Thorough research
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The authors of this book know what they're talking about. Great research credentials from the writers themselves and they always back up what they're talking about with really good anecdotes or actual research studies.
The only problem was that the chapters started to blur into each other. So there was almost too much information to take in. I should re-read this book so that I know when to use different tactics to influence people.
A good read if you want to understand more about the human psyche!
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I'm another fan too..sorry negative reviewers :)
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I've got a reasonable list on my profile of books relating to persuasion and influence. This is the latest in a long line.
Does he reuse material from his original? Yes. Is the book personally helpful to me and make sense? Yes. For that reason it's fair I leave 5 stars. I will be reading it a second time.
I'm sure I can scour through and raise my eyebrows at a couple of chapters here and there. However on the whole I found it a worthwhile addition to my growing collection.
The authors are clear, concise and set out to be scientific in an arena which is generally not.
Common sense is not what folks think it is. It varies from person to person. Common sense might tell you to do one thing in a given scenario, however for me it may say something totally different. Common sense ain't so common and is pretty undefined at the best.
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Too much of a good thing
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'50 secrets from the science of persuasion'... Well, I'd never heard of `the science of persuasion' before and this is actually a series of short case studies based on social psychology academic papers published over the last decade or so. Each case study is presented as a problem, the experiment and results are described and then a `scientifically proven' solution is suggested. It's an appealing way of covering a broad subject and most of the results are thought-provoking and maybe genuinely useful. The only problem is that these snippets are not structured or ordered in any way so unfortunately fact fatigue sets in after about 30, and by the time you struggle to 50 the science of persuasion began to seem a rather disorganised discipline. An admirable book, but you might have thought `persuasion scientists' would have known a bit better how to determine exactly how much is a `good thing'.
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How will you use this JEDI Mind trick?
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Before commenting on this book I need to disclose one very important piece of information. I've been a big fan of Dr. Cialdini for fifteen years. And I'm happy to say that I'm met him on several occasions. Now that I've disclosed this to you, I must tell you that this book is such a wealth of information that you can literally take one page at a time and put it's power to use over and over again.
Based on the most current scientific research and studies, YES! is a cookbook of the most effective, useful and powerful techniques of persuasion and influence ever laid out for the public to see.
I was surprised when I read Persuasion Secret #15. It's right out of STAR WARS. But STAR WARS is a movie. This technique is real! Clinical studies sited show absolutely the science behind the psychological principal Luke Skywalker used to turn his father away from the Dark Side.
Its so simple you too can put it to work immediately after reading the short three pages detailing it's precise method and use.
And maybe even more important, there are a tremendous amount of unethical people out in the world trying to influence you without your knowledge. Protect yourself from these unscrupulous people!
This is one book that has the power to enhance anything you seek to accomplish in your life.
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bite-sized surprises
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I've only just started this and I've liked what I've read so far. But there's one statistical bloomer on pp22-23 (in the "Magnetic Middle" chapter). They talk about energy consumption in the neighbourhood versus the average and say "Of course, half of the households consumed more energy than the average, whereas the other half consumed less". There is no "Of course" - they are implictly assuming here a normal distribution, but we are not told that, so "Of course" is IMO a little disingenuous. Take eg 10 users, 9 consume 10000 units each, 1 consumes 1000 units. You will find here that 9 have above average comsumption, and one below.
Just thought I'd point that out ......
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