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PERSUASION IN BRIEF THERAPY

USING THE LATEST SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, DECISION-MAKING, AND PERSUASION RESEARCH TO

CREATE COOPERATIONBill O’Hanlon

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THESE INFLUENCE PRINCIPLES ARE BASED ON RECENT RESEARCH

Persuasion research

Social influence/social psychology research

Non-rational/non-conscious decision-making research

WE HAVE THE ILLUSION WE MAKE RATIONAL CONSCIOUS DECISIONS

During any given second, we consciously process only sixteen of the eleven million bits of information our senses pass on to our brains.

Nørretrander, Tor (1999).The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size. NY: Penguin.

THE 3 MAJOR PRINCIPLESOF INFLUENCE

SOCIAL FOLLOWING

CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES

LOSS AVOIDANCE

AND

How to use these principles in changework to reduce resistance and increase cooperation and results

INFLUENCE PRINCIPLE #1:SOCIAL INFLUENCE FACTORS

THREE LITTLE WORDS CAN MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE

An informercial copywriter (Colleen Szot) changed the “call to action” from:

“Operators are standing by; please call now.”; to

“If operators are busy, please call again.”

Sales increased significantly; shattering a 20-year sales record

Why? Implied social demand; everyone is calling!

GAZING SKYWARD STUDY

Stanley Milgram had a person in NYC gaze skyward; most people ignored him. When he was joined by 3 others gazing skyward, 4 times as many people also stopped and looked up.

Milgram, S.; Bickman, L. and Berkowitz, L. (1969). “Note on the drawing power of crowds of different sizes,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 13:79-82.

THE HOTEL RE-USE STUDIES

Social psychologists, led by Dr. Robert Cialdini, investigated how the percentage of re-using towels more than once per stay was influenced by messages about how others behaved

When a message was left saying it was good for the environment to re-use towels, a certain percentage of people re-used

When the message was changed to suggest that most people re-used towels in that hotel, re-use went up 26%; when it was more specific (most people who stayed in that particular room re-used) re-use increased 33%

Goldstein, Noah; Cialdini, R.B.; and Griskevicius, Vladas. (2008). “A room with a viewpoint: using social norms to motivate conservation in hotels,” Journal of Consumer Research, 13 (2), 214–20.

PETRIFIED FOREST STUDY

In an effort to reduce stealing of wood pieces from the Petrified Forest, officials put up a sign reading:

“Your heritage is being vandalized every day by theft losses of petrified wood of 14 tons a year, mostly a small piece at a time.”The study was suggested when a graduate student reported that his fiancée, who was usually scrupulously honest, read this sign and nudged him and whispered, “We’d better get ours now.”

PETRIFIED FOREST STUDY

Researchers specially marked wood pieces so they could measure theft on various trails.Then they created alternate signs:

“Many past visitors have removed petrified wood from the park, changing the natural state of the Petrified Forest.” This sign showed people picking up wood.“Please don’t remove wood from the park, in order to preserve the natural state of the Petrified Forest.” This one showed a lone person picking up wood with a red X superimposed.

PETRIFIED FOREST STUDYRESULTS

CONTROL (no sign) = 2.92% stolen

Social following sign = 7.92%

Lone wolf sign = 1.67%

TAKE CARE HOW YOU USE SOCIAL NORM MESSAGES

Women’s Voices, during the 2004 presidential campaign, sent out 1 million postcards with this message: “Four years ago, 22 million single women did not vote.”

Oops! Voter turnout for single women was especially low that year, even lower than in 2000.

PERCEPTUAL ACUITY TEST

Choose the line, A, B, or C, that

matches the line without a letter

under it

ASCH PERCEPTUAL STUDIES

When three subjects all gave the wrong answer, the subject also gave the wrong answer 75% of the time

But when even one of the subjects dissented, even giving another incorrect answer (even if that dissenter was shown to be visually impaired), the subject gave the correct answer almost all the time

Asch, Solomon. "Effects of Group Pressure upon the Modification and Distortion of Judgment," in Groups, Leadership, and Men, ed. by Harold Guetzkow (Pittsburgh: Carnegie Press, 1951), pp. 177-190

Asch, Solomon, (1955). "Opinions and Social Pressure," Scientific American, 193:31-35.

Allen, Vernon and Levine, John, (1971). "Social Support and Conformity: The Role of Independent Assessment of Reality," Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 7: 48-58.

