Friday, November 30, 2012

Helping Animals by Getting Humans to Say "Yes"

Advocating for animals almost always involves persuading others. Whether you are persuading individuals, companies or policy makers to do right by animals or persuading other advocates to join you in your crusade. How people are persuaded to say "Yes" or take a particular action or position is, as you might imagine, an incredibly large area of study.  Lucky for us the Influence at Work team have created an 11 minute short cut. 

This 11 minute YouTube video is breaks down the piles of "yes science" into 6 core principles:
1) Reciprocity
2) Scarcity 
3) Authority 
4) Consistency 
5) Liking 
6) Consensus. 

As you watch think about how you can apply these principles to your campaigns and daily interactions.   



If you want to learn more I also recommend the book "The Art of Woo. Using Strategic Persuasion to Sell Your Ideas."

I admit, I first picked up the book because of the cute pair of parakeets on the cover (which I am sure was a scientifically predictable reaction and book marketing strategy), but it was well worth the read. The book is also available in audio.