6 shortcuts that guide human behaviour
The 6 shortcuts that guide human behaviour
- Reciprocity
- Scarcity
- Authority
- Consistency
- Liking
- Consensus
Reciprocity
An implicit obligation to give when you receive.
Example: - A friend or colleague invites you to their party, you feel more compelled to invite them to your party
People are more likely to say yes to those that they owe.
The key to successful reciprocity use is that you need to be the first to give, something personalized and unexpected for the other party.
Scarcity
Simply put, people want more of those things there are less of.
Example: - When British Airways informed that their NY - London concorde service had become uneconomical and would be shut down, the next day sales increased considerably. People wanted it more, as it had become a more scarce service.
Today, it is not enough to mention the benefits someone may have, but also what's unique and what they stand to lose if they fail to consider your proposal.
Authority
This is the idea that people follow credible knowledgeable experts.
Example: - Physiotherapists have more success having their patients doing the recommended exercise if their diplomas are visible and patients can see them (like in the walls of their consulting rooms) - There is more trust in people with uniform - Sales increased amazingly in a small real state agency, where the secretary first mentioned the credentials and expertise of the agents they were connecting the call to.
This also tells us that it is relevant to demonstrate this, to signal to others what makes us credible knowledgeable authority before you make your influence attempt.
Evidently, specially in some professional environments, you can't show off credentials or talk well about yourself, however, someone else certainly can. Research suggests that it doesn't matter who does this.
Consistency
People like to be consistent with the things that have been said or done.
To apply this shortcut means look and ask for commitments that can be made. Simply put, start asking for small easier related things to do to support your request.
When seeking to influence, look for voluntary active public commitment in writing. In this particular case, it was proven that if patients filled their forms for requesting appointments instead of staff, they were more likely to attend and remember this appointment.
Liking
People prefer to say yes to those that they like.
Persuation science tells us that there are 3 important factors for someone to like another, we like:
- People that are similar to us
- People who pay us compliments
- People who cooperate with us (usually towards mutual goals)
Exchanging personal information, identify similarities and things you have in common with the other side, small talk, and then getting down to the serious conversation, request or meeting, provides a huge advantage to create and close businesses, agreements and related activities.
In summary, to make use of this principle of liking, be sure to:
- Look for similarities you share with others
- Genuine compliments to others
And do these before getting down to business.
Consensus
Specially when they are uncertain, people will look to the actions and behaviours of others to determine their own.
One of the most useful examples of these are the cards used by hotels to request (or persuade) guests to reuse their towels. Most of these cards focus the message on the benefits that reuse can have on environmental protection, and it turns out this is a pretty effective strategy, leading to around 35% compliance.
It turns out that around 75% of people checking into a hotel for 4 nights or longer will reuse their towels at some point during their stay.
What would happen if we were to create a card, using that information, to trigger the principle of consensus in prospective guests?
This card would read something like "75% of our guests reuse their towels; please do so as well". Turns out that doing this, the research showed that towel reuse rises by 26%.
Now imagine if next time you check in a hotel you read a card that states "75% of people staying in this room reuse their towel". You are probably thinking "I hope they are not the same towels", but also you would initially believe that this message will have no influence on what you may do, but studies have shown that this small change in the message to show what comparable previous guests have done is the single most effective message, leading to 33% increase in towel reuse.
Here, science is telling us that instead of relying on our own ability to persuade others, we can point to what others are already doing, specially many similar others.