How to influence people Part 1

- April 23, 2019

The law of reciprocity

I studied in a mixed day high school and there were many scandals of boy-girl relationships among the students. But of course, it was so difficult for teachers to figure out who was in a relationship with who and who not. Though, they were very determined to dig deeper and find out which students were in these scandals so that they can bring them to a stop by punishing the students involved. So, the teachers in my school were so wise, they used a method I never knew that has a very big impact in many areas of life. What did they do? They basically called the students they thought were more informed about other students in any class to the office. Then the teachers, before telling them the reason why they called them in the first place will buy them a full bread and a soda each and give them ample time to enjoy themselves. But it always didn’t end at that, they after doing that will take these students to a friendly questioning session. In this questioning session, they will ask them of any information they know about relationships in our class. Shockingly, the students will reveal the secrets you will probably only reveal at gunpoint. But why though? Because by the teachers giving them food, and treating them humbly, they were bound to reciprocate by giving back the information that the teachers wanted them to give. The teachers were using what we call, the law of reciprocity, something unknown to me at that time.

Scenario 2: Let’s say you have a friend and when you meet you decide to take him or her to a restaurant and after that buy for him or her some gifts. After this, you meet again in the course of the following week and this person now is in a good financial position. What do you think this person will do? Actually, there is a high likelihood that this person will too take you to a restaurant and do the same thing you did to him or her, but this time more than what you did. This too is called the law of reciprocity.

This law states that if you give something to someone, there are high chances that the person will also give you something in return, and even more.

This is because people don’t like to appear selfish. Due to this, you can use this law of reciprocity at your own advantage to influence people to do something you want them to do.

You have probably seen this in play in business, where many businesses give things for free in offers, coupons, and free samples. They usually offer premium packages alongside these offers. There are high chances that the person who was offered the free package is going to buy the premium packages.

And so, to influence people, think of something you can give for free like a free sample, coupon.

Application

If you want to get information from people, give them information. They will give information in return. I myself have seen this in play severally. Like if I tell someone of my life story, they at some point will try to interrupt and say, what! I can’t imagine you have a similar story to mine or we have many things in common and that time if you listen to them, they will now give a full package of their life story.