Key Takeaways and Highlights

Reactance

Reactance is the unpleasant state that occurs when people feel their freedom is lost or threatened. People are wired to want to make choices themselves and have a natural resistance to being told what to do. 

This can explain why people often don’t take advice from others even if the other person is more experienced. People are more willing to change if they get the freedom to decide even if their choices are limited.

How to overcome: Provide a menu

When ordering food from an Italian restaurant, you usually have many options of pastas, meat selections, and a variety of wines. At some higher priced restaurants, there may only be a few options to choose from. Even if you are not in the mood for Italian, there is likely something you would be content with. 

But what would happen if you try to order sushi. The waitress would likely tell you they cannot serve sushi as it is not on the menu. You may be disappointed but would pick another item on the menu. Even if you didn’t like your choice, you wouldn’t blame the waitress for not letting you order sushi. 

On the other hand, what if you went to a restaurant and you didn’t get a menu. You sit down and notice there are no waiters or waitresses. You are served food without the ability to choose what you wanted that evening. Even if you liked your meal, you would likely feel disappointed because you didn’t have any choice.

Like ordering a meal from a menu, people need to have a feeling of choice even if there are limited options or what they want isn’t available. Most people would have a negative association if they went to a restaurant and did not have any say in their meal selection. 

People like when they get to decide on which option suits them best, even if the overall outcome would be the same. An example of this is letting children decide if they want to take a bath before or after they brush their teeth. The end result is the same but the child still feels like they had a say in the matter.

The status quo

People are creatures of habit and often have an attitude of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Most of us would rather pick what is comfortable because it is known. 

Change could mean being uncomfortable and having to put forth extra energy. It could also mean failure. Most people fear the possibility of failure even if the success dramatically outweighs the risk.

How to overcome: Reveal the cost of inaction

When faced with the option to make a change or continue with the status quo, people are like water in a flowing stream and take the path of least resistance. They only look at the challenges or risks with making change. They often don’t calculate the risk of not making a change and the negative outcomes that can arise from that decision. 

A common example that most of us learn as children is learning to type. Learning to type will take time and will result in less output of work today. Children will complain about how much slower learning to type is compared to using only their index fingers. However, they don’t realize how much time will be saved by being able to type faster.

Oftentimes, people choose not to address problems because they are not big issues right now. They think things are good enough and spending resources to improve them isn’t worth it. However if something is a glaring problem, it will be addressed immediately.

This is why people will have more pain and overall damage from minor knee pain compared to breaking their leg. Because breaking a bone causes significant pain, it will be addressed immediately. The broken bone will cause extreme pain that only lasts for a few weeks to months because it will be fixed with urgency.

But the nagging knee pain never gets addressed because it is tolerable. That tolerable pain will slowly get worse until it becomes chronic, daily pain. Once it gets to this point, too much damage is done to fix the joint unless you get a knee replacement. By this time, you’ve had the pain for years or even decades. 

If you want people to change, you must make clear what negative outcomes arise by doing nothing and keeping the status quo.

Distance

Everyone has opinions based on their past experiences. People are more likely to believe you if your opinions are closer to their own personal beliefs. The further away your beliefs are from theirs, the more they will hold on to their perspective. 

The author explained this concept using a football field analogy. The zone of acceptance is the area of the field where people would either support or would not resist a viewpoint. The region of rejection is the area of the field where people do not support something and actively see it as wrong.

How to overcome: Find the movable middle

When trying to get people to change, you must figure out what amount of change would not be too far off from what they already do or how they already think. Like a fish swimming upstream, it would be very difficult to get someone to completely change their habits or viewpoints.

An example of this would be if someone is trying to lose weight and they already exercise. A small change would be to alter what they do during when they exercise. Instead of running on a treadmill, a personal trainer will try to convince them they would get better results by lifting weights. Since the potential client already goes to the gym at regular times, it would be a small change to have them lift weights instead of using the treadmill. 

When you are trying to get a population to change, the people to focus on first are the ones who’s ideas or perspectives are already close to yours. This is why during presidential elections, the “swing votes” usually determine the election. These voters aren’t the candidate’s base voters but they might share enough viewpoints to vote for them. A Republican would find it hard to get support from a Democrat. But it would be much easier to get someone who is in the middle of the political spectrum.

Uncertainty

Which gambling option would you choose?

• A) flip a coin and if you guess correctly, you win $50. If you guess incorrectly, you lose $25.

• B) Roll a dice and if you guess correctly, you will get $1,000. But if you guess wrong, you lose $100.

When choosing between a sure thing and something risky, the risky option must have a much higher upside. Most people will choose something that is known or expected over a risky option even when the risky option has more upside. 

The fear of the unknown is one of the leading reasons people don’t change. How many times have you known someone who hates their job but they don’t leave? When you ask them why they stay, they will rationalize staying. They might say things like, “the pay is alright” or “it’s just not a good time to start a new job.” However, what would happen if they could be guaranteed that if they quit their job they would find a better job within the month. How many of them would quit the next day?

How to overcome: Make it reversible

Since the fear of the unknown is a giant deterrent for most people, making something reversible would solve that fear. What would happen if you make the unknown, known? People would be more willing to try something new if they can undo the change with little effort. 

An example of this is pet adoption that allows a 2 week trial period. Getting a pet is a huge commitment and a lot of work. It may seem daunting to get a pet because there are many unknowns. “Will you like the pet’s personality, will they like you, how do they get along with other pets or children, do you have the time or energy to have a pet?”

Because of this, many people are reluctant to adopt even if they are interested. But if you can adopt a pet for 2 weeks and return it with no questions asked, it significantly reduces the unknown. Most people don’t return the pet because their initial concerns were answered during the 2 week period.

Corroborating evidence

The book used the analogy of pebbles and boulders to compare how much effort or evidence is needed to convince someone about a belief. Pebbles are things you can move easily. They are loosely held opinions or beliefs about something which can be easily influenced.

Some examples might include your thoughts about pine trees, shades of white, or Times New Roman font. These topics do not evoke much thoughts, emotions, or opinions. 

On the other hand, boulders are things that take a lot of effort to move. They are strongly held opinions or beliefs that would take a lot of evidence or information to change your mind. 

Some examples are your opinions on a rival political party, your favorite sports team, or your favorite character in a story. These items have strong connections, emotions, and evoke strong opinions. They would take a lot of convincing to change your perspective about them.

How to overcome: Numbers, diversity, and timing

Some factors that could influence your opinion involve numbers, diversity, and timing. Let’s use the example of watching a new TV show. 

The more people (numbers) making a recommendation of a TV show, the more likely you will be to watch it. If you have a friend, a co-worker, and your neighbor (diversity) all recommend a TV show, you would be more influenced than if 3 friends in the same friend group make the same recommendation. Finally, if you hear a TV recommendation 3 times in the same week (timing), you are more likely to watch it compared to hearing it 3 times over 3 months. 

Personally, I can say this happened to me with the anime Attack on Titan. I had many different people say how good of a show it was. I wasn’t sure I would like the show after the first few episodes but decided to continue watching because of the amount of different people recommending it. And I am glad I did!! Raise your hand if you agree with this!!

Items that are pebbles may only need one of these factors to influence change. Boulders likely will need all of these factors in order to change someone’s mind. If you are able to create an environment where numbers, diversity, and timing occur simultaneously, you will have a stronger likelihood of having influence.