Introduction

Cialdini admits to being "a sucker" - an easy mark for salesmen and fundraisers, who often found himself buying things he didn't really want and not quite understanding why. He expects this is what led him to study compliance - to fathom the reasons he would say "yes" to other so easily.

Compliance extends well beyond the realm of sales, and is often used in daily life: we are constantly needing to gain the cooperation of others, and many people understand in a vague sense how to get others to assist and support them.

He had done academic research, but found it unsatisfactory: it provide a theoretical framework, but lacked a connection to the manner in which compliance is used in real time. Most salesmen aren't astute or particularly well educated, but they are able to make a living using compliance tactics, and can be quite successful at getting people to agree to serve their interests.

His later studies have been ethnographic: observing compliance practitioners at work to discover the techniques and strategies that are successful in practice, as well as interviewing the practitioners, even getting training in sales to learn their methods. He mentions working in sales, advertising, fundraising, and other organizations that are dedicated to getting people to do what they want.

He suggests that there are "thousands" of different tactics, but that they fall within six basic categories, each of which is governed by a basic psychological principle. So the present book is organized into six chapters, one on each of the tactics: reciprocation, commitment, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity.

It's also worth of note that he has not included the most basic rule of material self-interest: getting people to do what they can plainly see benefits them is not particularly difficult. It is getting people to do things that they do not benefit from that merits greater attention - as it is purely psychological to get people to say "yes" without thinking of their self-interest.