This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedantam.

From high school corridors to the corridors of power,

human beings are always trying to influence one another.

We try to convince others to like the books and music we love.

We want colleagues to follow our suggestions on changes at work.

We lobby friends and family to support the political parties we endorse.

But have you ever noticed, some people are more effective at persuasion than others.

They convince others to go along with their ideas to agree with them.

These people are better at sales, better at winning elections,

maybe even better at scoring dates.

What explains this?

Charisma, charm, good looks?

Today we launched the first of a two-part mini series that examines the science of influence.

Insights from the world of persuasion this week on Hidden Brain.

Robert Chaldeini grew up in Milwaukee in the 1950s.

From an early age, he was an observer of human nature.

I grew up in an entirely Italian family, in a predominantly Polish neighborhood,

in a historically German city, in an otherwise rural state.

And what happened to me in my thinking fairly early on was to recognize the norms

associated with each of those subcultures was different, enough to make it more likely

that somebody would say yes to you if you understood what those norms and factors were

that described how people were to behave in each of those situations.

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