WE ALL THINK WE AREN’T GOING ALONG WITH THE CROWD

“When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other.” -Eric Hoffer

“Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?” -James Thurber

You are unique; just like everybody else. -Bumper sticker

MIRROR NEURONS

The ice cream cone and the monkey

Gallese, V., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., & Rizzolatti, G. (1996). “Action recognition in the premotor cortex,” Brain, 119:593-609.

Fogassi, L., & Ferrari, P.F. (2007). “Mirror neurons and the evolution of embodied language,” Current Directions in Psychological Science, 17, 136–141.

SUBTLE SOCIAL MIMICRY37 Duke students tried out what was described as a new sports drink, Vigor, and answered a few questions about it. The interviewer mimicked about half the participants. The mimicry involved mirroring a person’s posture and movements, with a one- to two-second delay. If he crosses his legs, then wait two seconds and do the same, with opposite legs. If she touches her face, wait a beat or two and do that. If he drums his fingers or taps a toe, wait again and do something similar. The idea is to be a mirror but a slow, imperfect one. Follow too closely, and most people catch on.By the end of the short interview, those who were mimicked were significantly more likely than the others to consume the new drink, to say they would buy it and to predict its success in the market. In a similar experiment, the psychologists found that this was especially true if the participants knew that the interviewer, the mimic, had a stake in the product’s success.

• Chartrand, T.L., & Bargh. J.A. (1999). “The Chameleon effect: The perception-behavior link and social interaction,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 893- 910.

• Chartrand, T.L., Maddux, W.W., & Lakin, J.L. (in press). “Beyond the perception-behavior link: The ubiquitous utility and motivational moderators of non-conscious mimicry.” In R. Hassin, J. Uleman, & J.A. Bargh (Eds.), Unintended thought 2: The new unconscious. New York: Oxford University Press.

SUBTLE SOCIAL MIMICRY

A researcher subtly mimicked half the subjects while asking them survey questions, then “accidentally” dropped some pens; those who had been mimicked were 2-3 times more likely to pick up the pens as those who hadn’t.

Van Baaren, Rick; Holland, Rob; Kawakami, Kerry; and van Knippenberg, Ad. (2004) “Mimicry and Prosocial Behavior,” Psychological Science, 15, 71-74.

SUBTLE SOCIAL MIMICRY

At Stanford, a computer figure, an avatar, was programmed to mimic the movements and gestures of study participants. If the avatar’s movements were immediate and precise, people picked up on them, but if they were slightly out of sync (delayed 4 seconds) people did not pick up on them and rated the avatars as warm and convincing.

Bailenson, J., & Yee, N. (2005). “Digital chameleons: Automatic assimilation of nonverbal gestures in immersive virtual environments,” Psychological Science, 16, 814–819.

VARIETIES OF SOCIAL MIMICRY

Motor mimicryFacial mimicryEmotional contagion

People diagnosed high on the autistic spectrum show less facial and yawning mimicry than others

Hermans, Erno J. ; van Wingen, Guido ; Bos, Peter A.; Putman, Peter; and van Honk, Jack. (2009)“Reduced spontaneous facial mimicry in women with autistic traits,” Biological Psychology, March/80(3): 348-353.Avikainen, S., Wohlschlager, A., Liuhanen, S., Hanninen, R., and Hari, R. (2003). “Impairedmirror-image imitation in Asperger and high-functioning autistic subjects,” Curr. Biol,73(4), 339-341.Dapretto, M., Davies, M. S., Pfeifer, J. H., Scott, A. A., Sigman, M., Bookheimer, S. Y., et al.(2006). “Understanding emotions in others: Mirror neuron dysfunction in children withautism spectrum disorders,” Nat. Neurosa., 9(1), 28-30.

TAKE-AWAY

You probably already mirror people naturally, but you might be able to improve your skill at gaining rapport if you attend to people more closely. Listen to and watch them as they speak and interact with you.

Be careful what emotion you convey; it can subtly influence people to feel a smilar emotion

MODELING

Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory posits that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling.

Famous for the Bobo Doll studies, which showed social learning through modeling.

Bandura, A. (1986). Social Foundations of Thought and Action. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

BOBO DOLL STUDIESBandura made a film of one of his students beating up a doll that bounced back up after being punched. The woman punched the clown, shouting “sockeroo!” She kicked it, sat on it, hit with a little hammer, and so on, shouting various aggressive phrases. Bandura showed his film to groups of kindergartners. They then were let out to play. In the play room were several observers with pens and clipboards in hand, a brand new bobo doll, and a few little hammers.

