Influence: Science and Practice by Robert Cialdini

Influence: Science and Practice by Robert Cialdini

…when it comes to freedoms, it is more dangerous to have given for a while than never to have given at all

Influence is one of the most popular books on social psychology ever to be written. It seems that Dr. Cialdini has attempted not to make this book too technical so that it can reach masses. He starts by explaining that we have a click,whirr mechanism- when we receive certain cues we react in specific ways without thinking too much. For instance, when we see some people going in a direction in crowd, we assume that it is the right direction by principle of social proof.

Dr. Cialdini has tried to make the material interesting by citing several anecdotes. He has also cited research work to prove his hypotheses from time to time. However, it seems that the book is meant for a more non-scientific audience. Writing in the vernacular about complex ideas of psychology does not seem to be an easy task, but Dr. Cialdini has been able to pull it off. While some ideas in the book are novel, most are derived from other psychologists. This is not unexpected since the book strives to be a compilation of techniques people use to influence others.

I found it a bit hard to maintain interest in some topics of the book since I had read them in other books by Elliot Aronson and Daniel Kahneman. I think Kahneman's system 1 and system 2 are just like Cialdini's click, whirr. Personally, I prefer Elliot’s work over the other two due to its scientific structure. I don't think that someone who is interested in social psychology could go wrong with either of these three authors.

I recommend this work for people who’d like to understand the science of influence in a slightly non-scientific way.