BarCampNYC3 - Designing Attraction

Designing Attraction by Rob Faludi, ITP at NYU

Weapons of Influence from "Influence"

• Reciprocity - we try to repay, in kind, what another person does for us
• Web of indebtedness
• Watch out for uninvited debts - mailing labels in the mail forcing us to repay, avoiding the Hari Krishna and the flower
• Commitment and Consistency
• We like things better AFTER we choose them - the MacBook purchase and packaging
  
• Foot-in-the-door effect - small to large
• Justification of effort - why else would you not have done the difficult thing if it was not worth the effort
• Social proof - everyone doing something, we will do it too.
• Most effective in ambiguous situation with social peers - curiosity?
• Liking - more likely to comply with someone we like
• We like people who are attractive, similar and familiar
• Authority - Milgram experiment (electro-shock experiment)
• Illusion of authority (not a doctor, but play one on TV)
• Heuristic value
• Scaricity - perceived value of limitation
• Responsibility - is it okay to use these tools?

Teaching students how to "design attraction".

Books on the topic:

• "Influence" by Cialdini
• "Wisdom of the Crowds" by Surowiecki
• Authors: Tversky and Kahneman re: heuristics and biases ("Prospect Theory")