Their response and its impact is so
amazing to me that it stands as the best example of how lazy we can
be.
Here's the new trick. The advertisers will still use a popular actor
to sell their aspirin and stay legal with their ads. Here's what
happens. The famous TV doctor looks at the camera and says, "I'm no
doctor, but I play one on TV and here's the aspirin I recommend."
And sales of that aspirin increase.
The Authority Rule is quite powerful and useful. We will look at it
again in this book in other chapters.
Reciprocity . When Someone Gives You Something, You Should Give
Something Back.
You're walking down the street, minding your own business as a
stranger approaches in your direction. The stranger makes eye
contact with you, then smiles. If you are like most people, you will
automatically and thoughtlessly respond with a smile of your own as
you continue down the street.
The stranger give us something and we give back something in return.
A nice rule for meeting people, but what has it got to do with
influence?
Ever get free gifts in the mail along with a request for a magazine
subscription. "Here, keep this valuable prize," the letter goes, "as
a token of our esteem. And by the way, if you like magazines, how
about this one!" Time magazine used to send out a free pencil with
their subscription offers. The pencils were very small, very thin,
and very red. And you got to keep it even if you didn't subscribe to
the magazine, but what the heck, Time is a pretty good
magazine . . . and before you know it, bang, you've got a year's
subscription.
The rule is very simple. First, the source gives you something. Once
you accept it, you are now obligated to give something back. Note
that you are not given a reward, because rewards are given for
something that you have already done or will do. That first
something given by the source is yours without you doing anything in
the past or the future to earn it.
Reciprocity operates in many social relationships, especially with
visits and dinners. For example, a new couple moves into the
neighborhood. You invite them over for dinner. Now, the new couple
is obligated to give you a dinner in return even though you said
nothing about it. And if the new couple fails to reciprocate (they
don't invite you over) or fails to reciprocate in kind (you serve
steak, they serve hot dogs), you are angry. I know some people who
will refuse that first invitation because they do not want to get
trapped into the spiral of reciprocity.
Commitment/Consistency . When You Take A Stand, You Should Be
Consistent.
Earnest Salesperson: "Excuse me, but do you think that a good
education is important for your kids?"
You: "Yes, of course." ES: "And do you think that kids who do their
homework will get better grades."
You: "Yes, I'm sure of that." ES: "And reference books would help
kids do better on their homework, don't you think?"
You: "I'd have to say yes to that." ES: "Well, I sell reference
books. May I come in and help improve your child's educations?"
You: "Ahhh, wait a minute . . ." This is the famous "Four Walls"
sales technique. The salesperson asks four questions that in essence
wall in the receiver, literally forcing the conclusion that those
reference books must be purchased. The logical force comes from the
Commitment/Consistency Rule. When you take a stand on something, you
must be consistent with it. This can be a very powerful tactic and
the business world is filled with variations on it. I will show you
another one.
It is called, "bait and switch," and it is illegal in most states.
It works in two steps. First, some attractive offer is presented as
bait. The customer rises to the bait, demonstrating their interest
in the product. Second, the bait is taken away and a new product (of
lower value or higher cost) is presented. Many people will ruefully
take the second offer.
For example, you need a new stove and you notice an ad for a really
high quality stove at a very good price. I mean a very good price,
not impossibly low, but very good. You think to yourself, "Self, I'm
gonna buy a new stove." So you pack up the kids and zoom over to the
mall.
And when you get there, a friendly salesperson greets you with a
smile. "Ahh, you saw the ad . . . I guess you really want a new
stove don't you? Let's see if I can help you get what you need. I'll
go back and check on it for you."
You, of course, are out of your mind at the prospect of getting this
great stove at a great price. You even let the kids act wilder than
usual you are so excited yourself. But wait.
The salesperson returns with some bad news and some good news. The
bad news is that they just ran out of those advertised specials. The
good news is that they just happen to have a similar stove right
here that's yours for the taking and it only costs $100 more. Not
surprisingly, many people will buy the more expensive product, never
seeing the game.
The driving force is consistency. In these business games, the
customer commits to some initial position ("I want to spend money in
this store."), and the salesperson simply forces the customer to
maintain consistency with that initial position. This is an
extremely powerful and popular persuasion tactic and we will see its
application in other chapters.
Scarcity . When It Is Rare, It Is Good. I admit it. I am a closet
fan of the Home Shopper Networks. If you have never seen these
stations it could be that you do not have cable TV. All the station
does is sell retail merchandise over television. They will feature
some product for ten or fifteen minutes. If you like it, you call
their 800 number and place an order which is mailed to you the same
day.
There are several different Home Shopper stations and they are
extremely successful. The reason for that is that these guys really
understand the principles of influence and use them well.
In particular they use the Rule of Scarcity. They know that rare
things are highly valued in our society.
What are some of their scarcity tricks? They always have a little
clock running in the upper corner of the screen. You only have ten
minutes to buy this precious beauty and the clock lets you know how
little time you have to make the buy of a lifetime. They make time
the scarce resource.
They often have a counter on the screen, too. Sometimes the counter
runs down with every sale. "We only have a limited number of these
fabulous quilted party skirts and when they're all gone, we will
never sell them again." So that counter started with 100 and every
time somebody calls, the counter decreases, 99, 98, gee whiz look at
that, 92, wow, 85. They make the product scarce.
Scarcity is a time honored tactic. Limited Time Only. The Weekend
Special. Sale Ends at Midnight.
Here's a great one from Olan Mills, the photographers. They will
take 10 different pictures of your child. They then send you one
copy of each photo and ask you to choose the shots you like and the
number of copies you want. Then (here's the scarcity trick) they
tell you had better order plenty of pictures because they will
destroy all the negatives after a certain date. How many fathers and
mothers can face the prospect of losing forever all those darling
shots . . .
WHY THE RULES WORK
I want to review why the Cues work. As noted at the beginning of
this chapter, these Cues are used as mental shortcuts by lazy
thinkers. Receivers can easily apply these Cues to guide their
thinking or action with a minimum of mental effort and activity.
(And a lot of the time the Cues really are helpful and correct.) As
soon as the receivers change modes of thinking from heuristic to
systematic, these Cues typically become useless.
Thus, if you want to apply any of the Cues in your own situation,
you must learn to use them with heuristic thinkers. To the extent
that people are systematically thinking in the situation, these Cues
will not work and indeed can make the user look rather foolish.
FINALLY
Some pretty neat ideas here. There is a lot of practical and
scientific evidence that demonstrates the usefulness of the CLARCCS
Rules. Just start thinking like a salesperson. Create your own
applications.
Oh, did you figure out what CLARCCS is? Sure, it is an acronym. Take
the first letter of each Cue, and it spells CLARCCS. Should make
them a little easier to remember. And use.
REFERENCES AND RECOMMENDED READINGS
Cialdini, R. (1980). Influence: Science and practice, (2nd Ed.).
Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, & Company.
Down, A.C., & Lyons, P. (1991). Natural observations of the links
between attractiveness and initial legal judgements. Personality and
Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 541-547.
Hinsz, V., & Tomhave, J. (1991). Smile and (half) the world smiles
with you, frown and you frown alone. Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin, 17, 586-592.
JanG