Most of the kids beat the daylights out of the bobo doll. They punched it and shouted “sockeroo,” kicked it, sat on it, hit it with the little hammers, and so on. They imitated pretty closely what they had seen.

Responding to criticism that bobo dolls were supposed to be hit, he even did a film of the young woman beating up a live clown. When the children found the live clown in the other room after watching the film, they proceeded to punch him, kick him, hit him with little hammers and so on.

PSYCHOTHERAPY OUTCOME RESEARCH

The quality of the therapeutic relationship and working alliance accounts for 30% of the positive results in psychotherapy

Hubble, M. A., Duncan, B. L., & Miller, S. D. (Eds.) (1999). The heart and soul of change: What works in therapy. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

Lambert, M. J. (1992). “Psychotherapy outcome research: Implications for integrative and eclectic therapists.” In J. C. Norcross & M. R. Goldfried (Eds.), Handbook of psychotherapy Integration. (pp. 94-129). New York: Basic Books.

CLINICAL USES OF SOCIAL FOLLOWING/NORMS

Include statements (if true) that indicate that a majority of clients/patients/people get benefit from something you would like your clients to do

“Studies have shown that most people get and feel better after they come to therapy.”

“Most people find this exercise/group/process helpful.”

YOUR TURN

How can you use this social following/social norms principle in your work?

How have you been inadvertently using social comparisons and norms ineffectively?

What is one small shift you can make in the way you work that reflects what you have learned or clarified in this section?

RECIPROCITY

This is another social phenomenon

People feel obliged to return the favor if they are given something by someone

Free samples or gifts

Acts of kindness

RECIPROCITYA waiter brought a piece of candy to each diner at a table at the end of the meal; compared with a no-candy condition, tips increased an average of 3.3%.

In another condition, the waiter brought two pieces of candy to each diner; tips went up 14.1%.

In the final condition, the waiter gave each diner a piece of candy, then as he was leaving the table, pulled more candy out of his pocket and gave each person another piece of candy. Tips increased 23%.

Strohemtz, D.B.; Rind, B.; Fisher, R. and Lynn, M. (2002). “Sweetening the till: The use of candy to increase restaurant tipping,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32: 300-309.

WHAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE WITH RECIPROCITY

Gifts/favors are more valued when they are perceived as:

Significant

Unexpected

Personalized

LIKING

This is another social phenomenon

People are more likely to be influenced by people they like

People they see as similar to themselves are usually liked better

Compliments and praise increase liking for the praiser

SIMILARITYOne experiment showed that people were more likely to do things (loan some money or sign a petition) for people who dressed/looked like them

Emswiller, T.; Deaux, K.; and Willits, J.E. (1971). “Similarity, sex, and requests for small favors,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 1:284-291.

Suedfield, P.; Bochner, S; and Matas, C. (1971). “Petitioner’s attire and petition signing by peace demonstrators: A field experiment,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 1:278-283.

Another experiment showed that people were more likely to buy insurance from a person who was like them in terms of age, religion, politics, and cigarette-smoking habits

Evans, F.B. (1963). “Selling as a dyadic relationship: A new approach,” American Behavioral Scientist 6:7:76-79

TAKE AWAY

Find as many commonalities as you can with the people with whom you work and find a way of letting them know about those commonalities

COMPLIMENTS

Men in a study were given three kinds of statements by someone who needed a favor from them

PositiveNegativeNeutral

The person who gave the men pure positive praise was better liked, even when the men knew the praise was untrue and the person wanted a favor from them

Drachman, D.; deCarufel, A.; and Insko, C.A. (1978). “The extra credit effect in interpersonal attraction,” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 14:458-467.

THE KIND OF COMPLIMENT CAN MATTER

Carol Dweck and colleagues gave children a fairly simple puzzle and told half the kids a comment that told them they were smart and the other half that they must have worked hard to solve the puzzles. Then they offered them a choice of simple or challenging puzzles.

90% of the kids who were praised for effort chose the difficult puzzles; A majority of the kids who were praised for intelligence chose the easier ones. Then all the kids were given some difficult puzzles. Then some that were about as easy as the initial ones. The “work hard” kids did 30% better than they had in the initial scores, while the “intelligence” kids scores declined by 20%.

