Influence Psychology and Persuasion - Mike Sweet - 10 Minute Coach - Develop and Discover

This is session number 022 of the Influence Psychology and Persuasion Podcast. And this show is all about Behavioural Economics Principles. Well not all about but certainly 3 tips to help you understand what this amazing study has to offer.

So, Behavioural economics are sets of psychological studies all around economic decision making. So, if you buy or sell things, this podcast is for you. And if you are involved in marketing, sales and run your own business, this is most definitely for you.

As you're listening to this you will already have a clear understanding that we, humans, are anything but clear or easy to understand. We're odd, we make irrational choices, decisions and statements.

I remember a few years back and my wife came home one Saturday in January. She walked through the door, beaming with pride, came into the living room where I was reading a book, hands at breaking point with carrier bags with a red sale logos splattered all over and held them to my face. She then blurted out "You wouldn't believe how much money I've saved".

Interesting, I though. She wouldn't have bought anything if it wasn't January sales and the fact she had 25+% off. She felt like she'd saved money. Lol.

My wife isn't the only reason for these studies. We all make irrational choices at times. Here are 3 studies to arm you going forward.

Tip Number 1 - FREE!

Now most of us get this. FREE is like a drug which pulls us in for closer inspection. FREE has a magnetic pull that us mortals can't resist. But is this logical?

Forget for a moment that now days we may have been abused by the power of FREE. Most of use will think, but what do you what in return if not money? The science shows we have an unreasonable connection to FREE!

An interesting study was carried out. Researchers offered participants a choice of 2 chocolates. The choice was either a 1 cent Hershey's Kisses or a 15 cent Lindor chocolate truffle. Most of the participants opted to pay for a 15 cent Lindor Truffle because they could see the amazing value, when compared to the Hershey's Kiss.

Here is the interesting part though, when the researchers dropped the price by 1 cent, the vast majority then opted for Hershey Kiss. All because it made it FREE! The word FREE makes us unreasonable. Watch out, or use it to your advantage.

Tip Number 2 - Perceived Value

You all know what we like right? We're not persuaded by price, at all. We simply understand what's good and what's not!

If Only!

The research says we are more likely to admire a bottle of wine if it is priced considerably more. Interesting, this means we may perceive quality based on price.

Here is the bones of the study. The members of a Wine Club were invited in to taste and rate 5 bottles of wine, based purely on what they liked. Here's the sneaky part, there were only 3 different wines. 2 of the wines were in 2 bottles. Haha. However each bottle was only noted with a price label. Nothing else, just price.

Only, there were actually only 3 different wines in those bottles– two wines had two bottles each. Each bottle was marked only with the price tag and nothing else. The prices ranged from $5 to $45 for the same wines and the other ranged in between. So, the $5 wine was also marked at the top price of $45.

There was a clear correlation with the ratings of the wine and the price label. You guessed it. The $45 bottle of wine was rated the highest even though it was the same wine as the $5 bottle.

Here's 2 more examples of how price effects your decision making.

Prozac the anti depressant, was tested against a placebo. In this study they sold the placebo at a price of $2.50 per pill and the real Prozac pill at $2.00. Strange but true, the higher priced placebo out performed Prozac.

Even more disturbing, students were given a caffeine and sugar drink and were told this would help them improve their alertness and cognitive abilities.

But, half of the students were asked to pay full price for this while the other half received a huge discount... The results. The students who received a discount solved 30% fewer puzzles.

This study has been done time and time again in many studies and they all deliver the same results.

Tip Number 3 - Priming

Simply talking about a particular attribute will cause people to make a decision based on how they are primed.

A very simple study was done in a computer store where people who were looking at Laptops were asked 2 things.

The first group were asked how much memory they were looking for, and the second group were asked what processor they wanted. You guessed it, those who were asked about processor purchased a laptop with a high spec processor, and the buyer who were asked about memory chose a new machine based on it high level of memory.

A similar study was done in supermarkets. People ...

This is session number 016 of the Influence Psychology and Persuasion podcast. This show investigates how humans are motivated. Are you playing to your own strengths and do you understand what drives you the most? Statistics and human nature dictates that we are far more likely to make a decision if that decision eliminates either FEAR or LOSS. Examples: Your boss asks you to work another 2 hours on Wednesday evening. If you do this you will earn another £20! Feel motivated to do this? Most of us would base this on whether we needed that additional £20, but how about you boss saying if you don't work on Wednesday evening you'd lose £20 per week from your salary? Think about that for a moment! Changing banks and utility suppliers is a very common one. Comparison sites show you what you can save if you shift, but add that up to what we may lose as a result of changing. What are the Risks associated with changing, what's the hassle that you will have to go through? Car insurers don't tend to have this issue as this is more accepted as a simple process. 1-2-1 therapy, business coaching and performance coaches all talk in terms of the big goal and what you want to achieve. Creating the compelling outcome and that will give you drive for the journey. However, history and psychology tell us a much different story. The truth is, we are far more motivated to take initial action to get away from fear, pain, and anxiety, than we are for achieving a goal or getting a reward. Take a look at this from Usain Bolt "

This is session number 013 of Influence Psychology and Persuasion podcast and this show is all about cognitive dissonance and how we can use it to improve our lives and outcomes dramatically.

