Scary, Scary

With Halloween looming on the horizon, I’ve just finished reading one of the scariest books I’ve ever read: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. While some of the content is dated (while revised in 1993, the book was originally published in 1984), the principles discussed — and the research supporting them — remain spooky as ever.

Here’s the essence of it: In order to deal more efficiently with day-to-day life, humans adopt a set of assumptions about the world and how it works. Thanks to these “shortcuts,” we can reduce or eliminate the need to think carefully about every single choice we face. Problems arise, however, when those who are aware of these assumptions convert them into “weapons of influence”: psychological principles used over and over again to manipulate our decisions and actions.

Because these assumptions (like “Expensive=Good”) operate below the conscious level, skilled individuals can trigger them without our knowledge. The result? We take action — buy a certain product, vote for a given candidate, or believe an assertion — while remaining blissfully unaware that we’ve fallen prey to manipulation.

We like to think we’re too clever to be tricked by such practices, but exhaustive research shows the overwhelming majority of us dance whenever savvy puppeteers yank our strings. Example: offer consumers identical pieces of chocolate. Price one low and wrap it in plain foil; price the other higher and wrap it in glossy gold paper. Consistently, the majority of consumers who taste both will insist the more expensive, gold-wrapped chocolate tastes better. Why? Because their unconscious assumptions (“Expensive=Good”) tell them so.

Buried assumptions like “Expensive=Good” are so powerful, they even work when those who employ them don’t realize they’ve done so. The book recounts one story of a craftswoman who, at the end of the season, still had two identical cases full of unsold jewelry. When she directed her staff to discount the jewelry in one of the two cases by 50%, they misunderstood and doubled the price instead. Despite the fact that the two cases held identical pieces, the jewelry in the more expensive display sold out by the end of the week.