Are you looking for the most inspirational Robert Cialdini quotes of all time? Then you’ve come to the right place.
Robert Cialdini is a renowned psychologist and New York Times bestselling author known for his research on persuasion. He served as a professor at Arizona State University.
Cialdini’s book, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,” outlines six key principles of persuasion: reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity. His work influences marketing, sales, and daily interactions.
In this article, you’ll discover a collection of 200+ of the most inspiring and best Robert Cialdini quotes on persuasion, business, success, life, and much more (be sure to check out the FAQ section for some bonus content as well).
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Table of Contents
Best Robert Cialdini quotes of all time
Here are some of the best Robert Cialdini quotes of all time I’ve found around the web.
“The aim is to get someone to want to buy quickly, without thinking too much about it.”

Dr. Robert Cialdini
Founder Cialdini Institute & New York Times Bestselling Author of Influence and Pre-Suasion
“Freedoms once granted will not be relinquished without a fight.” – Robert Cialdini
“There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.” – Robert Cialdini
“Be as precise as possible about your need for aid.” – Robert Cialdini
“What is more accessible in mind becomes more probable in action.” – Robert Cialdini
“The truly gifted negotiator, then, is one whose initial position is exaggerated enough to allow for a series of concessions that will yield a desirable final offer from the opponent, yet is not so outlandish as to be seen as illegitimate from the start.” – Robert Cialdini
“Apparently we have such an automatically positive reaction to compliments that we can fall victim to someone who uses them in an obvious attempt to win our favor.” – Robert Cialdini
“Embarrassment is a villain to be crushed.” – Robert Cialdini
“Social scientists have determined that we accept inner responsibility for a behavior when we think we have chosen to perform it in the absence of strong outside pressures.” – Robert Cialdini
“The idea of potential loss plays a large role in human decision making. In fact, people seem to be more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something of equal value.” – Robert Cialdini
“As a general rule, whenever the dust settles and we find losers looking and speaking like winners (and vice versa), we should be especially wary of the conditions that kicked up the dust—in” – Robert Cialdini
“The customers, mostly well-to-do vacationers with little knowledge of turquoise, were using a standard principle—a stereotype—to guide their buying: “expensive = good.” – Robert Cialdini
“We all fool ourselves from time to time in order to keep our thoughts and beliefs consistent with what we have already done or decided.” – Robert Cialdini
“Without question, when people are uncertain, they are more likely to use others’ actions to decide how they themselves should act.” – Robert Cialdini
“We will use the actions of others to decide on proper behavior for ourselves, especially when we view those others as similar to ourselves.” – Robert Cialdini
Robert Cialdini motivational quotes
“Psychologists have long understood the power of the consistency principle to direct human action.” – Robert Cialdini
“Research has shown that we automatically assign to good-looking individuals such favorable traits as talent, kindness, honesty, and intelligence.” – Robert Cialdini
“Mysteries are powerful, because they create a need for closure.” – Robert Cialdini
“The principle of social proof says so: The greater the number of people who find any idea correct, the more the idea will be correct.” – Robert Cialdini
“The researchers thought that recipients of precise offers are much more likely to believe that the person making that offer has invested time and effort preparing for the negotiation and therefore has very good reasons to support the precise offer they are making.” – Robert Cialdini
“Now, during the tourist season, she first tries to speed the sale of an item that has been difficult to move by increasing its price substantially.” – Robert Cialdini
“The automatic, fixed-action patterns of these animals work very well the great majority of the time. For example, because only healthy, normal turkey chicks make the peculiar sound of baby turkeys, it makes sense for mother turkeys to respond maternally to that single “cheep-cheep” noise.” – Robert Cialdini
“WHO WE ARE IS WHERE WE ARE Whenever.” – Robert Cialdini
“There’s a critical insight in all this for those of us who want to learn to be more influential. ” – Robert Cialdini
“The patrolman’s account provides certain insights into the way we respond to social proof. First, we seem to assume that if a lot of people are doing the same thing, they must know something we don’t. Especially when we are uncertain, we are willing to place an enormous amount of trust in the collective knowledge of the crowd. Second, quite frequently the crowd is mistaken because they are not acting on the basis of any superior information but are reacting, themselves, to the principle of social proof.” – Robert Cialdini
