Group Think

Experts in the art of persuasion, whether orators, salespersons, or politicians, often focus on fine-tuning their arguments. But, according to psychologist Robert Cialdini, this approach fails to consider another key component of persuasion—what happens before we begin conveying our argument. In his 2016 book, Pre-Suasion, Cialdini argues that to make our audience receptive to our message, we must optimize the moments before persuasion.

In this guide, we’ll discuss Cialdini’s insight that people are susceptible to influence the moment before they make a decision, and we’ll examine how words, images, and environments can influence people in that moment. Next, we’ll discuss ways to “pre-suade” your audience by aligning with people’s preferences for consistency, likable communicators, authority figures, and people who share their identity. Finally, we’ll consider how to anchor the behavioral changes that result from pre-suasion by getting your audience to make a commitment. Throughout the guide, we’ll discuss pushback against Cialdini’s arguments and explore supplemental advice from other authors on how to influence people.

Even though we’re all human, most of us don’t understand what drives people (including ourselves) to feel and behave the way we do. In The Laws of Human Nature, author Robert Greene looks at several laws that explain, among other things, why we self-sabotage, behave differently in groups, and want the wrong things.

Armed with the knowledge of these fundamentals of human nature, you can manage toxic people, become more empathetic, make people like you, and control your own nature.

How do you spark a trend that spreads like wildfire, or turn a product into the latest must-have item? You create a social epidemic. The Tipping Point explains how social epidemics — spreading ideas, messages, behaviors, and products — function like viruses, growing gradually until they reach a critical mass (the tipping point) and explode.

Three factors can be adjusted to tip an idea to a social epidemic: the messenger, the message itself, or the context of the message. Learn how Paul Revere’s midnight ride, Sesame Street, Airwalk skate shoes, and crime reduction in New York City began as ideas and tipped to become movements.

In The Power of Habit, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charles Duhigg draws on extensive research to explore how habits develop into automatic behaviors that influence personal lives, businesses, and communities. He explains why unhealthy habits are notoriously difficult to break and provides a practical framework to help you understand and change any habit.

In this guide, we’ve restructured Duhigg’s key ideas to focus on how your habits form and what you can do to change them. We’ve also compared and contrasted each key concept with updated research on habit formation and expanded on Duhigg’s advice with actionable methods from other self-improvement authors and psychologists.

Even though we’re all human, most of us don’t understand what drives people (including ourselves) to feel and behave the way we do. In The Laws of Human Nature, author Robert Greene looks at several laws that explain, among other things, why we self-sabotage, behave differently in groups, and want the wrong things.

Armed with the knowledge of these fundamentals of human nature, you can manage toxic people, become more empathetic, make people like you, and control your own nature.

Is your organization struggling to achieve a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment? In DEI Deconstructed, strategist and consultant Lily Zheng presents a pragmatic, results-oriented approach to DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) that focuses on measurable outcomes rather than just good intentions. Using research-backed insights and real-world case studies, Zheng challenges conventional wisdom about DEI initiatives and provides a framework to help organizations make lasting improvements.

In our guide, we’ll explore what DEI means and highlight issues with current approaches. We’ll also look at how identity and power play into DEI concepts, and we’ll explore how individual members of an organization can take part in advancing DEI initiatives. Finally, we’ll explain how organizations can implement DEI on a larger scale, depending on the level of trust that members have in their organizations. In our commentary, we’ll add research to support Zheng’s ideas, plus tips for how to put them into practice.

Do you feel like an outsider in every group you join—not because you’re excluded, but because belonging simply doesn’t appeal to you? Psychiatrist Rami Kaminski argues you might be an “otrovert”: someone who’s fundamentally wired to resist group identity. Drawing on decades of clinical experience and his personal journey of not fitting in with others, Kaminski challenges psychology’s core assumption that everyone craves belonging, arguing instead that the desire for group membership is learned—and some people never absorb it. This isn’t a deficit—otroversion offers distinct advantages, including emotional self-sufficiency, authentic empathy, and freedom from groupthink.

This guide shows you how to recognize otroversion in yourself or others, understand why society creates unnecessary struggles for those with this trait, and how to build a life around quality connections rather than pretending to be someone you’re not. We’ll also examine what psychology says about belonging, explore alternative explanations for otrovert experiences, and discuss whether these are skills anyone can cultivate rather than fixed traits.

