Cialdini's Prophecy
Published: Mon, 06/06/16
I can still remember that day clearly.
For example:
A client who was *always* cordial was a complete John Thomas. (Even his assistant -- usually a sweet creature -- was a level 12 bitch on that day.) In a copywriting forum I used to lurk (never talking) in people were being complete jackanapes to each other over the dumbest things. And, people I had to interact with that day made even elBenbo look like a friendly extrovert.
Anyway, of course I wrote an email about it.
And, I made this conjecture:
Robert Cialdini's book "Influence: The Psychology Of Persuasion" talks about how people are unconsciously influenced by what's going on in the news. Specifically, how people with suicidal tendencies will be more likely to "all the sudden" get into a fatal car and even plane crashes following news stories of suicides. In fact, Dr. Cialdini is so freaked by this he says in the book he even tries to avoid traveling after news stories about suicide.
And so it was that day.
The date itself was literally influencing peoples' behavior.
For example:
The news sites that day were filled with stories about women refusing to give birth due to the stigma left on the child's birth date, schools upping security in case someone wanted to use that day to pull another "Columbine", and people all around the world basically were expecting something bad to happen that day.
I recommend tucking this little bit of human psychology aside somewhere.
You might be able to use it in your emails some day…
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Ben Settle