The Power of Persuasion (eBook)

ROBERT LEVINE is Professor and former Chairperson of the Psychology Department at California State University, Fresno. He has published articles in Psychology Today, Discover, American Demographics, NY Times, Utne Reader and American Scientist. He has received awards for his teaching, research and writing, including being named the university's "Outstanding Professor." Dr. Levine has been a Visiting Professor at Universidade Federal Fluminense in Niteroi, Brazil, at Sapporo Medical University in Japan, and at Stockholm University in Sweden. He serves on boards of professional organizations in the U.S. Germany and Taiwan.

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

One The Illusion of Invulnerability

Or, How Can Everyone Be Less Gullible Than Everyone Else? 5

Two Whom Do We Trust? Experts, Honesty, and Likability

Or, the Supersalesmen Don't Look Like Salesmen at All 29

Three Killing You with Kindness

Or, Beware of Strangers Bearing Unexpected Gifts 65

Four The Contrast Principle

Or, How Black Gets Turned into White 91

Five $2 + $2 = $ 5

Or, Learning to Avoid Stupid Mental Arithmetic 113

Six The Hot Button

Or, How Mental Shortcuts Can Lead You into Trouble 137

Seven Gradually Escalating the Commitments

Or, Making You Say Yes by Never Saying No 159

Eight Winning Hearts and Minds

Or, the Road to Perpetual Persuasion 187

Nine Jonestown

Or, the Dark End of the Dark Side of Persuasion 209

Ten The Art of Resistance

Or, Some Unsolicited Advice for Using and Defending against Persuasion 227

Notes 245

Index 267

This valuable and nonacademic guide reveals the extent to which we
are surrounded by persuasion, and how we can resist. Levine (A
Geography of Time), professor of psychology at Cal State Fresno,
opens by demonstrating that all of us (including himself) can be
persuaded under the right circumstances. He goes on to study
financial manipulation and the use of the sense of obligation
(which exists in all cultures, even if it is most strongly visible
in Japan), and then proceeds to a nuts-and-bolts analysis of
salesmanship by describing what he learned and did (and had done to
him) as an automobile salesman. He offers an admirably concise and
unemotional analysis of the famous Milgram experiment, involving
the (claimed) administration of ever-stronger electric shocks to
test the impulse to obedience. Inevitably, he moves to cults, the
Moonies and the ultimate persuasion horror story, Jonestown. Not so
inevitably, he avoids hysteria and demonization, even of Jim Jones,
and points out that brute force is required at the extreme end of
the persuasion spectrum. Levine's final chapter offers ways of
dealing with unwelcome persuasion while remaining part of a society
in which some persuasion is part of almost any social interaction.
The final results are bout as far as possible from the shrill
Hidden Persuaders tradition or the cult deprogrammers who become
cult gurus themselves-and quite persuasive about the author's
credentials, common sense and ethics. (Mar.) (Publishers
Weekly, February 24, 2003)

"an interesting book". (The Wall Street Journal, July 23,
2003)

"If you're like most people, you think advertising and marketing
work--just not on you. Robert Levine's The Power of
Persuasion demonstrates how even the best-educated cynics among
us can be victimized by sales pitches." --The Globe and
Mail's website, www.globeandmail.com

"If you read this book, you'll be privy to the tactics of
those who wish to part you from your money, your freedom, your
time. How you use this knowledge is up to you."

--Ellen B. Tabor, M.D., Psychiatric Services magazine

"Outstanding and thoroughly engrossing... a must-read survival
guide... in the 21st century."

--Harry Reis, Ph.D., Psychology Professor, University of
Rochester

"Wonderful book... will change the way you think and act in many
realms of your life."

--Philip Zimbardo, President, A.P.A.

"Witty and wise... I couldn't put it down. A great
book..."

--David Myers, Hope College, author Intuition: Its Powers and
Perils

"Important and very interesting. Both our students and the
public should read it."

--Ed Diener, Psychology Department, University of Illinois