Yes!

50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive

Noah Goldsteins, Steve Martins (not the comedian) and Robert Cialdinis
Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive is a pop psych book, where a bunch
of research in psychology is distilled into one readable volume.

50 scientifically proven ways constitute 50 chapter of the book, longest of which takes 7
pages. The authors take the position that persuasion is a science, not an art, hence with
the right approach anybody can become the master in the skill of persuasion. So, what are
the 50 ways?

1. Inconvenience the audience by creating an impression of product scarcity. Its

the famous change from Call now, the operators are standing by to If the line
is busy, call again, that greatly improved the call volume by creating the
impression that everybody else is trying to buy the same product.
2. Introduce herd effect in highly personalized form. The hotel sign in the bathroom
informed the guests that many prior guests chose to be environmentally friendly
by recycling their towels. However, when the message mentioned that majority of
the guests who stayed in this specific room chose to be more environmentally
conscious and reused their towels, towel recycling jumped 33%, even though the

message was largely the same.

3. Ads quoting negative behavior en masse reinforces negative behavior. Petrified
Forest National Park A/B tested two versions of a sign imploring people not to
steal pieces of petrified forest from the park. One mentioned large amounts of
petrified forest taken away on an annual basis, the other one simply asked the
visitors not to remove petrified wood. The first one actually tripled the theft ratio
as it showed stealing petrified wood as something commonplace. Same effect was
observed after airing an ad that implored women to vote, but mentioned that 22
million single women did not vote last year. That kind of information actually
portrays not voting as more socially acceptable.
4. Avoiding magnetic middle. A California survey measured energy usage of a
neighborhood on a week-by-week basis. When the average electricity
consumption for the neighborhood was calculated, researchers sent thank-you
cards to those using the energy conservatively, and a nice reminder to perhaps
conserve to those who used electricity liberally. Net effect? Why the liberals tried
to cut down on unnecessary energy usage, the conservatives, finding out theyre
way below average, suddenly became way more liberal with their energy usage,
which actually increased the amount of energy used by the neighborhood.
Proposed solution that worked? Sending a smiley face card to conservatives with

a request to keep doing what they were doing, instead of pointing out they were at
the right end of the bell curve.
5. Too many options necessitate selection, and hence frustration, when brain
decides its unnecessary work. The example here is given by a company that
manages retirement funds for other companies, and hence has access to retirement
information of 800,000 employees. When employees were offered a choice of 2
funds, roughly 75% signed up for a retirement program. When the number of
funds was increased to 59%, even though qualitatively this was a better deal for
employees, only 60% decided to sign up. When Head & Shoulders brand killed
off 11 flavors of the shampoo, leaving only 15 on the market, the sales rose 10%.
6. Giving away the product makes it less desirable. Researchers gave one group of
people a picture of a pearl bracelet and asked to evaluate its desirability. Another
group of people was given the same task, but prior to that was shown an ad, where
the same bracelet was given away for free, if you bought a bottle of expensive
liqueur. Second group considered the bracelet much less desirable, since mentally
a lot of potential buyers (35% of them to be exact) shuffled the bracelet onto
trinkets they give away for free shelf in their brain.
7. A more expensive product makes the old version look like a value buy. An
example here is a Williams-Sonoma bread maker. After an introduction of a

newer, better, and pricier version, the sales of the old unit actually increased, as
couples viewed the new item as top of the line, but old product was all of a
sudden reasonably-priced, even though a bunch of features were missing.
8. If a call to action is motivated by fear, people will block it, unless call to action
has specific steps. A group of people received a pamphlet describing the dangers
of tetanus infection. It didnt describe much else. The second group of people got
a description of tetanus infection, plus a set of instructions on how to get
vaccinated. The second group exhibited much higher sign-up rate for tetanus
vaccination than the first one, where many participants tried to block out the highfear message urging that something as rare as tetanus would never happen to
them.
9. A small gift makes people want to reciprocate. People who received a small nostrings-attached gift from a stranger were twice as likely to buy raffle tickets from
him than those who were just pitched on raffle tickets.
10. Hand-written Post-It note improves response rate on inter-office letters.
Researchers distributed three sets of questionnaires around the office. First set
included a hand-written Post-It note requesting completion of the survey. Second
set got the same survey, with the request to return it hand-written on Page 1. Third
group got the same survey with their name mentioned (in type) on page 1 of the