Cimpian, A. et. al (2007). “Subtle Linguistic Clues Affect Children’s motivations,” Psychological Science, 18:314-316.

RECENCY

The Colonscopy Experiment

Redelmeier, D., and Kahneman, D. (1996). “Patients’ memories of painful medical treatments: Real-time and retrospective evaluations of two minimally invasive procedures,” Pain, 116:3-8.

TAKE AWAY

End sessions on a neutral or positive note; people are more likely to schedule another appointment

Give compliments

INFLUENCE PRINCIPLE #2:CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES

CONTEXT MATTERS

Walmart redesigned their shopping carts to be 20% bigger

Sales of big items, such as microwave ovens, went up 50% after the redesign

NON-CONSCIOUS INFLUENCES AND PRIMING

Exposing people to biased words and phrases and different contexts influences their subsequent performance, perceptions and decisions

Contexts influence people’s perceptions and decision-making much more than we think

CONTEXT MAKES A DIFFERENCE

CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES

• When Williams Sonoma added a high-end breadmaker to their line of products, sales of their previous high-end breadmaker nearly doubled (they had a low-end breadmaker as well).

• Point: People often go for “second best,” or the compromise choice

Simonson, I. (1993). “Get closer to your customers by understanding how they make their choices,” California Management Review, 35: 68-84.

TAKEAWAY

When introducing interventions and suggesting change, give three choices:

A challenging and demanding one that is ideal but unlikely for all but the most motivated clients

A slightly less challenging and demanding one

An easy one that will move them forward a little

CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES/ATTRIBUTION THEORY

The Pygmalion/Golem Effect: We often make people over (even influencing them to be smarter/dumber, more/less capable, better/worse behaved) when we expect them to be a certain way

The Chameleon Effect: Our environments influence how we behave, perceive and even how we are

The Placebo/Nocebo Effects: The effects of fake medicines or other interventions can have powerful positive or negative effects on physiology

ATTRIBUTION THEORY

•College freshmen experiencing difficulties •Told the experimental group that many

students had difficulties their first year and later did better.

• Showed them videos of seniors who related the same message

•Only 5% of the experimental group dropped out/grades rose an average of .34 points vs. 25% of the control group/grades declined by .05 points

Wilson, T. and Linville, P. (1982). “Improving academic performance of colllege freshmen: Attribution theory revisited,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42: 367-376.

CONTEXTUAL PRIMING AND SYMPTOMS OF AGING

The twenty year pretend experimentCompared with controls of the same age had more joint flexibility, increased dexterity and less arthritis in their hands. Their mental acuity had risen measurably, and they had improved gait and posture.

Langer, E. (2009). Counterclockwise: Mindful health and the power of possibilities. NY: Ballatine Books.

CONCEPTUAL PRIMING AND STEREOTYPES

Asian women were given math tasks.Before they did the math, they were “primed” into thinking about themselves as either Asian (they were asked if there were any languages other than English spoken by anyone in their extended family) or as women (they were asked whether they lived in a coed dorm)Those primed for Asian did significantly better in the math tasks (Asians are stereotyped as good in math) and those primed as women did poorly (females are stereotyped as not good in math).

Shih, M., Pittinsky, T. and Ambady, N. (1999). “Stereotype susceptibility: Identity salience and shifts in quantitative performance,” Psychological Science, 12(5): 385-390.Langer, E. (2009). Counterclockwise: Mindful health and the power of possibilities. NY: Ballatine Books.

CONCEPTUAL PRIMING AND SHIFTING PRIMING

Subjects were asked to solve anagrams. Expermiental subjects were given more aging-symptom connected anagrams (examples: felorguft--->forgetful; mlpi--->limp). The control group was given neutral, non-age-related words.Subjects who had been primed with the age-related words walked significantly more slowly to the elevator on the way out.In a follow-up study, subjects were asked to sort photos into “old” and “young” stacks. They also walked more slowly to the elevator after the task.But if subjects were told to sort the photos by gender, no such effect occured.

Bargh, J., Chen, M and Burrows, L. (1996). “Automaticity of social behavior: Direct effects of trait construct and stereotype activation on action,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(2):230-244.Djikic, M., Langer, E. and Stapleton, S. (2008). “Reducing stereotyping through mindfulness: Decreasing effects of stereotype-activated behavior,” Journal of Adult Development, 15:106-111.Langer, E. (2009). Counterclockwise: Mindful health and the power of possibilities. NY: Ballatine Books.

