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Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive

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Yes! could have been more appropriately titled as Influence 2 because the book is simply a series of brief examples that illustrate Professor Robert Cialdini's key principles described in his book, Influence (social proof, authority, commitment/consistency, scarcity, reciprocity, and personal liking). If you loved that book and want to dive deeper into its lessons, Yes! is a perfect choice.

If you haven't yet read Influence, I recommend that you read that book before this one. Without Professor's explanations of why these principles work, the case histories in Yes! don't seem so special and interesting. Otherwise, you will probably just see Yes! as a bunch of unrelated stories, many of which don't apply to your marketing challenges. I would expect most people who read Yes! who haven't read Influence to rate Yes! with three stars.

When you do read Influence, be sure to get the latest edition (the fifth edition came out in August 2008). Otherwise, you'll miss out on insights.

I hired Professor Cialdini to speak to one of my research organizations, Share Price Growth 100, a number of years ago and the members rated him very highly for being able to apply the lessons of his research to the financial markets. I was intrigued to see some financial market examples in Yes!

Be more persuasive in getting an ethical point across!

Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive, written by Goldstein, Martin and Cialdini, takes the scientific research and studies done on persuasion over the past 50+ years and presents an easy to understand book on how to convince people.

According to the authors, "The central purpose of this book is to provide the reader with a better understanding of the psychological processes underlying our efforts to influence others to shift their attitudes or behavior in a direction that results in positive outcomes for both parties."

The authors go to pains to convince us that persuasion is a science, not an art. They believe that, unlike books on business, economics and so on, there are not many books on persuasion because most people believe they already know how to convince people. which is a mistake, according to them.

They begin with the 6 universal principles of social influence:

* Reciprocation
* Authority
* Commitment/consistency
* Scarcity
* Liking
* Social proof

What follows are 50 mini-chapters. Each refers to scientific studies, but the chapters are breezy and easy to read.

Here are some examples:

* When pursuasion might backfire, how do you avoid the magnetic middle?
* when does a bonus become an onus?
* Does fear persuade or does it paralyze?
* What is the active ingredient in lasting commitments?
* What's the hidden danger of being the brightest person in the room?
*When is a loser an winner?

Insightful and thought-provoking, this book is useful for both social and business situations.

By the author of the award winning book,
Harmonious Environment: Beautify, Detoxify and Energize Your Life, Your Home and Your Planet.

Having written what has probably become the most cited book in interpersonal skills literature, Influence: The psychology of persuasion, Cialdini assembles a team and produces Yes. This is easier reading than the earlier book, yet at the same time there are a number of stories that illustrate how Cialdini's persuasion principles can influence us in more subtle ways than those presented in `Influence'. I'll offer couple of examples from the many presented in this book:

We learn that if we tell people not to do something that everybody else is doing because they are threatening the extinction of a species/ causing global warming/ endangering their own health etc., we are in fact sending out conflicting messages, one of these messages permitting them to continue their habit on the grounds that `everybody else thinks this is okay' - social proof is working against us. We also learn that if we start a sale with a low price we will get more people bidding, and having started bidding, these people will become heavily committed to `winning' the sale. Because of this they will continue to bid as the price rises, and being driven by commitment (consistency) and fear of loss (scarcity), they will buy at a higher price.

Cialdini presents an abundance of interesting stories to illustrate how his principles work, often in a very curve-ball manner, and we are left aware of the more subtle implications of his ideas. We can understand the outrage that many people expressed when Coca Cola tried to introduce Coke with a new taste, we understand the Duracell bunny boomerang, and we are left with a smile on our faces as we are presented with more and more quirks of human nature.

This book is every bit as useful as Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

Being persuasive has so many great uses in life - and especially in business. Why not understand it better?

The authors of this book have collected and performed a series of experiments testing the myths and theories about persuasion out there and interpreting the results to help you understand how to be persuasive.

The book is broken up into many short, fun chapters that can each be read in a few minutes and don't really have to be read in order. A great book for the coffee-table or bathroom you can pick up when you have a few minutes and learn something new and interesting.