survey. Response rates? 75%, 48%, 36%. People appreciated personalized

approach, and somehow a Post-It note even highlighted the extra work that
someone did before sending out the survey.
11. How restaurant mints are a personalized affair. Lets a say a restaurant provides
mints for its customers on the way out. If the amount of tips per week is the
baseline for that restaurant, lets make the waiters include a mint as they give the
check to the customer. The tips go up by 3.3%. However, when the waiters offer
the mints themselves, prior to signing the check, the tipping amount went up by
14.1%. In yet another experiment, the waiter would present the patrons with 1
mint per guest, then give them the check, then turning around to leave, then, as if
remembering something sudden, turning around and giving them yet another mint
per guest. Result? 23% increase in tips, as this signaled high amount of
personalization.
12. Attaching no strings increases response to the message. Using the same hotel as
the one mentioned in Chapter 2, researchers tried out two different versions of the
sign. First one: if you reuse the towels, a donation will be made to a nonprofit
environmental organization. Second version: the donation has already been made,
since the hotel trusted youd reuse the towels anyways. Recipients of the second
message reused their towels 45% more than the recipients of the first one.

13. As time goes by, the value of a favor increases in the eyes of the favor-giver,
and decreases in the eyes of the favor-receiver. Researchers asked a group of
people in the random office environment to exchange favors and then rate the
value of the given/received favor in their eyes. A few weeks later the same
employees were reminded of the favor, and asked to evaluate the favor again.
Favor-givers consistently assigned higher value to a given favor, while as the time
passed by, favor-receivers tended to assign lower value to the received favor.
14. Asking for small favors changes self-perception, introducing ways for big
favors. Researchers asked a group of homeowners to place a large Drive
Carefully sign on their front lawn. Only 17% agreed. In a second group of
homeowners, 76% of people were ok with road traffic people maintaining the sign
on their beautiful lawns. What was the difference between two groups? A few
weeks earlier group B was asked to display a small non-intrusive window sign
asking drivers to slow down. This mental foot-in-the-door technique made
homeowners from the group B view themselves as socially responsible and
safety-aware, hence a request for a larger favor few weeks later didnt startle
them.
15. Labeling people into a social group tends to increase their participation ratio.
A group of people was interviewed regarding their voting patterns. Half of them

were told that based on their response criteria, they were very likely to vote, since
they were deemed to be more politically active. Later on the election day that
specific half did indeed turn up a participation rate that was 15% higher than
participation of the control group.
16. Asking people to substantiate their decision will lead to higher commitment
rate on that decision. Researchers called a group of people asking them how
likely they were to vote in an upcoming election. Those who responded positively
were either asked nothing, or asked why they felt they would vote. Any reason
would suffice, but when the election day came, the turnout for the control group
(who all responded Yes to the question of whether they were going to vote) was
61.5%. Turnout for the group that actually gave a reason (any reason)? 86.7%. A
restaurant stopped telling customers Please call to cancel your reservation and
started asking Will you call and let us know if you need to cancel? Net result?
Number of reservation no-shows dropped from 30% to 10%.
17. Writing things down improves commitment. Group A was asked to volunteer on
AIDS awareness program at local schools, and was asked to commit verbally.
Group B was asked for the same kind of volunteer project, but was given a simple
form to fill in. 17% of volunteers from Group A actually showed up to their
assigned local school. From Group B 49% of volunteers showed up.

18. The fact that circumstances changed allows people to change their viewpoints
without being viewed as inconsistent. People are generally not thrilled to change
their viewpoints on something, as they fear they will display lack of consistency
and be called a flip-flopper. Convincing people that their old decision (to stick
with the old product) was completely 100% correct under old circumstances
allows them to be more responsive to the messages that imply a new product/idea
is better because the circumstances radically changed since then.
19. Sometimes asking people for help makes them more open. Group A was given
some bogus research that included a sum of prize money. After the experiment,
the researcher approached them and asked whether it wouldnt be inconvenient if
they had to give the money back, since the researcher was using his own money.
Group B was not approached with such request after their portion of bogus
experiment was done, and was allowed to keep the money. After this both groups
were asked to rate their impression of the researcher. Even though it was the first
group who didnt get to keep any money, all of them consistently rated the
researcher higher on likability scale.
20. Asking for little goes a long way. Researchers went door-to-door asking for
American Cancer Society donations. Group A just asked for a donation, group B
ended their spiel with even a penny would help. Results? 28.6% response rate

for Group A vs. 50% response for Group B.