INTERSPERSAL

Milton Erickson’s method of non-verbally emphasizing certain words or phrases

Learn to rephrase problem words or phrases into solution/longing words or phrases

For example, if someone is dealing with chronic pain, you might say, “I know you’d really like to find a way to feel more comfortable.”

RESPONSE PRIMING

Milton Erickson’s “YES SET”

NO SET

NUMERICAL PRIMING

Advertisers for Alka-Seltzer suggested that instead of showing a hand dropping one tablet of Alka-Seltzer into a glass of water in the ad, the hand dropped two tablets

Sales doubled

ANCHORING

Whatever numbers or words are mentioned before something is asked will strongly influence the answer or response to that question or request

ANCHORING

The experimenter had students write down the last two digits of their social security numberThen they were asked whether they would pay that amount for several items that were to be auctionedThe social security numbers influenced what students bid; For example, for one item, students with the highest numbers bid highest (e.g. $56 average for the highest) and those with the lowest numbers bid the lowest ($16 average)

Ariely, D.; Loewenstein, G.; and Prelec, Drazen. (2003). “Coherent arbitrariness: Stable demand curves without stable preferences,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, 118(1):73-105.

TAKE AWAY

You might suggest that many people successfully resolve their issues within 4 to 6 sessions (the research indicates this is true)

Or you might just mention some words or numbers you would like to anchor or prime for some therapeutic purpose before giving an intervention

THE PYGMALION EFFECT

SOCIAL INFLUENCES

THE PYGMALION EFFECT

When teachers expect students to do well and show intellectual growth, they do; when teachers do not have such expectations, performance and growth are not so encouraged and may in fact be discouraged in a variety of ways." - James Rehm

Rosenthal, Robert & Jacobson, Lenore. (1992). Pygmalion in the Classroom. New York: Irvington

THE MEMPHIS SCHOOL DISCTRICT EXPERIENCE

“Those are their locker numbers!”

THE POWER OF LABELS

Researchers interviewed a large number of potential voters and told 50% of them, based on their survey responses, that they were “above average citizens likely to vote and participate in political events.” The other half were told they were about average.

The ones who were labeled “above average” were 15% more likely to vote in an election held a week later and also saw themselves as better citizens.

Tybout, A.M. and Yalch, R.F. (1980). “The effect of experience: A matter of salience,” Journal of Consumer Research, 6:406-413.

THE POWER OF LABELS

The Israeli army’s “Commander Training” program experiment15 weeks later, the ones whom the trainers thought were high CP scored better (79.98 on average) than did the “regular” (65.18) or “unknown” (72.43).The trainers didn’t believe it

Eden, D. and Shani, A. (1982). “Pygmalion goes to Boot Camp: Expectancy, Leadership, and Trainee Performance,” Journal of Applied Psychology, 67:194-199.

105 trainees began the Israeli armyʼs rigorous “Commander Training” program Their trainers were told (falsely) that, based on psychological data, sociometric data from previous trainings, and ratings by previous commanders, various trainees either had a high, regular or unknown Command Potential (CP).When trainees were tested on their tactical and practical knowledge15 weeks later, the ones whom the trainers thought were high CP scored better (79.98 on average) than did the “regular” (65.18) or “unknown” (72.43).When their trainers were told of the ruse, they didnʼt believe it, insisting that the “high” trainees were actually superior leader from the start.

THE POWER OF LABELS

Researchers told some schoolchildren that they seemed like the kind of students who “care about good handwriting.”

Those kids subsequently spent more of their free time practicing handwriting, even when they thought no one was watching them.

Cialdini, R.; Eisenberg, N.; Green, B.; Rhoads, K.; and Bator, R. (1998). “Undermining the undermining effect of reward on sustained interest,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 28:249-263.

TWO WORDS: WARM OR COLD

Mr. _______ is a graduate student in the Department of Economics and Social Science here at MIT. He has had three semesters of teaching experience in psychology at another college. This is his first semester teach EC 70. He is 26 years old, a veteran, and married. People who know him consider him to be a very warm/rather cold person, industrious, critical, practical, and determined.

Reference: Kelley, H.H. (1950). “The warm-cold variable in first impressions of persons,” Journal of Personality, 18, 431-439.

