International Law

Persuasion Science and Practice

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Dr. Robert Cialdini has a neat article about reciprocation at his Inside Influence website. "The rule for reciprocation--that we feel obligated to give back to others the form of behavior they have first given to us--explains a lot of human behavior, including some baffling instances.

Take, for instance what happened on May 27, 2007 when a Washington, DC-based government official named Christiaan Kroner crowed to a news reporter about the "remarkably effective" governmental action that had followed the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

He spoke with unconcealed pride of how "pumps, ships, helicopters, engineers, and humanitarian relief" had been sent both rapidly and adeptly to the flooded city of New Orleans and many other sites of the calamity (Hunter, 2007)."

Like all of Cialdini's examples, this one has a twist. Before you read his article, try to figure it out. Hint: what nationality is Christiaan Kroner?

Another interesting perspective on our inability to see much beyond our selves, from BPS Research:

"Psychologists in America have documented an unusual form of egocentrism that affects us all.

University students who were asked to judge how high an unencumbered women would be able to jump, made lower estimates when they had weights attached to their own ankles, compared with when they didn't."

Now that is a real anchoring effect!

Full post as published by Misleading Advertising Law on September 17, 2008 (boomark / email).