Methods of Persuasion: How to Use Psychology to Influence Human Behavior by Nick Kolenda Page A

groups, the estimates gradually converged over trials. For example, the estimate of the first flash may have elicited answers of 1 inch, 3 inches, and 8 inches from the three people. The estimates of the second flash, however, would have elicited estimates of 2 inches, 3 inches, and 5 inches. Likewise, the estimate of the third flash would show an even greater convergence of perhaps 3 inches, 3 inches, and 4 inches. With each new trial, the estimates from the three people always converged toward an average estimate.
    When the answer to a question is unclear or ambiguous, people conform because they’re unsure of the correct answer. Upon hearing other people’s estimates of the movement of light, people started to question the accuracy of their own estimate, and so they gradually adjusted their estimates to more closely match the estimates from the other people.
    How can we be sure that people changed their internal belief about the light movement and that they didn’t just give a new estimate to avoid appearing deviant? People were retested alone after the group trials, and their estimates remained near the same converged level that was produced in the group trial (Sherif, 1936). Although informational influence occurs when an answer is unclear or ambiguous, it’s replaced by normative influence when the answer is more obvious.
    Normative Influence. Perhaps even more powerful than informational influence is normative influence, the pressure to conform to avoid certain social consequences.
    Unlike people in Sherif’s experiment, people in Asch’s experiment with the lines gave an answer that was different from their internal belief not because they distrusted their belief but because they felt pressure to avoid appearing deviant.
    In a follow-up experiment, people were told that they arrived late and that they should only write their answer, rather than publicly declare it like the other participants. Despite the exact same conditions, people didn’t conform when they were asked to only write their answer because their deviance remained undetected by the others (Asch, 1956). Therefore, not only do we conform to other people due to an internal change in our belief (informational influence), but we can also conform to avoid appearing deviant, which can often lead to social rejection.
    Why is social rejection so powerful? From a biological perspective, researchers have recently found that social rejection and physical pain share the same “neural circuitry” (the anterior cingulate cortex) (Eisenberger & Lieberman, 2004). Social rejection is so powerful because it’s literally painful.
    Pfft, yeah right , you may be thinking. If social rejection was physically painful, then I could just pop a Tylenol and feel better . Well . . . yeah . . . you can. Because social rejection shares the same brain circuitry as physical pain, Tylenol has been found to ease the painful feelings that can result from social rejection (Dewall et al., 2010).
    HOW POWERFUL IS SOCIAL PRESSURE?
    Before explaining the specific persuasion strategies, I want to first explain the dangers of determining our behavior based on the behavior of others. Though it doesn’t relate directly to persuasion, this section is extremely important. So if you were only half-paying attention . . . wake up!
    Her name was Kitty Genovese. On March 13, 1964, she was brutally raped and stabbed to death in Queens, New York. What made her death particularly tragic is that it occurred in public. With people nearby. With many people nearby. Despite her shrilling cries for help—screams that lasted for 20 minutes—not a single person among the 38 bystanders called the police until 45 minutes later. The police arrived moments after that call, but they were a few minutes too late. Kitty died shortly after they arrived.
    How could something so terrible occur in public? Were the bystanders cold and heartless individuals, or was there some psychological force involved?