Exploring susceptibility measures to persuasion

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that indicates how personalising persuasive strategies may increase the effectiveness of persuasive technologiesand behaviour change interventions. This has led to a wide range of studiesexploring susceptibility to persuasion which highlight the role of individualdifferences. Measuring susceptibility to persuasion, while accounting for individual differences can be challenging, particularly where persuasive strategies may be considered similar due to their underlying components. In this paper,we present a study exploring susceptibility to Cialdini’s principles of persuasion with a focus on how we can distinguish susceptibility measures between the most recently identified Unity principle and Social proof. This study was conducted using an online survey incorporating susceptibility measures to all seven Cialdini principles and a measure of the actual effectiveness of sevencorresponding persuasive strategies. Our results indicate that while we are ableto distinguish susceptibility measures between Unity and Social proof, togetherwith Commitment, Scarcity and Reciprocity, we were unable to obtain thesewith susceptibility measures for Liking and Authority.