Hello. This is Devan Rome. Welcome to Part 5 of my 12-part series reviewing the concepts I’ve learned in CXL’s Digital Psychology and Persuasion Program. Here is a link to the course. In this series, I review the principles discussed and taught in the course. I also write about some of my opinions of the course. With that said and out of the way, I will now get on to this week (week 5’s) review of the course.
I will start with Roger Dooley’s video on Dual Process Theory. One of the most famous dual process theories is the right brain – left brain theory, which is pretty much malarkey. It’s useful shorthand, but it’s not exactly accurate. There is also the three-brain theory. The instinct brain, the emotion brain, and the thought brain. This has been generally debunked. There is also the reflective impulsive idea. Not exactly used in science. There is also Jonathan Haidt’s elephant-rider model. It’s hard to control an elephant. What they recommend is eliminating the friction. One of the super cool ones is Daniel K’s system 1 and system 2 system. System 1 is the default system, this is nonconscious stuff. System 2 is the rational part of your brain. What you want to do is reach your customer’s nonconscious mind.
Now for the video on liking. This is one of Cialdini’s principles. Jeez. This Cialdini guy again. I’ve heard about this stuff over and over again. People like and are more persuaded by people that they like. This also is the case that people like people that are “alike” them. Complimenting is another way you can use this principle. There is also social proof. When it comes to social proof, numbers, testimonials, and people liking you are important. There was also a case study on social proof. People like high profile client logos. Testimonials with photos were shown to have high viewer recall. Now for social proof power plays. A video by Angie Schottmuller, a growth marketing advisor and speaker. At one point, she was stationed in San Antonio. I wonder if we’re going to get an actual psychologist or neuroscientist in this course. People like testimonials because marketers are liars. People don’t trust marketers. They trust other people. Apparently, people trust people in their network 12 times more. Much powerful. Very wow. She ran some campaigns where live chat boosted conversions. She helped get Skechers on page 1 for shoes. She also applied this to Jeep. Much of this video was obvious. Moving on.
Now for Cialdini’s principle of authority. Having authoritative testimonials can be helpful. Also, just looking more authoritative can be helpful. Good examples would be suits or lab coats. I think I’m going get another suit after watching this video. Hey Siri, remind me to look at Indochino for my next suit. Ryan Serhant is a good example of this. He doesn’t exactly “like” suits, but he wears them because they are helpful. There was also a case study on authority.
When it comes to reciprocity, the key thing is that it’s not quid pro quo. Instead, it’s doing something with no expectation of return. I think I might apply this to my Instagram and post more free advice. In another example, a free ticket doubled raffle sales. Another example is that free meals influenced doctor prescriptions. I’ve heard about this before. Launch the book applied this with the give, give, give, then sell formula. Rewards are not the same thing as reciprocation. What you may want to do is give someone free information and then ask for email. Good example is Crazyegg, they have CTAs at the end of their content. Another interesting example, a free food sample made people like their TV more. Even inconsequential things can affect your behavior, seemingly.
Now for commitment and consistency. I like this Roger Dooley guy. He’s very good at creating good examples out of this stuff. The next principle is commitment and consistency. Starting with a small favor before asking a bigger one. This establishes consistency. The more you can establish the behavior you want, the better. The book Ask gives the principle of micro-commitments. Quiz funnels can be helpful. Changing your survey from something that sounds invasive to something that is a bit more interactive can be helpful for your audience. Eye tracking research shows that people scroll to the bottom of the forms and find out how long the forms. Try to put your forms into small steps. Another good example is two button opt-in forms. What these are going for is consistency. People want to be consistent.
Now for scarcity. This is stuff like FOMO. The classic experiment is the chocolate chip cookie experiment. People found cookies that just came with three were considered better than those with just 4. Amazon uses occasional scarcity triggers. A declining clock can be quite powerful. Travel sites are the best examples. Roger Dooley says that you should consider paying attention to the big travel sites, as they have a lot of scale and money to run tests that are of high value and significance. Booking.com and Expedia.com do this stuff very well. I think you have to be very careful this. Don’t want to make people think you’re dishonest. This is also related to the idea of loss aversion. People, in general, are averse to losing. Often more so than the prospect of gaining when it comes to their motivation levels. I learned about this in Daniel K’s Thinking, Fast and Slow. I also recall learning about this in many of Steven Dubner (and his co-author whose name I am forgetting)’s series, Freakanomics.
Now for unity, the seventh and new principle. I don’t think I remember this one too well. Looks like Dr. C made this principle in 2016. He says unity is its own principle. It’s about shared identity, family, tribes, and co-creation
Well That is good for today. I will come back with part 6 out of this 12-part series. I’m going to need to start picking up the pace in order to get more done. And finish this course on time. That is all. Thank you for reading, and I will see you again next week.
