Contents
Chapter 1: Designing Web Sites for Persuasion and the Unconscious Mind
You’re So Smart You Have Three Brains
What Really Makes Us Different From Animals?
What Happens When We Feel an Emotion Anyway?
There’s a Lot Going on Up There that We Don’t Even Know About
Hey, I’m in Conscious Control of How I Act, Right?
Have You had a Brilliant Unconscious Thought Lately?
Your Unconscious Is Smarter and Faster Than Your Conscious Mind
But We Know What We Like and What We Don’t, Right?
Chapter 2: Wanting to Belong: The Power of Social Validation
The (Not Quite True) Tragedy of Kitty Genovese
The Bystander Effect for Getting Help Online
Why Would You Listen to Total Strangers?
Chapter 3: Feeling Indebted: How to Build in Reciprocity and Concession
Sending Christmas Cards to Strangers—and How About $5 Cans of Soda?
When Accepting No for an Answer Is Actually a Gift
Concession Builds Commitment, Too
Giving Things Away at a Web Site
It’s Okay to Ask for the Reciprocal Action
Chapter 4: Invoking Scarcity—If Something Seems Unavailable, We Seem to Want It Even More
Offer Ends at the End of the Month
If it Costs a Lot, It Must be Good
Chapter 5: Choosing Carefully—Given Too Many Choices, We Freeze (and Then We Don’t Choose at All)
First Is Best: The Order Effect
Chapter 6: It’s All About You: Speaking to the Self-Centered, Unconscious Mind
Chapter 7: Building Commitment—We Want to Think We’re Consistent
Want to Cover Your Lawn with a Big Ugly Sign?
When Commitments Are Strongest
From a Bucket of Water to a Cash Donation?
When Is a Survey More Than a Survey?
When a Review Is More Than a Review
Chapter 8: Using Similarity, Attractiveness, and Association: Are We the Same?
Vote for the Person with the Best Teeth?
A Mathematical Formula for Attractiveness
Chapter 9: Afraid to Lose—How Fear of Loss Trumps Our Anticipation of Victory
Your Unconscious Is Smarter Than You Think
Is it 90 Percent Good or 10 Percent Bad?
Chapter 10: Using Pictures and Stories—the Best Way to Talk to Our Unconscious Minds
Chapter 11: We’re Social Animals—Finding the Next Big Thing by Making It Social
Caught by Our Own Shortsightedness
From the Printing Press to Facebook
The Real Reason the Internet Was Started
Mass Interpersonal Communication