Blog: "Someone Should Have Taught Me This..."
Essential guides, techniques, and psychology principles for building a kick-ass marketing operation
Cialdini’s Six Weapons of Influence – Part 1: “Reciprocity”
Dr. Robert Cialdini was the Regents’ Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University. His book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,is one of the seminal works on persuasion in marketing (and in life). This discussion is on the first of his six “weapons” of influence: Reciprocity.
Everything You Think You Know About Self-esteem Is Wrong
Dr. Mark Leary is a psychologist at Duke University, but he was formerly at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem when, in 1999, he published “Making Sense of Self Esteem.” His theory is elegant in that it changes the definition of self-esteem and systematically explains a lot of previously unexplainable behavior.
How Attraction Works
Humans, like other pack animals, create a discernible “pecking order” of status. This greatly influences how attraction works.
Social Validation and the Drive for Success
In one of Dr. Bakari Akil’s recent blog posts, he notes the psychological force of social validation, and how it can act as a motivational force for success.
The Single Biggest Mistake Actors Make, and How To Fix It Now
Ninety-nine out of every hundred actors never move beyond a one-dimensional reading of the script, and 50 out of every hundred never even understand the single dimension correctly. With one simple principle, you can avoid this common trap.
“The Dream”…What We Do For Our Own Secret Ideals
Every person has a dream for themselves: a secret ideal that is usually impractical but theoretically attainable. These dreams are usually irrational, and at times conflicted, vague and possibly even self-defeating…Understanding a person’s personal dream gives valuable insight into how to appeal to and deal with that person, and also how to recreate his or her character type on stage.
Status Transactions and the Actor
The subtle, unobserved chemistry [of the status transaction] is a large part of what separates mundate, mediocre acting from excellent acting. So, now that we have become conscious of a fundamental and interesting truth about human interaction, how dows that figure into our acting or storytelling technique? How can we make this useful to us?
The Status Transaction
Out of everything I’ve encountered on the topic of human motivation and influence, the most life-changing material came not from a sociologist or an advertising copywriter, but from an improv teacher…I have read [his book] over and over, and as a result I now look at the world much differently than I did before. His insights form the basis of everything I’ve learned about motivation and influence.
The Nature and Purpose of People-triggers
That is what “People-triggers” is: a discussion about the core principles of human motivation and influence – the fascinating intersection of social psychology, acting theory and advertising.