REVISITING TWO WORDS: WARM OR COLD

The class got the same lecture, but at the end, when asked to rate the instructor for possible hiring as an instructor, the students who had read the description of a “very warm” person rated him as

“good-natured, considerate of others, informal, sociable, popular, humorous, and humane,”

while those who read that he was “rather cold” rated him as

“self-centered, formal, unsociable, unpopular, irritable, humorless, and ruthless.”

Reference: Kelley, H.H. (1950). “The warm-cold variable in first impressions of persons,” Journal of Personality, 18, 431-439.

BLINK: WHEN TO AND WHEN NOT TO TRUST OUR FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND

INTUITIONS

Trust your first impressions, snap judgments and intuition; they are usually right

Except: When distorted by social mores and biasesBased on gender stereotypes and biasesBased on racial stereotypes and biasesBased on moral judgments of the era

Gladwell, Malcolm. (2007). Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. NY: Back Bay Books.

SELF-DIAGNOSIS: HOW YOU THINK ABOUT THE DIAGNOSIS MATTERS

Some people add cancer to their identities and others have a sense that the cancer is their whole identity

People who felt damaged by their illness tended to rate their quality of life as low; people who viewed the illness as an opportunity for growth rated their quality of life as higher.

Golub, Sarit. (2004). “Optimism, pessimism, and HIV Risk-Behavior: Motivation or Rationalization?” Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard University, Psychology Dept.

VON RESTORFF EFFECT

Take a look at this paragraph. What stands out for you?

Application: Anything you can do to make the message you want remembered to stand out from the rest of the message will probably help.

THINK DIFFERENT

Think different think different think

different think different think different think different think different think different think

different think different think different think different think different think different think different think different think different think different think different

think different !ink "fferent

VON RESTORFF EFFECT

Also called the “isolation effect,”; it holds that we are more likely to remember the unusual or what stands out in a larger context

Von Restorff, H. (1933). “Über die Wirkung von Bereichsbildungen im Spurenfeld (The effects of field formation in the trace field),” Psychologie Forschung, 18, 299-34

THE SERIAL POSITION EFFECT

Certain items are more likely to be remembered than others

Those in the first part of a list or experience; and those most recent (or the last part of the list or experience)

Murdock, B.B., Jr. (1962) “The Serial Position Effect of Free Recall,” Journal of Experimental Psychology, 64, 482-488.

THE ZIEGARNIK EFFECT

Discovered by a social psychologist (Zeigarnik) when the waiter at a group table remembered the interrupted order but not the others

An interrupted task will be remembered more/longer than a completed task

Zeigarnik, B. (1967). On finished and unfinished tasks. In W. D. Ellis (Ed.), A sourcebook of Gestalt psychology. New York: Humanities press.

INFLUENCE PRINCIPLE #3:LOSS AVERSION/AVOIDANCE

LOSS AVERSION/AVOIDANCE

People are very driven to avoid loss

Lost opportunities

Loss of freedom

LOSS AVERSION/AVOIDANCEProfessor holds an auction among MBA students for a $20 bill

Bids can start anywhere, but the rules say that the top bidder wins the $20 bill and the second highest bidder must also pay the amount he or she bid

The $20 bill has been sold to the highest bidder for more than $20 every time the auction is held; the highest bid was for $204

Bazerman, Max. (2002). Judgment in Managerial Decision Making. NY: John Wiley and Sons.

Shubik, Martin. (1971). “The Dollar Auction Game: A Paradox in noncooperative behavior and escalation,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, (15): 109-111.

TAKEAWAY

When introducing interventions and suggesting change, link lack of compliance with possible loss

E.g., “If you walk away from this marriage now and don’t give everything you’ve got, you may find yourself regretting it later.”

ONE APPLICATION

Drug and alcohol counselor (Bill Bowles) offers class for military personnel on recognizing and changing their addictions

He hands out a list at the end of the first class with the ten things they could lose if they continue their drug/alcohol problem behavior

Children, spouse, health, friends, money, career advancement, respect of others

He reports these tough military people are often in tears by the time they finish going over the list

INFLUENCE PRINCIPLES #4:MISC.

COMMITMENT AND CONSISTENCY

Once people verbally or otherwise commit to some position, they are much more likely to act consistently with that committed position


• Once restaurant owner decreased no shows for dinner reservations from 30% to 10% by changing what the receptionist said from “Please call if you have to cancel,” to “Will you please call if you have to cancel?” and then waiting for a yes response.

