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How To Persuade People Without Being A Scam "Artist" - The Catalyst by Jonah Berger - by Sarah Cy - Be A Brilliant Writer - Medium
How To Persuade People Without Being A Scam "Artist" - The Catalyst by Jonah Berger - by Sarah Cy - Be A Brilliant Writer - Medium
2024, 16:23 How to Persuade People Without Being a Scam “Artist” — The Catalyst by Jonah Berger | by Sarah Cy | Be a Brilliant Writer |…
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Sarah Cy · Follow
Published in Be a Brilliant Writer
12 min read · Sep 3, 2020
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In this book, Berger introduces the acronym REDUCE, which not only reminds
readers of the concept of “reducing the challenge to change,” but also of each major
concept that can help you do just that.
Book in one sentence: To persuade others, make them think it’s their idea.
Who this book for: People interested in psych-marketing, and fans of Berger.
1. Content: the ideas in this book are interesting, edifying, and worth learning.
2. Berger’s political leanings are too obvious in the book. It may be unavoidable,
but blatant. However, his use of stories and case studies is helpful.
2. In the absence of persuasion, people think they’re doing what THEY want.
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4. Starting by trying to influence someone makes it about you. It’s not about other
people, their wants and motivations, it’s about you and what you want.
7. The more ambiguity there is around a product, service, or idea, the less valuable
that thing becomes.
Introduction
Berger starts with a story about a hostage negotiator who helped a SWAT team get a
criminal to come out on his own without incident. (From the perspective of Greg
Vecchio, an FBI agent)
Crisis negotiation came after the 1972 Munich Olympics, when 11 Israeli athletes
were killed. Before, it was about force. Now, people have learned to get the guy to
“come out by himself.”
Everything has something they want to change, but change is hard. Isaac Newton
was the one who talked about this concept of inertia. Inertia means that people tend
to do what they’ve always done.
Some people think that if you just push people, give more information, more facts,
more reasons and arguments, or more force, people will change. But people are not
like marbles. They push back.
Being the catalyst is equally powerful in the social world. It’s not about trying to be a
better persuader or be more convincing. It’s about changing minds by removing
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barriers.
Push people and they will snap. Tell them what to do and they probably won’t listen.
Good hostage negotiator start by listening and building trust. They encourage
people to talk to their fears and motivations and who’s waiting for them at home,
even pets. Great negotiators don’t push harder or increase the heat. They identify
the barrier and remove it like a catalyst.
Most people think changing minds is about presenting evidence and explaining
reasons, but we forget about the person who’s mind we’re trying to change.
2. Endowment: People are stuck two what they’re doing and don’t want to switch.
Catalysts highlight how inaction isn’t costless.
…From changing the boss’s mind and driving Britons to support Brexit to changing
consumer behavior and getting a grand Dragon to renounce the Ku Klux Klan.
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Chapter 1 Reactance
Berger starts with story of Chuck Wolfe, asked to get teens to stop smoking in
Florida.
A nursing home found that residents who had more control (where to put their
decorations, etc) were more cheery and active, and long term lived longer.
People need freedom/autonomy. They like feeling they have control over their
choices/actions/behavior.
When you try to convince people, you give them an alternate explanation for their
interest which threatens their perceived freedom. And they then react against
persuasion and do the opposite.
This happens even when people wanted to take that action in the first place. People
need to see their behavior as freely driven or it’ll backfire.
People have an anti persuasion radar, and they’re constantly scanning for influence
attempts. If they find one, they set up countermeasures, such as avoidance and
ignoring the message.
And when you make a claim, people don’t take it at face value. They scrutinize and
argue against those claims. They raise objections until the message falls apart.
Catalyst allow for agency. They don’t try to persuade and get people to persuade
themselves instead.
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The reason why the anti-smoking campaigns didn’t work before, because they
always implied that they knew what’s best for you and you should listen to them.
So Chuck took a different route: He showed teenagers how the tobacco companies
were trying to manipulate them in order to sell cigarettes.
He showed how the company’s manipulated politics, sports, TV, Etc, to make
smoking seem cool.
“Here is what the industry is doing, you tell us what you want to do about it.”
Leon didn’t demand anything from the teens or tell them what to do. It left it out for
them to decide, and it works. The truth campaign was so powerful that in 2002,
tobacco companies try to sue them.
2. Ask, don’t tell: Don’t make statements. Ex: GRE prep course asked students how
much time they thought they’d need to master the material.
3. Highlight a gap: The Smoking Kid campaign sent children to ask smokers for a
light. When refused, the kids would give them a note saying “you care about my
health, why not your own?” (cognitive dissonance)
Before people will change, they have to be willing to listen. They have to trust the
person they’re communicating with.
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Seasons negotiators don’t start with what they want, they start with whom they want
to change.
Listening makes a person feel like they are a stakeholder in the relationship.
Stay in their frame, make it about them, and that lays the groundwork for influence.
You become their helper, their Advocate, their means to get what they want.
Use the right language. You, we. Mirror their words back to them. Instead of trying
to persuade, start by understanding.
No one likes feeling someone is trying to influence them. After all, when’s the last time you
changed your mind because someone told you to?
Berger ends with a case study about a KKK member who was won over by a kind
Jewish rabbi and his wife, Michael and Julie Weisser. They did it by leaving “love
notes,” kind phone messages, in response to Weisser’s hateful harassment.
In some strange way, emulating the thing that had hurt him the most gave Larry the
strength you needed to go on. Until one day someone showed him another option.
