How to achieve influence: Cognitive behaviour

Sarah Macdonald and Tom Ewing

In terms of influence, perhaps consumers are not information seekers looking for influencers to guide us, but confirmation seekers looking for recommendations to back up decisions we have already made.

How to achieve influence: Cognitive behaviour

Sarah Macdonald and Tom EwingBrainjuicer

Influence is more likely to come from irrational, emotional cues than from rational evaluation of what advocates are saying, and is often sought to justify a decision post-event.

Common-sense ideas of influence paint us as a species of information seekers and spreaders, and assume we evaluate information and its sources before making decisions.

Like a winning meme, this common-sense, information-based model of influence is both persuasive and successful. Popular theories of how it works – from Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Pointto Duncan Watts' 'many fires' -have...

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