Chapter 1. WEAPONS OF INFLUENCE

- A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason.

- Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies? The result was that once again nearly all (93 percent) agreed, even though no real reason, no new information, was added to justify their compliance. 

- These were people who had been brought up on the rule "You get what you pay for" and who had seen that rule borne out over and over in their lives. 

It is so ridiculous those who want good turquoises make a decision with a naive standard "expensive = good". But if thinking about this issue more deeply, we can figure out why they act like the foolish way. Because not only don't they have much time to analyze what the turquoise is good, but most of them don't want to give a bunch of load to their brain; that is a painful task.

- Instead of stacking all the odds in their favor by trying painstakingly to master each of the things that indicate the worth of turquoise jewelry, they were counting on just one-the one they knew to be usually associated with the quality of any item.

- There is a group of organisms, often termed mimics, that copy the trigger features of other animals in an attempt to trick these animals into mistakenly playing the right behavior tapes at the wrong times.

- By mimicking the flashing mating signals of her prey, the murderess is able to feast on the bodies of males whose triggered courtship tapes cause them to fly mechanically into death's, not love's embrace.

- There is a strong but sad parallel in the human jungle. We too have exploiters who mimic trigger features for our own brand of automatic responding.

As same as the previous book report which is written yesterday, the content ranging from 17p to 19p is giving the examples of exploiting the stereotype and instinct. When it comes to the behavior of insects, the exploiter uses the instinct of a certain species for survival. The same situation is prevalent in the human society. 

- The secret of their effectiveness lies in the way they structure their requests, the way they arm themselves with one or another of the weapons of influence that exist within the social environment. 

- To do this may take no more than one correctly chosen word that engages a strong psychological principle and sets an automatic behavior tape rolling within us.

- Even when it is not initially successful, she can mark the article "Reduced from ___" and sell it at its original price while still taking advantage of the "expensive = good" reaction to the inflated figure.

- Pretending not to have heard and cupping his hand to his ear, Sid would ask again.

- It's not that the weapons, like a set of heavy clubs, provide a conspicuous arsenal to be used by one person to bludgeon another into submission.

- In this sense, the approach is not unlike that of the Japanese martial-art form called jujitsu. 

- Even the victims themselves tend to see their compliance as determined by the action of natural forces rather than by the designs of the person who profits from that compliance.

- In fact, studies done on the contrast principle at Arizona State and Montana State universities that we may be less satisfied with the physical attractiveness of our own lovers because of the way the popular media bombard us with examples of unrealistically attractive models. 

- Those who employ it can cash in on its influence without any appearance of having structured the situation in their favor.

- A man might balk at the idea of spending $95 for a sweater but if he has just bought a $495 suit, a $95 sweater does not seem excessive.

The influences affect us is scary and magical. If someone intentionally uses this power for getting a profit, we are totally vulnerable to him. Although if I won't employ this handy tools to achieve my goal due to morality, learning these is very helpful for living in the world, complicated by tricks. 

- By virtue of the reciprocity rule, then, we are obligated to the future repayment of favors, gifts, invitations, and the like.

- For the first time in evolutionary history, one individual could give away any of a variety of resources without actually giving them away. The result was the lowering of the natural inhibitions against transactions that must be begun by one person's personal resources to another.

- So informed, I remained awed, but I was no longer puzzled. The need to reciprocate had transcended great cultural differences, long distances, acute famine, and immediate self-interest.

- The labels we assign to such a person are loaded with negativity - moocher, ingrate, welsher.

- Apparently feeling that they owed him something, these subjects bought twice as many tickets as the subjects who had not been given the prior favor. (experimented by Professor Dennis Regan of Cornell University)

Reciprocation is the most powerful psychologic weapon to get what the exploiter wants. It helps them achieve their goal with the minimum cost required. Just a can of coke, it turns out to be a great profit selling the raffle tickets. Definitely, this rule cannot be operated in many cases properly, but there is no doubt that it is the influential tool.

- For those who owed him a favor, it made no difference whether they liked him or not; they felt a sense of obligation to repay him, and they did. The subjects in that condition who indicated that they disliked Joe bought just as many of his tickets as did those who indicated that they liked him. The rule for reciprocity was so strong that it simply overwhelmed the influence of a factor - liking for the requester - that normally affects the decision to comply. 

- It is a testament to the societal value of reciprocation that we have chosen to fight the Krishnas mostly to avoid rather than to withstand the force of their gift giving. 

- The beauty of the free sample, however, is that it is also a gift and, as such, can engage the reciprocity rule. 

Although reciprocation rule is powerful, it's not always activated. For instance, in the huge supermarket, the sellers give the sample of what they're selling out. But most of customers don't buy it, but judging from my experience it works as making customers indebted to the seller and there is a much higher probability the customers buy them. 

- As a marketing technique, the free sample has a long and effective history. // Using reciprocation rule

- The beauty of the free sample, however, is that it is also a gift and, as such, can engage the reciprocity rule.

- Amway BUG

- The BUG consists of a collection of Amway products-bottles of furniture polish, detergent, or shampoo, spray containers of deodorizers, insect killers, or window cleaners- carried to the customer's home in a specially designed tray or just a polyethylene bag.

- World war 2 interrogation.

- An equally compelling point regarding the power of reciprocity comes from an account of a woman who saved her life not by giving a gift as did the captured soldier, but refusing a gift and the powerful obligations that went with it.

- Diane Louie, however, rejected Jones's command and made her way out of Jonestown and into the jungle. She attributes her willingness to do so to her earlier refusal to accept special favors from him when she was in need.

Mass suicide in Jonestown is hideous, terrible and mysterious. Why did victims follow the fraud who disguised as the paster? What made them believe in pseudo-religion seemed very very odd and bizarre. I don't know but reciprocation rule can't explain all of the mysterious situation. This disaster was the compound of the causes of phycological, social, political aspect.

- The thing that really impressed me about all this was that most of the discarded flowers had brought donations from the people who had cast them aaway. 

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