“In large measure, who we are with respect to any choice is where we are, attentionally, in the moment before the choice.” – Robert Cialdini
“At the beginning of each lecture I say, ‘Here’s a set of events unexplainable by common sense, and I promise you’ll be able to solve this mystery at the end of class.” – Robert Cialdini
“When you don’t pay direct attention to something, your brain puts little importance on it.” – Robert Cialdini
“The human mind can hold only one thing in conscious awareness at a time.” – Robert Cialdini
“Surveys can increase demand. Asking a question the right way can put your customers in the right frame of mind to buy what you’re selling.” – Robert Cialdini
“These findings tell me that the answer to the question of whether, as a group, MDs are primarily patient-serving or self-serving is . . . yes. They are each, depending on their attentional focus at the time.” – Robert Cialdini
“The Dream’s cushions were softer and more comfortable than the Titan’s but less durable.” – Robert Cialdini
“All this has important implications for rearing children. It suggests that we should never heavily bribe or threaten our children to do the things we want them truly to believe in.” – Robert Cialdini
“If a gift, favor, or service incorporates all three features of meaningfulness, unexpectedness, and customization, it can become a formidable source of change.”” – Robert Cialdini
Inspirational Robert Cialdini quotes
“What is social proof? A phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior.” – Robert Cialdini
“When attention is directed toward something, everything else pales in comparison. This is your moment of power.” – Robert Cialdini
“Persuasion, unlike artistic inspiration, is learnable.” – Robert Cialdini
“Need to boost sales? Transform buyers’ attitudes to the item or idea by connecting it to a celebrity.” – Robert Cialdini
“The simple act of scheduling makes otherwise fun tasks feel like work and decreases overall enjoyment.” – Robert Cialdini
“Social proof occurs when people want to follow the lead of multiple, similar others.” – Robert Cialdini
“Observers have a greater liking for those whose facial features are easy to recognize and whose names are easy to pronounce.” – Robert Cialdini
“One final tip before you get started: Set a goal and write it down. Whatever the goal, the important thing is that you set it, so you’ve got something for which to aim—and that you write it down.” – Robert Cialdini
“There is something magical about writing things down. So set a goal and write it down. When you reach that goal, set another and write that down.” – Robert Cialdini
“A job candidate might say, “I am not experienced in this field, but I am a very fast learner.” An information systems salesperson might state, “Our set-up costs are not the lowest; however, you’ll recoup them quickly due to our superior efficiencies.” – Robert Cialdini
“For as long as I can recall, I’ve been an easy mark.” – Robert Cialdini
“Extensive analysis requires more time, energy, and motivation. As a consequence, its impact on our decisions is limited by the rigor it requires. If we don’t have the wherewithal to think hard about a choice, we’re unlikely to deliberate deeply.” – Robert Cialdini
“There are certain disturbing things we simply would rather not realize. Because it is a preprogrammed and mindless method of responding, automatic consistency can supply a safe hiding place from those troubling realizations. Sealed within the fortress walls of rigid consistency, we can be impervious to the sieges of reason.” – Robert Cialdini
“Do not seek dishonest gains; dishonest” – Robert Cialdini
“Responsibility. Those subjects facing the opponent who used the retreating strategy felt most responsible for the final deal.” – Robert Cialdini
“After all, the reciprocity rule asserts that if justice is to be done, exploitation attempts should be exploited.” – Robert Cialdini
“We are trained from childhood to chafe, emotionally, under the saddle of obligation.” – Robert Cialdini
“Therefore, when children of different racial groups are thrown into the incessant, harsh competition of the standard American classroom, we ought to—and do—see hostilities worsen.” – Robert Cialdini
“But the rule for reciprocation, which states that those who give first are entitled to receive in return,” – Robert Cialdini
Robert Cialdini quotes from Pre-Suasion
“Pre-suasion is the practice of getting people sympathetic to your message before they experience it.” – Robert Cialdini
“To persuade optimally, then, it’s necessary to pre-suade optimally. But how? In part, the answer involves an essential but poorly appreciated tenet of all communication: what we present first changes the way people experience what we present to them next.” – Robert Cialdini
“To change minds a pre-suader must also change states of mind.” – Robert Cialdini
“Optimal persuasion is achieved thru optimal pre-suasion; positioning people to agree with a message before knowing what’s in it.” – Robert Cialdini
“Mysteries can be a great pre-suasive tool. They prompt people to want to listen more deeply and retain information to solve that mystery.” – Robert Cialdini
“Before introducing their message, a masterful pre-suader arranges to make their audience sympathetic to it.” – Robert Cialdini
“you’re much more persistent when you’re confident in your abilities.” – Robert Cialdini
