187. Robert Cialdini — Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

The Michael Shermer Show

Michael Shermer

Dialogue, Science, Reason, Michaelshermer, Natural Sciences, Skeptic

4.4 • 921 Ratings

🗓️ 8 June 2021

⏱️ 116 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this dialogue, based on the new edition of his highly acclaimed bestseller (over 5 million copies sold in over 40 languages), Robert Cialdini — New York Times bestselling author of Pre-Suasion and the seminal expert in the fields of influence and persuasion — explains the psychology of why people say yes and how to apply these insights ethically in business and everyday settings. Shermer and Cialdini discuss: Cialdini’s Universal Principles of Influence and 7 Principles of Persuasion, pluralistic ignorance, free will/determinism, cults, conformity, #BLM, #metoo, antiracism, social justice, and human rights. How rational are humans? Do we default to truth and naturally believe what people tell us? Are we natural-born skeptics or natural-born sheep?

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Michael Sherman Show.
0:07.0	All right, I guess today is the great Dr. Robert Childini. He's the Regents Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University and an award-winning behavioral scientist and author.
0:22.0	He's the president and CEO of
0:23.8	influence at work focusing on live and virtual keynotes, streaming and online
0:29.4	corporate training, an acknowledgement of his outstanding research achievements and contributions in behavioral science, Dr. Childini was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.
0:43.0	He has over 230 professional and scientific publications
0:47.0	and is known as the foundational expert in the science of influence,
0:51.0	and is frequently referred to as the godfather of influence.
0:55.8	Well that's pretty obvious why the book is called influence, a psychology of persuasion.
1:00.8	It's probably I don't know one of the handful of the best-selling
1:03.6	psych books ever and it's got a new edition now and I listen to the whole thing
1:09.7	it was I don't know like 20-something hours on audio fabulous read he reads it which I like
1:15.2	but the you know the the updates include current events things from just even during the
1:20.6	pandemic so it's nice to get that update. So we go through his
1:25.0	seven principles of persuasion that are part of his universal principles of
1:28.7	influence. We talk about the good and evil uses of these principles.
1:32.7	They could be put to good use or to bad use.
1:36.1	And we talk about to what extent humans are naturally gullible
1:40.0	and fall for these kinds of influences.
1:42.3	Are we naturally skeptical? and it takes a lot of
1:44.3	work to get us to be influenced by these factors.
1:50.2	We talk about to what extent we're rational or not rational this is kind of debate between
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