The small BIG: small changes that spark big influence by Steve Martin & Noah Goldstein & Robert Cialdini

Author:Steve Martin & Noah Goldstein & Robert Cialdini
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Profile Books
Published: 2014-08-28T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 29

* * *

Why might love be the only SMALL BIG you need?

On 25 June 1967, an estimated 400 million people from around the globe tuned in to the world’s first-ever live satellite television broadcast, Our World. For two and a half hours, it showcased artists from close to twenty countries in an eclectic mix of performances, from opera singers and choir boys to ranchers herding cattle, interspersed with occasional educational segments explaining the workings of the Tokyo subway system and the world clock. It was the closing of this broadcast, however, that was etched into the memories of most viewers.

Having been tasked by the British Broadcasting Corporation to perform a song with an underlying message that would be understood by all, The Beatles performed “All You Need Is Love.” Given that the broadcast occurred at the height of the Vietnam War, some speculated that the song was a not-so-subtle attempt by the song’s author, John Lennon, to deliver propaganda through his art. Regardless, whatever underlying motivations may or may not have existed, few argued with Lennon’s assertion to both the connecting and healing qualities of love.

As a team of persuasion scientists and practitioners, we would assert that love has influencing qualities too. Thankfully, you’ll be relieved to learn that we are not about to suggest that you need to sing to the whole world. Instead we are going to suggest you do something much, much smaller, and that is simply to accompany your influence attempt with a single cue that acts as a signal for love.

Since the dawn of time there can be no doubting the extraordinary influence that the concept of love has had and continues to have on our lives. It is perhaps surprising then that at least until recently relatively few studies have tried to demonstrate the effects of love thoughts on persuasion.

In one study, conducted by the French behavioral psychologists Jacques Fischer-Lokou, Lubomir Lamy, and Nicolas Guéguen, pedestrians walking alone were stopped on a shopping street to participate in a survey in which they were asked to remember either a meaningful episode of love or a meaningful piece of music in their lives. After they had completed the survey and had walked on for a few minutes, the pedestrians were approached by a person holding a map and asking for directions. Those individuals who had previously been cued to think about the concept of love were significantly more helpful in the amount of time they were willing to spend in the effort.

In another set of studies, Guéguen and Lamy have shown how the simple action of including the word love on charitable appeals can lead to significant increases in donations. When researchers added the words donating = helping to standard charity collection boxes, they measured a 14 percent increase in donations compared to collection boxes that simply had information about the appeal. However, when the word helping was changed to loving, so the sign read donating = loving, donations increased by over 90 percent. That’s a pretty impressive uplift for a small BIG that required a change to just one single word.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.