“He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word.” – Robert Cialdini
“Once we have made a choice or taken a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment. Those pressures will cause us to respond in ways that justify our earlier decision.” – Robert Cialdini
“The second important thing to understand is that we, too, have our preprogrammed tapes; and, although they usually work to our advantage, the trigger features that activate them can be used to dupe us into playing them at the wrong times.” – Robert Cialdini
“In the realm of self-correction mechanisms, then, we can find another source of validation for a core tenet of pre-suasion: immediate, large-scale adjustments begin frequently with practices that do little more than redirect attention.” – Robert Cialdini
“But more telling for me as a persuasion scientist attuned to pre-suasive approaches was how Mr. Buffett began that all-important section.” – Robert Cialdini
“The best persuaders become the best through pre-suasion – the process of arranging for recipients to be receptive to a message before they encounter it.” – Robert Cialdini
“What we present first changes the way people experience what we present to them next.” – Robert Cialdini
“In deciding whether a possibility is correct, people typically look for hits rather than misses; for confirmations of the idea rather than for disconfirmations. It is easier to register the presence of something than its absence.” – Robert Cialdini
“The guiding factor in a decision is often not the one that counsels most wisely; it’s one that has recently been brought to mind.” – Robert Cialdini
“While timing his reintroduction of the crucial insight to coincide with the worst of the noise, he would lower his voice. To hear what Erickson was saying, patients had to lean forward, into the information – an embodied signal of focused attention and intense interest.” – Robert Cialdini
“The central tenet of agenda-setting theory is that the media rarely produce change directly, by presenting compelling evidence that sweeps an audience to new positions; they are much more likely to persuade indirectly, by giving selected issues and facts better coverage than other issues and facts.” – Robert Cialdini
“We can be brought to the mistaken belief that something is important merely because we have been led by some irrelevant factor to give it our narrowed attention.” – Robert Cialdini
“While reading an online article about education, repeated exposure to a banner ad for a new brand of camera made the readers significantly more favorable to the ad when they were show it again later… Further, the more often the ad had appeared while they were reading the article, the more they came to like it.” – Robert Cialdini
“Classrooms with heavily decorated walls displaying lots of posters, maps, and artwork reduce the test scores of young children learning science material there. It is clear that background information can both guide and distract focus of attention; anyone seeking to influence optimally must manage that information thoughtfully.” – Robert Cialdini
“When you have a good case to make, you can employ – as openers – simply self-relevant cues (such as the word you) to predispose your audience toward a full consideration of that strong case before they see or hear it.” – Robert Cialdini
“The greatest recall occurred for details of ads that the researchers stopped five to six seconds before their natural endings.” – Robert Cialdini
“When an important outcome is unknown to people, “they can hardly think of anything else.” And because, as we know, regular attention to something makes it seem more worthy of attention, the women’s repeated refocusing on those guys made them appear the most attractive.” – Robert Cialdini
“When presented properly, mysteries are so compelling that the reader can’t remain an aloof outside observer of story structure and elements. In the throes of this particular literary device, one is not thinking of literary devices; one’s attention is magnetized to the mystery story because of its inherent, unresolved nature.” – Robert Cialdini
“One of the best ways to enhance audience acceptance of one’s message is to reduce the availability of strong counterarguments to it – because counter arguments are typically more powerful than arguments.” – Robert Cialdini
“We convince others by using language that manages their mental associations to our message. Their thoughts, perceptions, and emotional reactions merely proceed from those associations.” – Robert Cialdini
“Multiple studies have shown that subtly exposing individuals to words that connote achievement (win, attain, succeed, master) increases their performance on an assigned task and more than doubles their willingness to keep working at it.” – Robert Cialdini
“The concept pre-loaded with associations most damaging to immediate assessments and future dealings is untrustworthiness, along with its concomitants, such as lying and cheating.” – Robert Cialdini
“When we grasp something fluently – that is, we can picture or process it quickly and effortlessly – we not only like that thing more but also think it is more valid and worthwhile.” – Robert Cialdini
