A quick and simple way to influence others:
is study reports the results of three field experiments which demonstrate that asking someone how they feel, having them verbally respond, and then acknowledging that response, facilitates compliance with a charitable request. The findings are discussed with respect to the influence of public commitments on behavioral consistency. Before you ask anyone for a donation, you first ask them how they're feeling. After they tell you they're feeling good, and you tell them you're glad they're feeling good, they'll be more…
1 min read
How to easily appear more powerful:
status expectations affect how we interpret interruption in conversation? Two experiments examined how interrupters and their targets are perceived in same- and mixed-gender dyads. In Experiment 1, participants listened to a brief audiotaped conversation in which one person interrupted the other five times. In Experiment 2, four confederates (two men and two women) systematically interrupted naïve participants while discussing an article. In general, interrupters gained in status and targets of interruption lost status. In addition, participants who were interrupted…
1 min read
Do we think people with beards are more trustworthy?
is research analyses the effects of endorsers' beardedness (i.e., the state of being bearded) on their perceived credibility and consumers' purchase intention for various categories of products. According to Ohanian (1990), credibility is a construct with three sub-dimensions: attractiveness, the degree to which the source's physical appearance and/or its perceived personality is appealing; expertise, the extent to which the communicator is perceived as a source of valid assertions; and trustworthiness, the degree of confidence aroused in perceivers. Recent research has…
2 minutes
Lie to Me: Can the tv show teach you to detect lies?
ie to Me viewers were no better at distinguishing truths from lies but were more likely than control participants to misidentify honest interviewees as deceptive." The new television series Lie to Me portrays a social scientist solving crimes through his ability to read nonverbal communication. Promotional materials claim the content is based on actual science. Participants (N = 108) watched an episode of Lie to Me, a different drama, or no program and then judged a series of honest and…
1 min read
You Assume That Attractive People Are Similar To You
vestigated whether people attribute the same personality-trait characteristics to culturally desirable others as they attribute to themselves. 66 undergraduates were exposed to slides depicting facial photographs of college-aged females whose physical attractiveness was systematically varied (high, average, low). They were asked to rate both themselves and each target on an array of positive, neutral, and negative trait descriptors. Ss assumed that greater similarity existed between themselves and attractive others than between themselves and less attractive others. Findings are paralleled on…
1 min read
How can you make someone think they’re getting a discount when they aren’t?
e a yellow price tag: The purpose of this article is to find out the relationship between yellow price tags and consumer reference prices. A laboratory study was conducted among 150 respondents, who were put in an experimental purchase situation and their initial internal reference prices were compared affected reference prices. The results revealed that consumers perceive yellow price tags as presenters of discounts. A comparison of the mean values showed that yellow price tags influence the reference price and,…
1 min read
Can which products are next to each other on a store shelf influence what you buy?
is research demonstrates the strong influence of disgust in a consumer context. Specifically, it shows how consumer evaluations may change in response to physical contact with products that elicit only moderate levels of disgust. Using evidence from six studies, the authors develop a theory of product contagion, in which disgusting products are believed to transfer offensive properties through physical contact to other products they touch, thus influencing evaluations. Source: "Product Contagion: Changing Consumer Evaluations Through Physical Contact with “Disgusting” Products"…
1 min read
Is a cheeseburger an effective persuasion tool?
e purpose of this experiment was to follow up on previous findings of a gain in opinion change produced by eating-while-reading (Razran, 1940; Janis, Kaye, and Kirschner, 1965) by testing predictions from a “conditioning” theory and from an alternative explanation in terms of greater receptivity to any communication endorsed by E, the donor of the food. A factorial design was used to determine the extent to which the opinion changes induced by two persuasive communications were influenced by (1) E's giving…
2 minutes
