Social Engineering - Christopher Hadnagy [115]
In the earlier example of the frozen meat salesman, my wife is a very self-aware person. Knowing she might be manipulated by a “seemingly good deal” she came inside to get me because I am a “jerk.”
One of the best examples I have heard that really shows the power of commitment is a social experiment done by Dr. Thomas Moriarty in 1972. He sent an assistant to the beach as a “victim” with a portable radio. The victim sat in his chair listening to his radio for about 10 minutes, then he got up to go purchase a drink.
While he was gone, another assistant, the “criminal” who no one knew was working with him, came by to “steal” the radio. Only 4 out of 20 people—that’s only 20%—stopped the thief from taking the radio.
The researchers then upped the ante in the next round. Before the “victim” would leave to buy the drink he would ask one of the neighboring sunbathers to watch his radio for him. What do you think the change was?
Now a staggering 19 out of 20 stopped the thief, some even resorting to violence. Why the staggering difference? Commitment and consistency. The researcher obtained commitment from the neighboring sunbathers and that caused them to have to act consistently with that commitment. In my opinion, these are amazing statistics that show the power of this influence method.
A social engineer can effectively use this method of influence to get a target to commit to even a small act or small “yes” and use that commitment to escalate it into a larger set of actions.
Liking
People like people who like them. As tongue twisting as that phrase is, it is a very true statement. Understanding the full depth of that statement gets you much closer to mastering persuasion.
When I say understand the depth, I really mean that because that sentence has much more to it than meets the eye.
This statement isn’t saying that people who like you will respond well. Salespeople are often taught that people buy from people they like. That is true, but not the point. It also isn’t saying that people must like you—it is saying you must like people and then they will like you in return.
This task is not as easy as it sounds because liking someone cannot be faked. As discussed in Chapter 5, smiles and happiness are very hard to fake. You must go into the circumstance genuinely caring for the person who you are trying to influence. Caring for people and their feelings is not a standard practice of the malicious social engineer; therefore, they often rely on charm. Charm can work on a short-term basis, but in the long term, liking people is a practiced and learned skill.
Liking is used in marketing extensively. In 1990 Jonathan Frenzen and Harry Davis published a study entitled, “Purchasing Behavior in Embedded Markets” (www.jstor.org/pss/2626820) that examined why Tupperware parties are so successful. All of their research led to this principle of liking.
The researchers concluded that most people bought because they wanted the hostess to be happy, to help a friend, and to be liked. How embarrassing to go to a party like this and not buy anything! That fear of not being liked is what will drive most people to purchase at these parties and it has little to do with wanting more Tupperware.
Other surveys and studies have compared the trust that people have in receiving “tips or advice” from those they consider friends to the trust they have in complete strangers or worse, people they don’t like. A friend can give bad advice and one may be more prone to follow it than good advice from a person one doesn’t like.
From a social engineering aspect the concept of liking is a powerful tool. Not only do you have to be likeable and win their trust, but you also have to genuinely be interested in people. This concept goes back to the discussion of pretexting in Chapter 4. When you pretext, you are not merely acting out an idea or belief