This book appeals to individuals who want to become more effective activists by utilizing techniques analyzed by human psychology research.

Summary

Introduction

  • This book is about how to create change, particularly in individuals.
  • What is really at the heart of social change is human psychology.

Chapter 1: Looking Inward

  • There are several psychological obstacles someone must overcome to be an effective activist.
  • Obstacles include conflicts with self-identity, self reflection, self interest, biases, etc.
  • Effective Activists quantify the results of their work and compare with alternative methods.

Chapter 2: The Uphill Battle

  • There are several psychological aspects someone must overcome to convince others of a cause.
  • Empathy avoidance, just world hypothesis, status quo bias, loss aversion, respecting authority figures, statistics insensitivity, ignoring information contradicting existing beliefs, etc.
  • Once these psychological aspects are understood, effective activists can benefit from them.

Chapter 3: Where Beliefs are Born

  • Social norms and first beliefs strongly influence what people will believe long term.
  • Expectation affects judgement. Becareful when you tell others what to expect.
  • Research shows altruistic motivation (acting out of a concern for others, and not out of materialism or self–interest) is particularly important in trying to maintain difficult behavioral changes.

Chapter 4: Tools of Influence, Part I: Simple Tools

  • There are multiple small and easy to use tools to influence people.
  • Framing, anchoring, breaking repetition, displaying losses in real time, narrowing options, prompting, creating perceived knowledge gaps, planning future steps, calling someone by their name, speaking fluidly, etc.

Chapter 5: Tools of Influence: Part II: Power Tools

  • Several other tools can also be used to influence people.
  • Verbal and written commitments, the foot in the door technique, behavior or attitude social norms, the rule of reciprocity, door in the face technique, anecdotal stories, repetition, etc.

Chapter 6: Tools of Influence: Part III: Tools of Persuasion

  • Even several more tools can be used to influence people.
  • Telling memorable stories, understanding low-involvement decisions compared to high-involvement decisions, increasing attractiveness and likeability, prioritizing face to face discussions, repeating exposure, using the law of associations, etc.

Chapter 7: Tools of Influence: Part IV: Handle With Care

  • Some tools may not help or even hurt when misused.
  • Becareful when denying information, only providing education, using fear and guilt, using the foot in the door technique without additional asks, challenging freedoms, etc.
  • Message discrepancy studies show individuals will accept different amount of influence.
  • Minority opinions are harder to persuade but there are several ways to help overcome them.

Chapter 8: Spreading Social Change

  • Three Degrees of Influence rule - a person’s characteristics, attitudes or behaviors are likely to spread to their friends, friend’s friends and even their friend’s friend’s friends.
  • Influencing connectors over an average person is more effective. Connectors are people linked to many other people or people who provide a bridge between different groups.
  • Diffusion is the process by which something new is spread through society overtime. There is centralized and decentralized diffusion.
  • Influencing early adopters is effective since they can be easier to persuade.
  • Influencing opinion leaders is effective since they can relay information to huge audiences.

Chapter 9: Social Marketing

  • Using a single respective message for any group you want to influence is most effective.
  • A social marketing framework is BCOS: Benefits, costs, others (social norms), self-assurance.
    • Don’t assume costs, ask your audience directly.
    • Improve self-assurance by providing information, skills, support mechanisms, detailed steps.
  • Gather behavior adoption metrics directly, since self-reporting is less reliable.
  • Upstream approaches to social change focus not on changing individuals but on changing systems and social forces. A single upstream change can create major changes downstream without having to rely on the willingness and commitment of individuals.

Chapter 10: Frontiers of Influence

  • Several promising tools exist which are not extensively used to influence others.
  • A transition matrix helps answer the question of what message to promote and to whom.
  • Game theory can be used to predict social outcomes.
  • Social engineering can be used to gain privilege information.
  • As activists we must be psychologists at heart, determined to understand how people operate so that we can more be more effective at changing behaviors and changing society. We also need to examine how we ourselves operate.
  • We should push ourselves to be as intelligent as possible in our efforts to create a better world. Research can play a central role in that process, cutting through competing opinions and anecdotal evidence to give clear guidance on what is most effective. The research has been done and the lessons are waiting to be learned. Putting them into practice is up to you.