“An analysis of the names of five hundred attorneys at ten US law firms found that the harder an attorney’s name was to pronounce, the lower he or she stayed in the firm’s hierarchy.” – Robert Cialdini
“Background cues in one’s physical environment can guide how one thinks there.” – Robert Cialdini
“The basic idea of pre-suasion is that by guiding preliminary attention strategically, it’s possible for a communicator to move recipients into agreement with a message before they experience it.” – Robert Cialdini
“What we give first should be experienced as meaningful, unexpected, and customized.” – Robert Cialdini
“Compliments nourish and sustain us emotionally. They also cause us to like and benefit those who provide them; and this is true whether the praise is for our appearance, taste, personality, work habits, or intelligence.” – Robert Cialdini
“When we see evidence of the increased frequency of an action, it elevates our judgements of the act’s moral correctness.” – Robert Cialdini
“A great strength of social-proof information is that it destroys the problem of uncertain achievability. If people learn that many others like them are conserving energy, there is little doubt as to its feasibility. It comes to seem realistic and, therefore, implementable.” – Robert Cialdini
“A communicator who references a weakness early on is immediately seen as more honest.” – Robert Cialdini
“The weakness-before-strength tactic works best when the strength doesn’t just add something positive to the list of pros and cons but, instead, challenges the relevance of the weakness.” – Robert Cialdini
“Any constraint on access increased the worth of what was being offered.” – Robert Cialdini
“If one romantic partner agrees to pray for the other’s well-being every day for an extended period of time, he or she becomes less likely to be unfaithful while doing so.” – Robert Cialdini
“Acting together – in motoric, vocal, or sensory ways – can serve as a surrogate for being together in a kinship unit.” – Robert Cialdini
“The help wasn’t rooted in rationality at all. It was spontaneous, intuitive, and based on an emotional sense of connection that naturally accompanies shared musical engagement.” – Robert Cialdini
“Recipients with nonrational, hedonistic goals should be matched with messages containing non rational elements such as musical accompaniment, whereas those with rational, pragmatic goals should be matched with messages containing rational elements such as facts.” – Robert Cialdini
“Managers led to believe that they’d had a large role in developing the end product rated the ad 50 percent more favorably than did managers led to believe they’d had little developmental involvement – even though the final ad they saw was identical in all cases.” – Robert Cialdini
“Providing advice puts a person in a merging state of mind, which stimulates a linking of one’s own identity with another party’s. Providing an opinion or expectation, on the other hand, puts a person in an introspective state of mind, which involves focusing on oneself.” – Robert Cialdini
Top Robert Cialdini quotes on success
“A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason. People simply like to have reasons for what they do.” – Robert Cialdini
“The more the managers attributed the success of the project to themselves, the more they also attributed it to the ability of their employee.” – Robert Cialdini
“Audiences have been successfully manipulated by those who use social evidence, even when that evidence has been openly falsified.” – Robert Cialdini
“There is a group of people who know very well where the weapons of automatic influence lie and employ them regularly and expertly to get what they want. They go from social encounter to social encounter requesting others to comply with their wishes; their frequency of success is dazzling.” – Robert Cialdini
“No matter what industry you’re in, the ability to influence others is crucial. Your professional success can rely on it.” – Robert Cialdini
“The most successful persuaders spend more time crafting what to say or do just before making their request.” – Robert Cialdini
“Anyone who knows how to time a request correctly, will become more successful.” – Robert Cialdini
“it will be when prestige (both public and private) is low that we will be intent upon using the successes of associated others to help restore image.” – Robert Cialdini
“As the political scientist Bernard Cohen wrote, “The press may not be successful most of the time in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling them what to think about.” – Robert Cialdini
“Anything that is self-connected gets an immediate lift in our eyes. Sometimes the connections can be trivial but can still serve as springboards to persuasive success.” – Robert Cialdini
“Unfinished tasks are the more memorable, hoarding attention so they can be performed and dispatched successfully.” – Robert Cialdini
Robert Cialdini quotes from the book Influence
“The behaviors you witness others getting away with will influence you to join.” – Robert Cialdini
“In meetings, sit across the person you want to influence. A speaker in full view usually determines the outcome of a discussion.” – Robert Cialdini
“pluralistic ignorance “in which each person decides that since nobody is concerned, nothing is wrong. Meanwhile, the danger may be mounting to the point where a single individual, uninfluenced by the seeming calm of others, would react.” – Robert Cialdini
