social proof

When Influence Backfires

A review of 80 studies (1982–2024) reveals that influence strategies work best when tailored to personality. Influence strategies that match a person’s individual personality are significantly more effective than one-size-fits-all approaches. Even more interestingly, mismatched strategies can backfire! That means you shouldn’t apply influence strategies unless you have a solid understanding of your target group's personality. We provide a practical overview of Cialdini’s most effective strategies for each of the Big Five personality traits.

Can Behavioural Insights Help Us Improve Our Relationship With Ourselves?

While it’s true that self-confidence partially comes from the feeling that the people around us approve of us (something we can’t control), what we can control is how much emphasis we place on others’ opinions. Several of the thoughts that undermine - if not entirely diminish - our self-confidence come from systematic errors in judgement. Despite being commonly applied to economic decision-making, behavioural insights may explain how we, at times harshly and irrationally, judge ourselves.

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