Key messages from Robert Cialdini’s ‘Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion’

The third in my series about our automated Click-Whirr! Responses. According to Cialdini, there are six key weapons of influence. Weapon two is ‘Commitment and Consistency’ – our need to justify any decisions we make with the behaviour that follows.

We’ve all done it, haven’t we… no sooner than we have bought into a program of some sort – joining the gym, going on a diet, some form of study – that we suddenly become much more of an advocate than we were just moments before. Our need to follow through, to justify ourselves with our consistent behaviour is very strong. We automatically play the ‘consistency tape’. Click-Whirr!

 

In an experiment on a US beach, a psychologist staged thefts to see if onlookers would risk personal harm to stop the crime;

• The researcher would sit approx. five foot from a subject on the beach
• After a few minutes relaxing and listening to music on a portable radio, the researcher would stroll away along the beach
• A second researcher would then appear and grab the radio and run off with it.
• Under ‘normal’ conditions, 4 out of 20 subjects challenged the thief

However, when the same experiment was tried another 20 times – with a slight twist, the results were drastically different. 

• In this case, the researcher simply asked the subject if they would ‘watch my things’
• 19 of the 20 subjects intervened – and not half-heartedly! They turned almost vigilante by running after the thief, remonstrating, snatching the radio back and even restraining the thief in one instance

From society’s point of view, people who are seen as inconsistent are thought to be weak, indecisive, unreliable and two-faced. Whereas consistency is valued as personally and intellectually strong, rational, stable and honest. All highly valued attributes.

And because it is so in our interests to be consistent, we tend to fall into the habit of being automatically consistent. It’s a short cut in modern life; we don’t have to sift through the mountains of information and evidence as we have already defined how we will respond, based on some earlier decision. It saves us from thinking too much – potentially, even, the ‘troublesome’ nature of having to think things through in the face of contrary evidence.

Car sales is great example of this. How many of us have been lured in by offers of a great deal by car sales staff, probably considering a car that would otherwise be beyond our budget? Later, when it turns out the offer was an ‘error’, we remain committed to the car and can easily justify the additional expenditure. We’ve already made the decision to buy – the thinking time is over.

How can you deploy this in your marketing …?

Small steps: Moving from A to Z is a big leap. Whereas moving from A to B is not. By making a small commitment, we are much more likely to take the next step and commit from B to C – consistency again. This is very powerful in business, where the primary purpose is to get your customer to commit to something – even a FREE purchase, as this is much more likely to lead to taking the next step.

Joining an online ‘health and well-being programme’ is much more likely to find that the buyer starts to act like someone interested in health and well-being, meaning they are much more likely to buy the next step in your series.

Building your community only enhances this sense of ‘belonging’ and the consistent desire to buy more to justify their original purchase. It’s a great example of why relationship building and follow-up communication is so essential and powerful.

Selling higher value items: In a retail context, if you can get someone to buy the more expensive item (eg. Cashmere versus wool suit), they are much more likely to buy other expensive items to go with it – even though, logically they have less money left with which to purchase them. Experiment after experiment verifies this. Consistency, consistency, consistency.

Like all marketing using the tools of persuasion, this stuff needs to be deployed responsibly and not cynically – you will do far better in any market if YOU are consistent, but it does make you stop and think.