“By concentrating our attention on the effect rather than the causes, we can avoid the laborious, nearly impossible task of trying to detect and deflect the many psychological influences on liking.” – Robert Cialdini
“All the weapons of influence discussed in this book work better under some conditions than under others. If we are to defend ourselves adequately against any such weapon, it is vital that we know its optimal operating conditions in order to recognize when we are most vulnerable to its influence.” – Robert Cialdini
“Often we don’t realize that our attitude toward something has been influenced by the number of times we have been exposed to it in the past.” – Robert Cialdini
“Persons who go through a great deal of trouble or pain to attain something tend to value it more highly than persons who attain the same thing with a minimum of effort.” – Robert Cialdini
“Our best evidence of what people truly feel and believe comes less from their words than from their deeds.” – Robert Cialdini
“There’s a difference between a mystery and a question. Questions demand answers, but a mystery demands something more valuable-explanation.” – Robert Cialdini
“civilization advances by extending the number of operations we can perform without thinking about them.” – Robert Cialdini
“stubborn consistency allows us a very appealing luxury: We don’t have to think hard about the issues anymore.” – Robert Cialdini
“You use your cuts to get people to swing attention to the parts of your message you really want them to focus on.” – Robert Cialdini
“They behave in accordance with what the contrast principle would suggest: Sell the suit first, because when it comes time to look at sweaters, even expensive ones, their prices will not seem as high in comparison.” – Robert Cialdini
“The house I got them spotted for looks really great after they’ve first looked at a couple of dumps.” – Robert Cialdini
“To make it climb, make it rhyme.” – Robert Cialdini
“The rule says that favors are to be met with favors; it does not require that tricks be met with favors.” – Robert Cialdini
“Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” – Robert Cialdini
“Advertisers love to inform us when a product is the “fastest-growing” or “largest-selling” because they don’t have to convince us directly that the product is good, they need only say that many others think so, which seems proof enough.” – Robert Cialdini
“They described how they were able to draw website visitors’ attention to the goal of comfort merely by placing fluffy clouds on the background wallpaper of the site’s”” – Robert Cialdini
“automatic-pilot device, like social proof, should never be trusted fully;” – Robert Cialdini
“The time to react protectively is when we feel ourselves liking the practitioner more than we should under the circumstances.” – Robert Cialdini
“According to the theory, whenever free choice is limited or threatened, the need to retain our freedoms makes us desire them (as well as the goods and services associated with them) significantly more than previously.” – Robert Cialdini
“And once you’ve got a man’s self-image where you want it, he should comply naturally with a whole range of your requests that are consistent with this view of himself.” – Robert Cialdini
“As the stimuli saturating our lives continue to grow more intricate and variable, we will have to depend increasingly on our shortcuts to handle them all.” – Robert Cialdini
“Obviously, horse-race bettors are not alone in their willingness to believe in the correctness of a difficult choice, once made.” – Robert Cialdini
“Even those children whose birthdays fall soon after the holidays receive fewer toys because of the recent Christmas spree.” – Robert Cialdini
“Price alone had become a trigger feature for quality; and a dramatic increase in price alone had led to a dramatic increase in sales among the quality-hungry buyers.” – Robert Cialdini
Robert Cialdini quotes about wisdom
“Attractiveness, similarity, compliments, contact and cooperation can make a person more influential.” – Robert Cialdini
“It states that one means we use to determine what is correct is to find out what other people think is correct.” – Robert Cialdini
“Once we realize that obedience to authority is mostly rewarding, it is easy to allow ourselves the convenience of automatic obedience.” – Robert Cialdini
“Subjects became fonder of the people and things they experienced while they were eating.” – Robert Cialdini
“There is an obligation to give, an obligation to receive, and an obligation to repay.” – Robert Cialdini
“Content also builds on the principle of authority. You’ve demonstrated your expertise in this field, and so customers will rely on you in the future.” – Robert Cialdini
“Frequently the crowd is mistaken because they are not acting on the basis of any superior information but are reacting, themselves, to the principle of social proof.” – Robert Cialdini
“Knowing what I now know, if I could go back in time, would I make the same choice?” – Robert Cialdini
“All things being equal, you root for your own sex, your own culture, your own locality…and what you want to prove is that you are better than the other person. Whomever you root for represents you; and when he wins, you win.” – Robert Cialdini