This term refers to the situation where you have an internal conflict about your attitude, behaviours or a certain belief. Whenever you have this conflict, it is known as cognitive dissonance and it comes with a feeling of discomfort and in most cases the need to rationalise or reframe to realign those beliefs, thoughts, actions etc.

An example would be: people smoking (their behaviour) yet they know it causes cancer and other serious diseases (their cognition). The cognitive dissonance would then show when a person would try to rationalise, reframe or make it right for them. “I've always done it, and it gives me a timeout”

This is a theory that was presented by Leon Festinger in 1957. When he proposed this cognitive dissonance theory he explained that people want to remain consistent in their initial actions, and beliefs and this can give rise to irrational thinking and even maladaptive behaviour.

A fantastic study that was done by Leon Festinger when he was observing as a participant of a cult that believed the earth was going to be destroyed by a flood. Some of the extremely committed members of this cult had even given up their jobs and their homes to work for the cult full time. Festinger wondered what would happen to the members beliefs when the time arose and the flood did not happen. When the time did arise, some of the fringe members recognised that they had been misinformed or perhaps began building beliefs unnecessarily left the group. However, those more experienced or committed members began to reinterpret or re-frame the evidence to show that there were right all along. Even though before the event was to happen they were absolutely certain that the Earth would end through flood and that members of the cult would be taken away to safety.

Almost instantly, the most committed and experienced of the group fabricated a new justification of why the earth didn't flood or come to an end and this further compounded their belief.

This is session number 017 of the Influence Psychology and Persuasion podcast. This show is all about understanding the impostor syndrome and how it affects us. If you don't know already, the impostor syndrome is a feeling that we get whenever we feel not worthy.These impostor feelings can be subdivided into three separate categories.

The first is basically feeling like a fake. You know you have a little niggling inside that you're about to be found out by someone. Perhaps you're surrounded by others who you feel are more knowledgeable or skilled in certain areas, and you feel your time will come up very soon. Statements from people who feel like this would be things like "I just give the impression that I'm way more competent than I am" or even "I know that one day I'll be found out that I lacked the knowledge that those around me have".

The second part is the inability to own success and to wrap it up as just being lucky. This is something that I'm sure all of us have done at one time or another. Someone may be praising a success or something that we've achieved, only for us to announce it as a fluke or that the competition at that time wasn't up to par either.

The last category is fairly similar to the second and this is also discounting success. This is where a person really downplays the successes that they have had. "I don't know why you're making a fuss" or " anybody could have done it".

Different variations of impostor syndrome will show for most people during their lifetime in many different areas or situations. It's extremely common though with highly achieving, highly successful people this is what separates impostor syndrome from simply low self-esteem. Impostor syndrome comes from the discrepancy of big achievements and the person not taking ownership or playing down the result.

1. Let go! if you're feeling like a fake it's normally because you've related it to what normal would feel like! Therefore, you need to simply detach from that perfection that you have assigned and let go of the importance that you have added to it.
2. Grab it back! The complete polar opposite from the above, but also beneficial. If you feel like a fraud because you're lucky, then gain back some control them realise that you had so much input to the successes.
3. Be all you can be. you have to absolutely give it your all to avoid the impostor syndrome. Let's face it, sometimes we are just lucky. So as long as you know you have added value and put in effort as much as possible, then you've done all you can.
4. Continue driving forward. The impostor syndrome thrives and grows in stagnation. Therefore, continue driving forward and taking action, this tenacity will prove that you are no impostor and that you are worthy. the feelings may show once in awhile, but just continue producing, adding value and taking action.
5. Accept the impostor to get rid of the impostor. You've heard me say this on the show before, " fake it until you make it" now I know that sounds like a real "impostorish", but bear with me. In order to feel like you're worthy and more successful, you need to chalk up your achievements. What that means is you need to step outside your comfort zone and try things that are new to you to realise the are in fact worthy and you are growing. And the very best way to do this, fake it until you make it!

This is session number 014 of the Influence Psychology and Persuasion podcast. This show is something that has been showing up lots of the last few months. It seems people all over are all talking of Fixed vs Growth mindsets. But whats the deal, why now, and is this really important? Well, in this show I hope you'll find out.

First and foremost, is important to understand that this topic of fixed and growth mindset stems from lots of studies carried out by Prof of psychology from Stanford University Dr Carol Dweck. I'm simply relaying my learnings from this and how I can, and others around me have applied some of these learnings.

• Embrace challenges. Challenges something you initially find difficult, this means you're about to learn and discover something new.
• Be persistent when you're faced with setbacks and even failures. Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn either way being persistent gives you what you need.
• Effort is your path to mastering a growth mindset.
• Learn from criticisms. Be careful not to simply accept them all verbatim but certainly, look at adopting an understanding what's being said.
• Find inspiration from others that have succeeded where you want to. Finding out their path will break down some old self-limiting beliefs to what's possible and what's necessary to achieve.