When the hotel where you are staying asks you to re-use the towels in your bathroom, what do most people tend to do, and why? Dr. Robert Cialdini has some interesting answers.
Cialdini literally wrote the book on influence a decade or so ago on, and that book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, continues to, well, influence the work of leading managers, educators, marketers – basically, anyone who needs to persuade others as part of doing his or her job effectively.
I’ve written about Cialdini here before on Hedgehog & Fox, but last week I finally managed to listen to a talk he gave at the Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce (RSA) in November 2007. This includes a great response – really a complementary discussion – by Louise Casey.
Whether you are already familiar with Cialdini or new to his work, recording of this talk offers a great deal of insight on how to persuade large groups of people to work towards a common goal – like, for instance, helping the environment by re-using their towels.
To access an MP3 of the talk, visit UChannel – a great resource for presentations on a variety of topics – or simply click the link below.
The recording is a bit over an hour long, but it can be listened to in segments, and Cialdini’s main remarks are within the first 40 minutes.
Enjoy,
Jeff Cobb
Hedgehog & Fox
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