Robert Cialdini's Influence Through the Big Five: Who Says Yes

Robert Cialdini spent years documenting why people say yes, and reciprocity sits at the center of it. In one interview he sums up the rule that "we want to give back to those who have given to us," the small sense of obligation a free sample or a favor quietly creates.

Persuadability in the Big Five

Cialdini describes the tactics. The Big Five describes who they land on hardest. Two facets of Agreeableness carry most of it. Cooperation (A4) is the reluctance to create friction, which makes saying no to a persuader feel rude. Trust (A1) is the assumption that people are being straight with you, which lowers your guard against the setup. High A4 and high A1 together is the profile most exposed to every principle in the book.

This cuts both ways, and it is worth saying plainly. The same warmth that makes someone easy to influence also makes them decent to deal with. The point is not to become cold, it is to know that if your Agreeableness runs high, the reciprocity and liking tactics work on you more than average, so the defense is a rule rather than a gut check.

Your facet scores tell you which of Cialdini's six levers has the shortest path to you.

Read the book: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini.

See Where You Fall

Where do you actually fall? The 30-facet OCEAN personality test takes about 15 minutes and scores all five domains and the facets underneath them. Take the test

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