Social Influence

People judge their environment based on social indicators. This is an evolved behavior, because social indicators allow rapid assessment of danger and quick response, whereas deep consideration might not be a survivable strategy.

Nature uses some of these social indicators as a method to undermine the free will of the individual.

It is possible for one member of a society to monopolize a resource critical to survival, and to be powerful enough to selfishly horde that resource at the expense of the survival of the society or the species.

For these circumstances, nature provides methods to wrangle the resource free from the individual by using social indicators to undermine personal free will.

These are:

1) Perceptual Contrast
2) Reciprocation
3) Commitment and Consistency
4) Social Evidence
5) Affinity
6) Authority
7) Scarcity  

Perceptual Contrast

The characteristics of an instance are exaggerated depending on the immediately prior experience. If a realtor shows the potential buyer five tiny houses, the sixth normal size house will seem huge. Whereas, if they had gone to the sixth house first, it would have been less impressive. The same technique can be used to diminish the importance of something as well as embellish it.

Reciprocation

A concession on one side is supposed to be matched with a reciprocal concession on the other side. We exercise this social program each time we shake hands or bow. By intentionally conceding something or initiating an exchange the other person has considerable obligatory force to reciprocate.

Commitment and Consistency

People in general try to keep their word, at least to themselves. And they do not want to be perceived as inconsistent or “crazy”. So getting someone to make a commitment or to appear to commit is considerable force to follow through simply for appearance's sake, and for maintenance of the person's self-concept.

Social Evidence

People will take cues about appropriate behavior under the circumstances from the people around them. If everyone is calm, they will be calm. And if everyone is rioting, they will tend to riot. In many cases a person will accept social evidence before their own perception or reasoning.

Affinity

Liking someone. Friendliness or the sense of personal relationship is a powerful method for accomplishing compliance. “I can't give the contract to the other bidder, even though they have the better deal, because it would hurt Joe. And Joe is such a nice guy and a friend.” A lot of high-end sales are based on affinity.

Authority

People will accept instructions from someone with the trappings of authority whether they know what is correct or not. Example: The doctor tells them to do something and they do it. The policeman tells them to do something, and they don't question whether the person in the suit is really a policeman. Security Guards work on this principle, because they have no legal or social authority – they are borrowing it from police. Also, we expect people in positions of authority to somehow know all the answers, when we don't, and when it may in fact be impossible to know the answers.

Scarcity

When something is rare, it is valued. If the rarity is a falsehood, then the person can be influenced to trade something that is actually more rare for something that is less rare without realizing it. If you can make a resource seem scarce, it is easier to arrange a trade of it at a better rate because it assumed to have more value simply because there are fewer of them. In fact, maybe there are fewer of them around because nobody wants, needs, or uses them.

What's a diamond good for? (Shhhh…. don't kill the diamond market!)

Based on origiinal research by Robert B. Cialdini.