“Bad social proof in this situation. Temporarily disconnect automatic pilot.” – Robert Cialdini
“Deep inside is a sense of low personal worth that directs them to seek prestige not from the generation or promotion of their own attainments, but from the generation or promotion of their associations with others of attainment.” – Robert Cialdini
“The world abounds with cults populated by dependent people who are led by a charismatic figure.” – Robert Cialdini
“When the newspaper detailed the suicide of a young person, it was young drivers who then piled their cars into trees, poles, and embankments with fatal results; but when the news story concerned an older person’s suicide, older drivers died in such crashes. l advised, then, to take special care in our travels at these times.” – Robert Cialdini
“In this case, because we know that the things that are difficult to possess are typically better than those that are easy to possess, we can often use an item’s availability to help us quickly and correctly decide on its quality.” – Robert Cialdini
“Since 95 percent of the people are imitators and only 5 percent initiators, people are persuaded more by the actions of others than by any proof we can offer.” – Robert Cialdini
“The obligation to receive reduces our ability to choose whom we wish to be indebted to and puts that power in the hands of others.” – Robert Cialdini
“Think of the law of Reciprocity, we all like to return favours. Most people got it all backwards thinking it means if you will do this for us, then we will do something for you…that’s wrong.“ – Robert Cialdini
“Once again we can see that social proof is most powerful for those who feel unfamiliar or unsure in a specific situation and who, consequently, must look outside of themselves for evidence of how best to behave there.” – Robert Cialdini
“Since I left for college I have been remiss in writing and I am sorry for my thoughtlessness in not having written before. I will bring you up to.” – Robert Cialdini
“The rule says that we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us.” – Robert Cialdini
Robert Cialdini quotes on scarcity
“Our typical reaction to scarcity hinders our ability to think.” – Robert Cialdini
“The feeling of being in competition for scarce resources has powerfully motivating properties.” – Robert Cialdini
“The drop from abundance to scarcity produced a decidedly more positive reaction to the cookies than did constant scarcity.” – Robert Cialdini
“The joy is not in experiencing a scarce commodity but in possessing it.” – Robert Cialdini
“Such cases it is vital to remember that scarce things do not taste or feel or sound or ride or work any better because of their limited availability.” – Robert Cialdini
“Compared to the customers who got only the standard sales appeal, those who were also told about the future scarcity of beef bought more than twice as much.” – Robert Cialdini
“People find objects and opportunities more attractive to the degree that they are scarce, rare, or dwindling in availability.” – Robert Cialdini
Top Robert Cialdini quotes on business
“Similarities and compliments cause people to feel that you like them, and once they come to recognize that you like them, they’ll want to do business with you. That’s because people trust that those who like them will try to steer them correctly. So by my lights, the number one rule for salespeople is to show customers that you genuinely like them.” – Robert Cialdini
“People will do business with people they know, like and trust based on your knowledge, your creativity, and your credibility.” – Robert Cialdin
“We want to do business with people or brands that we like and have forged a bond with over the years.” – Robert Cialdin
“Organizations can raise the probability that an individual will appear at a meeting or event by switching from saying at the end of a reminder phone call, “We’ll mark you on the list as coming then. Thank you!” to “We’ll mark you on the list as coming then, okay? [Pause for confirmation.] Thank you.”” – Robert Cialdini
“It is much more profitable for salespeople to present the expensive item first, not only because to fail to do so will lose the influence of the contrast principle; to fail to do so will also cause the principle to work actively against them. Presenting an inexpensive product first and following it with an expensive one will cause the expensive item to seem even more costly as a result—hardly a desirable consequence for most sales organizations.” – Robert Cialdini
Robert Cialdini quotes on love and relationship
“Good-looking people are aware that other people’s positive evaluations of them are not based on their actual traits and abilities but are often caused by an attractiveness “halo” – Robert Cialdini
“those who cheat for you will cheat against you.” – Robert Cialdini
“Within the domain of general attraction, observers have a greater liking for those who facial features are easy to recognize and whose names are easy to pronounce. Tellingly, when people can process something with cognitive ease, they experience increased neuronal activity in the muscles of their face that produce a smile. On the flip side, if it’s difficult to process something, observers tend to dislike that experience and, accordingly, that thing.” – Robert Cialdini