“Larry, you better think about all this hatred you’re spreading, because one day you ‘re
going to have to answer to God for all this hatred, and it’s not going to be easy.”
No one had tried to think why Larry was a problem in the first place. As Michael
Weisser said, “love your neighbor” means loving neighbors different from you.
Chapter 2 Endowment
Berger starts with a story about not wanting to change to a new phone. (Loss
aversion — people value what they already have)
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Paradox: recovery is faster for severe > mild injuries because people will do their
physical therapy for serious injuries.
It’s hard to get people to change when things are not-terrible, or just-okay, not-great.
Ex: A financial advisor convinced her client to invest by keeping track of how much
potential money he was losing by not investing.
Cost-benefit time gap: You pay up front for the product before you receive the
benefit. This is another deterrent to change.
People need to see how much time or money is lost: more motivating than seeing
what is gained.
Burn the ships: Cortes and Tariq ibn Ziyad, and ancient Chinese saying.
Burning bridges/ships takes inaction off the table and forces people to get off the old
way.
Catalyzing change isn’t just about making people more comfortable with new things, it’s
about helping them let go of old ones.
Case study on how Brexit passed: they used Brexit bus ads showing the cost of
sending the EU 350 million pounds a week for health. Slogan? “Take BACK control.”
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Same with Trump’s “Make America Great AGAIN.” (Reagan did a similar thing in
1980s.
Chapter 3 Distance
For people with less favorable attitudes toward X [Ex: perceived link between
vaccines and autism], learning the truth about X actually backfires and pushes them
farther.
Region of rejection vs Zone of acceptance: Won’t consider vs the place where people
agree the most and the range of views they could consider.
That’s why “one person’s truth is another’s fake news.” Whether something seems
true depends on where you stand on the “field.” Plus, don’t forget confirmation bias.
Catalysts use a “more surgical approach” and target people with specific, relevant
messages, looking for the moveable middle” and “behavioral residue” that indicates
conflicting ideas/willingness to change.
And if someone’s really stubborn, change the field. Find a dimension where there is
already agreement and use it as a pivot. This has a long-lasting effect.
Deep canvassing: Encourage people to find a parallel situation from their own
situation, when they felt similarly about something. (Not exactly the same, because
people can’t really imagine what it’s like to be others) Look for an unsticking point
where they agree.
Highlight ways people already agree or are moving in the direction. Ex: book that
says:
Congratulations, whether you realize it or not, simply by picking up this book you have
taken the first of what I hope will be many steps… To reclaiming your physical health,
well-being, and happiness. (Greene, 2002)
Berger ends with two stories of Repubs and Democrats switching sides.
As with most big changes, things didn’t happen right away. Someone had to shrink the
distance. It took a number of small steps rather than one big leap. Multiple interactions
over months or even years. A slow, gradual change…
Chapter 4 Uncertainty
Berger starts with the story of Shoesite.org which became zappos, and how it was
hard to get started because of the Uncertainty Tax: devaluing things that are
uncertain. And this is a BIGger tax than you think.
1. Freemium: Dropbox
2. Reduce up-front cost: Zappos free shipping, drowning simulator to show how
important life jackets are
3. Drive discovery: Zappos “mental pic of bringing shoe store to your home,” test
drive cars (sell apartments by encouraging house parties, birthday party boxes)
Make magazine free, then people pay for the privilege of NOT LOSING it.
Risk aversion is relevant to the domain of gains, but risk-seeking int he domain of
losses (gambling).
Dividing big things into smaller bits, like a monthly not yearly contract, helps.
Ends with story about employee who wanted to convince boss to treat customers
with more personalization, which he did by enacting the plan on the company
employees first:
To write a few words, personally and accurately, was what generated the most emotion.
You are more likely to accept an opinion from “Another you” someone who is like
you, in terms of likes/dislikes, concerns/values.
Addicts need to change their entire ecosystem to change. Dr. Vernon E Johnson,
forefather of interventions: “rationalization and projection work together to block
[addicts’] awareness of the disease.”
But if many people say the same thing at the same time, there can be a
breakthrough.
People are more likely to change if the people who are doing the thing are from
separate, independent groups, because that provides additional info.
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Also, compressing an intervention into one shorter period of time works better than
extended.
It’s the difference between a sprinkler and a hose strategy. The former for a less
opiniated person, the latter for a harder-to-change mind.
The more proof needed, the more important multiple sources are.
Case study: How the US got people to be willing to eat organ meat during WWII to
save the meat for the soldiers: Kurt Lewin reduced the size of ask (mix some organ
meats in meat loaf), reduce uncertainty and obstacles (gave out free recipes), used
group discussions to make it feel more voluntary.
Epilogue
Another story: to help with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the US created a Seeds of
Peace camp to bring youth together in Maine. This camp helped them improve
relations, even after a long time.
Kurt Lewin: “If you want to truly understand something, try to change it.” The
opposite is true too.
Eureka moments are great in movies but not realistic. big changes are more like the
Grand Canyon.
Why questions can put people on the defense. Better open-ended. Also, use effective
pauses. As does mirroring.
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The Story of the Entire Bible, Part One: The Super Short, Ten-Minute
Version
35 bullet points + extra fun facts
Jan 1, 2018
How to Find Out What Your Prospective Clients REALLY Want — Ask by
Ryan Levesque
Detailed Book Notes Summary
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Mar 12
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Oct 3, 2019
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