Aaron Saray's Diary

Influence Tests

I've been reading this book about the science of influence (more on this later - after I finish it I'll write a review). 

Its pretty cool - it has a few interesting ideas - and what I like about it is that it also gives the clinical test results followed by a reference to the actual study (so it doesn't get way into the details - just enough to tell you the setup and the results).  You can always look up the study yourself from the reference - if you want to make your own conclusion.  At any rate, there are three interesting things that I wanted to point out.

People trust experts
Studies have shown that people trust expert opinions - as well as those in the point of authority.  It is really a combination effect.  When someone is shown to be an expert, people tend to not question their opinions as much.  Also, when people are in positions of authority, you tend not to go against their saying.  Think about how you interact with doctors, leadership such as bosses, etc.  You can be a self proclaimed leader - or identify yourself as an expert - and people will follow you.  Its very interesting to follow this point.  To try to prove this, I've changed my technical PHP and open source blog to include the title 'expert' next to my name.  I'm going to study the next trend of statistics to see if I can prove this.

People make decisions based on what 'everyone else' is doing
There was a study done when someone was having a fake 'heart attack'.  When a single or maybe a couple were walking past the person, they were more apt to help them.  When a large group went past, everyone consistently ignored the person - the thought was it was someone else's responsibility or someone else was already helping them.  This is proved in a positive light as well - look at the usage of testimonials.  You don't even have to know these people - but if they're saying its good - it must be good.  Think of the doctor scholls inserts - where random people were stopped on the street and they had positive things to say about the shoe insert.  People felt that they were more likely to get them because of these testimonails.  So I'm going to try to get some testimonials for JEMDiary and see if it makes a difference.  We'll see.

People Generally want to seem good - but go for the middle of the road
Lets say there is a donation form - and its values range from 20 to 5 bucks.  Well, you want to be decent and give money - but 20 bucks is a lot.  You'd like to give something towards the middle.  Now imagine the form says this:

20__  15__  10__  5__

With this form, people generally seem to give 10 bucks because it seems in the middle. They're still 'good' but not going all out.  Now imagine the form says this:

20__ 10__ 5__ 15__

Consistently with a form like this, subjects had donated 15 bucks.  Because it still seemed like middle of the road (also there is another principle here at work - something about incrimental values), people were more apt to check the 15.  

Well thats cool
I thought that was pretty cool.   I can't wait to finish the book.  It is interesting because it also teaches you not to be a victim for scams.  I'll write a review later.