21. Lower starting prices attract higher bids. This is a reference to a study of eBay
items where people consistently bid items with a lower starting price higher. The
explanation seems to focus on the fact that people invest more time into updating
bids for a lower-priced item to let it go.
22. How to impress a potential customer with credentials without being labeled as
a show-off? Public speakers have someone else introduce them, a real estate
company made a slight improvements to their phone service by directing people
to Jane, who has 10 years of experience with houses in upper price range, and
physicians display their diplomas on the walls.
23. The danger of being the smartest person in the room. The expert card frequently
trumps any other card in the room. The example here is that the scientists who
discovered the double-helix of the DNA were never prime DNA experts, which
made them hungrier for new discoveries, and made them question established
rules.
24. Devils advocate example works with large organizations. Leaders who
consistently seek out dissenting opinions earn more respect, and generally have
better agreement with people in the room than those who rule by lying the law
and persecuting dissenters.

25. Negative examples are memorized better than positive examples. When one
group of firefighters went through the list of real-life mistakes other firefighters
have made, and another group just went through the list of positive things to do,
the first group demonstrated better judgment when faced with real-life tests. Our
brain seems to discount the best practices, but single out bad examples of
someone else making a mistake.
26. Admitting negatives up-front might lead to better communication. When
Progressive says that they will compare your rate against their competitors, and
when original VW Bug was introduced in the US, both companies pursued a
strategy of highlighting the negative stuff only to open conversation about the true
values their product has to offer.
27. Spinning negative facts as positive allows customers to make a mental link
towards the positive. Among the viewers who viewed an ad advertising
restaurants cozy atmosphere, an ad advertising the restaurant and lack of parking
spaces, and an ad mentioning both, the third group made a connection between
cozy atmosphere and bad parking situation. The restaurant was so cozy, the
customers reasoned, that they didnt even have enough parking spots, which made
them even cozier in the eyes of a customer.
28. Admitting youre wrong makes people trust you more. Company A published

an investors relations report, contributing slump in sales to overall economic

climate. Company B said slump of sales was relevant to a few bad decisions by
top management. Net result? Investors viewed company B more positively. Youd
think that theyd be viewed as a bunch of screw-ups, but admission of a mistake
made investors more confident the situation was under control, while company A
investors got the uneasy feeling of the ship floating in the waters with captain
losing control.
29. Similarities raise the response rate. A person named Cindy Johnson received a
survey request by mail from someone named Cynthia Johannson. Someone
named John Smith received a survey from Gregory Jordan. The name similarity in
the first case (note that its just phonetic similarity, none of the names are the
same) brought up the response rate to 56% vs. regular 30%.
30. People like the sound of their name, and that defines their vocation. There are
three times as many dentists named Dennis as any other names. Number of
Florences living in Florida is disproportionately high, same goes for Louises
living in Louisiana.
31. Verbalization helps interaction. Waiters who repeat customers order to them
make 70% more in tips than waiters who just say Okay. Our mind
subconsciously appreciates the effort taken to ensure the things are perfectly right.

32. Just smiling makes for a poorer customer service. Group A was exposed to a
hotel clerk smiling, while peppering the customer with questions regarding their
preferences and ways to improve their hotel stay. Group B had just a smiling clerk
performing her duties. Group B was more likely to rate the smile as fake.
33. People pay more for the stuff thats about to disappear. Oldsmobile sales rose
after GM announced the end of life for the line. Australian beef purchases rose
after customers learned this years supply would be severely diminished because
of the weather conditions. Concorde sales took off right after British Airways
announced the hyper-speed flights would be shut down.
34. When people feel something is about to go away, they will stick to perception
of the product being better than the new one. In majority of blind tests
customers chose New Coke over Classic Coke. Yet when New Coke was
introduced, massive protests were staged. When the same drink was packaged
into Classic Coke and New Coke bottles, customers still claimed they preferred
the Classic Coke and could taste the difference, even though labeling was the only
thing that differed two drinks.
35. Because makes any explanation rational. In a line to Kinkos copy machine a
researcher asked to jump the line by presenting a reason Can I jump the line,
because I am in a rush? 94% of people complied. Good reason, right? Okay, lets

change the reason. Can I jump the line since I need to make copies? Excuse
me? Thats why everybody is in the line to begin with. Yet 93% of people
complied. A request without because in it generated 24% compliance.
36. Asking people to choose reasons themselves might backfire. Two groups were
given an ad by BMW. Group A saw an ad saying So many reasons to buy a
BMW. Can you name 10? Group B saw an ad saying So many reasons to buy a
BMW. Can you name 1? After the ad both groups were asked to evaluate their
likelihood of buying a BMW. Similar to whats described in Chapter 5, people
who had to name 10 reasons actually named Mercedes-Benz, a competitive brand,
as their probably choice, while Group B named BMW as their likely next vehicle,
compared to Mercedes-Benz.
37. People like stocks with more pronounceable names. Research of stock tickers
between 1999 and 2004 looked at the relationship between the phonetic fluency of
the stock and its rise through IPO, then 12 months later, then throughout its
lifetime. The result? Stocks with more pronounceable names produced higher
returns, even though nobody yells out the tickers on the exchange floor anymore.
38. Rhyming makes the phrases more convincing. People were asked to evaluate the
practical value of parables Caution and measure will win you treasure and
Caution and measure will win you riches. In general proverb A was considered

to be more practical and insightful than proverb B.