“Steps people can take to make their lives better, emotionally – according to Dr. Sonja Lyubomirsky:Count your blessings and gratitudes at the start of every day, and then give yourself concentrated time with them by writing them down.Cultivate optimism by choosing beforehand to look on the bright side of situations, events, and future possibilities.Negate the negative by deliberately limiting time spent dwelling on problems or on unhealthy comparisons with others.” – Robert Cialdini
“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” – Robert Cialdini
“The relationships that lead people to favor another most effectively are not those that allow them to say, “Oh, that person is like us.” They are the ones that allow people to say, “Oh, that person is of us.”” – Robert Cialdini
“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.” – Robert Cialdini
“If what you do before your request is seen as a ploy to get a yes, your relationship could pay the price.” – Robert Cialdini
“Reciprocity is part of a healthy ongoing relationship. Nurture it by giving before asking for a request.” – Robert Cialdini
“When we like someone, we are more receptive to their ideas.” – Robert Cialdini
Robert Cialdini quotes on life
“We like people who are similar to us. This fact seems to hold true whether the similarity is in the area of opinions, personality traits, background, or life-style.” – Robert Cialdini
“One of the keys to happiness involves purposely focusing attention to the positive aspects in your life.” – Robert Cialdini
“Nothing in life is as important as you think it is while you are thinking about it.” – Robert Cialdini
“Just as amino acids can be called the building blocks of life, associations can be called the building blocks of thought.” – Robert Cialdini
“Revolutionaries are more likely to be those who have been given at least some taste of a better life.” – Robert Cialdini
“There is a natural human tendency to dislike a person who brings us unpleasant information, even when that person did not cause the bad news.” – Robert Cialdini
“First, we seem to assume that if a lot of people are doing the same thing, they must know something we don’t.” – Robert Cialdini
“In general, when we are unsure of ourselves, when the situation is unclear or ambiguous, when uncertainty reigns, we are most likely to look to and accept the actions of others as correct.” – Robert Cialdini
“When our freedom to have something is limited, the item becomes less available, and we experience an increased desire for it. However, we rarely recognize that psychological reactance has caused us to want the item more; all we know is that we want it. Still, we need to make sense of our desire for the item, so we begin to assign it positive qualities to justify the desire.” – Robert Cialdini
“Observers trying to decide what a man is like look closely at his actions.” – Robert Cialdini
“The more you identify yourself as being a member of a particular group, the more unified you will feel with others in the group.” – Robert Cialdini
“once a person’s self-image is altered, all sorts of subtle advantages become available to someone who wants to exploit that new image.” – Robert Cialdini
“When it comes to freedoms, it is more dangerous to have given for a while than never to have given at all.” – Robert Cialdini
“Arguing against your self-interest creates a perception of honesty and trustworthiness, putting you in a more persuasive position.” – Robert Cialdini
“People who learn they have something significant in common like each other more, leading to more cooperation and liking.” – Robert Cialdini
Famous Robert Cialdini quotes
“The recipe for disharmony was quick and easy: Just separate the participants into groups and let sit for a while in their own juices.” – Robert Cialdini
“Those who don’t know how to get people to say yes soon fall away; those who do, stay and flourish.” – Robert Cialdini
“School desegregation is more likely to increase prejudice between blacks and whites than to decrease it.” – Robert Cialdini
“People rarely make decisions in a vacuum; in other words, our choices are almost always influenced by context.” – Robert Cialdini
“If you knew the right answer and the teacher called on someone else, you probably hoped that he or she would make a mistake so that you would have a chance to display your knowledge.” – Robert Cialdini
“Children who fail in this system become jealous and resentful of the successes, putting them down as teacher’s pets or even resorting to violence against them in the school yard.” – Robert Cialdini
“Most parents find those things sold out and are forced to substitute other toys of equal value.” – Robert Cialdini
“People simply like to have reasons for what they do.” – Robert Cialdini
“A well-known principle of human behavior says that when we ask someone to do us a favor we will be more successful if we provide a reason.” – Robert Cialdini
“When making a decision, we will less frequently enjoy the luxury of a fully considered analysis of the total situation but will revert increasingly to a focus on a single, usually reliable feature of it.” – Robert Cialdini
FAQs | Motivational Robert Cialdini quotes
Here are some of the most frequently asked questions about Robert Cialdini and his famous quotes.
