Rules of social influence - effective tools in successful negotiations

Have you ever wondered how certain things just happen, without any special participation on our side? You will find the answer to this question in today's post. We will look at one of the rules of social influence - the rule of like and dislike.

Social influence rules - what are they?

Robert Cialdini is a world-renowned expert in the field of social psychology. As part of his many years of research, he distinguished a classification of social influence techniques. He based his considerations on the laws of psychology underlying the effectiveness of each method. Social psychology explains why people act in certain ways in given situations. It makes it clear that there is sometimes a tendency to take decisions and think "shortcuts", using automatic reactions. Here we also rely on an even "deeper" level of physiology, we talk about the so-called, "reflex arcs" or information that bypasses our "computer" - the central nerve center - habits, stereotypes, established categorizations and simple decision rules, the so-called heuristics, which reduce cognitive effort.

Strength is responsibility

Humans are herd animals. We surround ourselves with other people and we need that to survive. Studies show that children left without a mother simply die.

We are all both addressees and recipients of messages - this phrase carries a lot of possibilities, but it is also a very dangerous weapon. As with any weapon - it is just a piece of steel and other materials, which can serve many useful things, such as sport, but can be used - in the wrong hands - no longer for defense... With this example, I refer in our topic to manipulation - because having knowledge of the rules of social influence can be used for this.

Manipulation is absolutely reprehensible and refers to a situation in which the person exerting influence does not consider the interests of the other individual. He manipulates a person for his own benefit. Social influence can have both positive and negative tinges, depending on the purpose it serves. It leads to changes in behavior, attitudes, experiences and emotions under the influence of another person or group of people.

The rule of liking and liking

There is a very strong automatism underlying this rule. It says that if we have a liking for a person, we will also automatically like what the person offers us. This is known as the halo effect. In the case of professional negotiations, the chances of successful and fruitful cooperation increase dramatically. If you come across a demonstration of professional negotiations on the Internet or other media sources, you will certainly see that it is not without reason that they proceed in a pleasant atmosphere. This happens for the very reason described.

Robert Cialdini described a total of 6 rules of social influence. I will describe the others in our next blog post.