39. Amount of information is context-dependent. A group of people was given an ad
for department store A, extolling in great detail the 6 departments that A had.
Another group was given a short blurb on store A, presenting mainly abstract
information. After that store B was presented to both groups with information on
3 departments given to both groups. The first group thought they preferred A,
since A volunteered more information and B seemed shadier in comparison. The
second group did exactly the opposite and preferred store B, which volunteered
detailed info on 3 departments, while As message was an abstract blurb.
40. Incentive programs need a good start. A car-wash place gave one group of
customers a free car wash after 8 washes, and everybody got their first stamp after
their visit. Group B got a free car wash after 10 car washes, with 3 stamps on the
card. Both groups needed to make 7 more trips to get a free wash. 19% of the
Group A returned, while 34% of the Group B did.
41. Abstract names allow the customers to come up with reasoning. Crayola found
out that naming colors Cornflower Yellow and Kermit Green worked better than
no adjectives attached to colors. The more abstract the connection, the better it
seemed to work, as people spent mental time working out the connection between
the abstraction and the product in their mind.

42. Ad campaigns that do not incorporate brands tend to not be remembered. A

good portion of people when asked which company was represented by a bunny
and the phrase going, going, and going named Duracell as the advertiser.
Duracell sales increased with the launch of Energizer Bunny campaign.
43. Mirrors make people more self-conscious. A group of trick-or-treating kids was
told to pick up one candy from the jar in the living room, while the adult was in a
different room on some pretense. Group A had a large mirror placed by the candy
jar, group B did not have the mirror. 8.9% of kids with the mirror in the room and
33.7% of the kids with no mirror treated themselves to extra candy. Another
group of people was brought in for what was advertised as gel research, and was
given a hand paper towel to wipe the gel off while heading for the exit. With the
mirror in the hallway, 24% of participants littered, dropping the towel on their
way out, with no mirror, 46% threw the paper towel on the floor without
bothering to find a trash can.
44. Negative emotions make people pay more. Group A was exposed to an emotional
movie about the death of someone close to the main character. Group B saw no
such movie. Both groups were asked then to name a fair price at which theyd buy
the object presented to them. Group A tended to give prices 30% above Group
Bs.

45. Tired people tend to be more receptive to arguments. No wonder those magic
bullet infomercials run so late at night. Both groups were presented to product
demo, and then asked to evaluate the possibility of buying it. Group A was tired
and a bit sleep-deprived, group B was in good physical condition. Group A was
much more prone to buy.
46. Caffeine increases the argumentativeness of a strong argument. Group A drank
regular orange juice, group B drank orange juice infused with caffeine. Both
groups were then presented with a statement on controversial issue. Except one
statement then made weak and hasty arguments, while second statement made a
strong case. Both groups equally dismissed the weak argument case. As far as
strongly argumentative case, group B was 30% more receptive. A faster-working
brain under the influence of caffeine seems to appreciate good arguments.
47. Face time still beats e-mail time. Group A was given time to get to know one
another in person, then resolve a conflict via e-mail. Group B got a similar task,
except no face-to-face communications. 6% of the Group As failed to come up at
a good resolution, while 29% of Group Bs arrived at impasse.
48. Individualism is perceived differently in many countries. In US and Western
Europe a chewing gum campaign that accentuated you, only better seemed to
get more success, than a similar campaign in Eastern Europe and Asia, with much

more collectivism built into the culture. In those countries, emphasizing that
chewing gum was much more tolerable for other people who can smell your
breath, was perceived better.
49. Notion of commitment among various cultures differ. A group of American
students was asked to complete a short marketing survey. A few weeks later they
got invited for a second survey, which was going to take twice as long. No pay for
either survey. The same experiment was conducted among Asian students. The
response rates among American students was 22%, response rate among Asian
students was 10%. Research suggests that while American students relied only on
their own experience, Asian students found out that few of their peers responded
to the first request to complete the survey, which triggered their negative
response.
50. Response to voice mail differs among Americans and Japanese. When faced
with a voicemail message, 50% of Americans, and 85% of Japanese hang up.
Respondents from Japanese test group pointed out the personal touch of the
conversation (intonation, pauses, volume) was important to them and impossible
to reproduce over voicemail.

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