Weekly Wisdom Newsletter #42

Published Date: Sunday, August 11, 2019

Hi All!

This week's newsletter is centered around the book Influence by Robert B. Cialdini. Reading this book has changed me from an ignorant victim of sales tactics to an educated consumer, so I would definitely recommend it.

Here are the chosen learning points:

1. Companies and salespeople use psychology and your evolutionary instincts to influence you to buy things. There's 7 in particular: Contrast, Reciprocity, Consistency, Social Proof, Liking, Authority, and Scarcity. (see table below)

2. On Liking, there's 5 factors that make people like someone: physical attractiveness, similarity, giving compliments, cooperation, and conditioning.

3. To defend yourself against these tactics, the main approach is to identify which tactic the salesperson is using on you. Then separate the tactic from the item itself and ask if you would still want the item.

For a more detailed summary of the book, check out my blog post: Influence -- 7 minute summary.

If you think someone else would find this newsletter useful, please forward it to them. Thanks, and have a wonderful week ahead!