• When people verbally commit to something, they are more likely to follow through.

From Goldstein, Noah; Martin, Steve; and Cialdini , R. (2008). Yes: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. NY: Free Press.


The foot in the door technique:

Small actions/comittments open the door lead to bigger ones


One researcher set a blanket with a radio on the beach, listened to the radio for a few minutes, then went for a stroll on the beachA second researcher pretended to be a thief who took the radio and began to run away with itVery few (4 out of 20) onlookers stopped the “thief” until the next condition, in which the first researcher asked the onlooker to “watch my stuff.”Then, 19 of the 20 onlookers ran after the “thief,” snatched the radio out of his hand, and, in some cases, restrained him until the owner returnedMoriarty, T. (1975). “Crime, consistency, and the responsive bystander,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31:370-376.

TAKE AWAY

Get people to publicly, verbally and with small actions, commit to some course of action or value that would be good for them and in the direction in which you are trying to lead them

They are much more likely to follow through if they do

YOUR TURN

How could you apply commitment and consistency principles in your work?

What should you avoid doing and what should you do based on this knowledge?

THE PARADOX OF CHOICE

Too many choices often leave people overwhelmed and paralyzed


Researchers discovered that for every ten additional retirement fund options employees were offered, participation rates dropped almost 2%; For example, when 2 funds were offered, participation rates were 75%; when 59 funds were offered, participation rates were 60%

Iyengar, S.S.; Huberman, G.; and Jiang, W. (2004). “How much choice is too much?” Contributions to 401(K) retirement plans,” In Mitchell, O. and Utkus, S. (eds.). Pension Design and Structure: New Lessons from Behavioral FInance. pp. 83-96. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.


When consumers were offered samples of jams at a supermarket and their subsequent purchases were tracked (using coupons), those who were offered samples from 24 different jams bought only 3% of the time; those who were offered 6 jams bought 30% of the time.

Iyengar, S.S. and Lepper, M. R. (2000). “When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing?,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79:995-1006.


When Procter and Gamble reduced the number of versions of Head and Shoulders shampoo from 26 to 15, sales increased 10%.

Osnos, E. (1997, September 27). “Too many choices? Firms cut back on new products.” Philadelphia Inquirer, D1/D7.

TAKEAWAY

When offering interventions, keep the number of options small

Constraints are sometimes better than too many options

CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES ON BECOMING EXPERT

CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES ON BECOMING EXPERT

10,000 hours of practice10 years of practice

Influenced by when you were bornInfluenced by culture/environment

Stretched practice (overpractice)Feedback to correct mistakes or get better (the sooner the better)Based on work by psychologist K. Anders Ericsson.Gladwell, Malcom (2008). Outliers: The Story of Success. NY: Little, Brown and Company.Colvin, Geoff. (2008). Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else. NY: Portfolio.Coyle, Daniel. (2009). The Talent Code: Greatness isn’t born, it’s grown. Here’s how. NY: Bantam.

BRAIN PLASTICITY AND BECOMING AN EXPERT

The more you repeat actions, the quicker your brain circuits get at doing those things, in part through mylenating (insulating circuits so they are more efficient at transmitting) and in part due to “neurons that fire together wire together.”

The more you focus your attention on something, the better the brain gets at noticing that thing.

Doidge, Norman (2008). The Brain That Changes Itself. NY: Penguin.

THIS RESEARCH CASTS LIGHT ON HOW PEOPLE LEARN AND IMPROVE BEHAVIOR

This has implications for therapy and changeworkGet people to do lots of the desired behaviorGet them to stretch into new behaviorsArrange for feedback and correction as close to the activity as possibleExample: Ray Levy’s “Academies”

Consequence for misbehavior is to practice desired behavior at an inconvenient timeGive corrections and ask for repeated practice to help them get it rightBeware of using other consequences that have nothing to do with the desired behavior you want to encourage

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED?

What will be one thing you take away from this seminar and can use right away?

What do you want to explore more?

NOW YOU KNOW AS MUCH ABOUT INFLUENCE AS ANY SLICK ADMAN

Go out and help people

with this knowledge

THANK YOU

For a free copy of these slides:Visit: billohanlon.comClick FREE STUFFThen click SLIDES223 N. Guadalupe #278Santa Fe, NM 87501www.billohanlon.comBill@billohanlon.comwww.paidpublicspeaker.comwww.getyourbookwritten.comwww.therapistsuccess.com

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