Who is Robert Cialdini?

Robert Cialdini is a renowned psychologist and New York Times bestselling author known for his research on persuasion. He served as a professor at Arizona State University.
Cialdini’s book, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,” outlines six key principles of persuasion: reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity. His work influences marketing, sales, and daily interactions.
What is Robert Cialdini famous for?
Robert Cialdini is famous for his research on persuasion and influence. He’s best known for his book, “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion,” where he outlines six principles of persuasion: reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity.
These principles have become foundational in understanding how to persuade others in marketing, sales, and everyday communication.
What is a famous Robert Cialdini quote?
A well-known quote by Robert Cialdini is:
“People prefer to say ‘yes’ to those they like.”
This quote highlights one of his six principles of persuasion, showing how important it is to build positive relationships and be likable when trying to influence decisions.
What are 3 fun facts about Robert Cialdini?
Here are 3 fun facts about Robert Cialdini you need to know:
1. Extended Influence: Cialdini, a psychologist by trade, has made waves far beyond psychology. His insights into persuasion have gained traction in marketing, business, and politics, showcasing the extensive reach of his work.
2. Global Speaker: Not limited to academic circles, Cialdini has taken the global stage as a speaker. He shares his research insights with a diverse audience, from business leaders to policymakers, acting as a conduit between academic theory and practical implementation.
3. Cultural Impact: Cialdini’s persuasion principles have crossed into popular culture. They’re referenced across books, movies, and TV shows, highlighting how his theories resonate far and wide.
What are Robert Cialdini’s top 10 rules for success?
Robert Cialdini hasn’t officially listed his “top 10 rules for success,” but based on his extensive work on persuasion, influence, and principles of psychology, we can infer several guiding principles that align with his research and teachings.
Here are 10 key rules that reflect the core of Cialdini’s insights for achieving success in business and life:
1. Reciprocity: Give what you want to receive. People are inclined to return favors and pay back debts, creating a positive cycle of exchange and goodwill.
2. Commitment and consistency: Stay true to your word. People respect consistency and are more likely to follow through if they have already agreed to something, even in a small way.
3. Social proof: Leverage the power of the crowd. Showing that others have made a choice or taken action encourages others to follow suit.
4. Authority: Establish credibility. People are more likely to listen to and respect those who exhibit knowledge, expertise, or authority in their field.
5. Liking: Make yourself likable. People are more willing to agree with or be persuaded by someone they like or have a positive relationship with.
6. Scarcity: Highlight uniqueness and rarity. People place higher value on resources or opportunities that are limited or hard to come by.
7. Unity: Foster a sense of belonging. Creating a shared identity or purpose encourages cooperation and support.
8. Pre-suasion: Set the stage. What you do before making a request can prime people to be more receptive to your message.
9. Mindfulness of influence tactics: Be aware of how influence works in everyday interactions, both to ethically persuade others and to defend against unwelcome attempts at persuasion.
10. Continuous learning: Stay informed and adaptive. Understanding that the context and environment influence behavior, continually seek knowledge and adapt strategies accordingly.
While these rules are taken from Robert Cialdini’s work on persuasion and influence, they also reflect broader principles that can contribute to personal and professional success.
Final thoughts on Robert Cialdini quotes
I hope you enjoyed this ultimate list of the best inspirational Robert Cialdini quotes to help you achieve success in your business and life.
“People prefer to say ‘yes’ to those they like.”

Dr. Robert Cialdini
Founder Cialdini Institute & New York Times Bestselling Author of Influence and Pre-Suasion
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