In Why We’re Polarized, American progressive journalist, political commentator, and podcaster Ezra Klein argues that Americans are divided into two sharply contrasting groups rooted in partisan identities.

He writes that the clustering of nearly the entire electorate into the Democratic and Republican camps is a story about identity. Specifically, our partisan political identities have become overarching super-identities that encompass and activate our most deeply felt personal, religious, linguistic, socioeconomic, and ethnic/racial identities. In today’s America, these underlying lines of division all come together in one main division—between Democrats and Republicans—that makes bipartisan cooperation increasingly difficult.

In this guide, we explore the origins of modern political polarization and its differing impact on the two major political parties, how polarization has made American politics a winner-take-all struggle, and ideas for how we might depolarize our politics. We also supplement Klein’s ideas and analysis with commentary from other political scholars and analysts and explore additional perspectives that both support and challenge Klein.

Why and how do people justify their questionable actions and big mistakes? In Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me), social psychologists Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson argue that we self-justify to relieve cognitive dissonance: discomfort triggered when we do things that don’t align with our other beliefs, actions, and values. They examine several unconscious processes we use to reduce the discomfort of cognitive dissonance, including self-justification, confirmation bias, and memory distortion. By learning about these psychological processes, you can unlock awareness of them in your own life and begin taking accountability for your actions.

In this guide, you’ll learn how contradictory thoughts and behaviors create painful dissonance. We’ll also discuss how self-justification, confirmation bias, and memory distortion help us relieve dissonance. Finally, we’ll discuss how the authors suggest we can break the cycle of self-justification and hold ourselves accountable for our uncomfortable actions. In our commentary, we’ll discuss healthier strategies you can use to deal with dissonance and explore some of the neurological processes that drive self-justifying behavior.

Experts in the art of persuasion, whether orators, salespersons, or politicians, often focus on fine-tuning their arguments. But, according to psychologist Robert Cialdini, this approach fails to consider another key component of persuasion—what happens before we begin conveying our argument. In his 2016 book, Pre-Suasion, Cialdini argues that to make our audience receptive to our message, we must optimize the moments before persuasion.

In this guide, we’ll discuss Cialdini’s insight that people are susceptible to influence the moment before they make a decision, and we’ll examine how words, images, and environments can influence people in that moment. Next, we’ll discuss ways to “pre-suade” your audience by aligning with people’s preferences for consistency, likable communicators, authority figures, and people who share their identity. Finally, we’ll consider how to anchor the behavioral changes that result from pre-suasion by getting your audience to make a commitment. Throughout the guide, we’ll discuss pushback against Cialdini’s arguments and explore supplemental advice from other authors on how to influence people.

Do you struggle to make friends? Have you ever wanted to learn how to read people? If so, Jack Schafer and Marvin Karlins’s The Like Switch can help. Schafer spent 22 years as a Special Agent in counter-intelligence, counter-terrorism, and behavioral analysis at the FBI. In The Like Switch, Schafer—with the help of Karlins, a management and organizational behavior expert—applies his experience earning the trust of witnesses, suspects, and spies to the art of making friends and fostering powerful connections.

In this guide, we’ll explore how to use nonverbal signals to identify potential friends and show others that you’re open to friendship. We’ll also outline techniques for attracting new friends and for maintaining strong relationships. Finally, we’ll look at the unique dynamics and challenges of online connections. In our commentary, we’ll discuss the research behind the book’s psychological principles and some alternative points of view on relationship building.

The desire to feel accepted by others is one of the most powerful human motivators—it often dictates how we speak and act to feel like we belong to a group. But according to researcher Brené Brown, striving for social acceptance instead of being true to ourselves breeds isolation and division by fueling the fear that we’re one misstep away from exclusion.

True belonging, she says, is the ability to express ourselves honestly. True belonging doesn’t mean finding people who accept you; rather, it means embracing the idea that being true to yourself supersedes what anyone else thinks. In this guide to Braving the Wilderness, we’ll dive deeper into what true belonging means, explain why simply being yourself can feel like venturing into uncharted wilderness, and describe Brown’s advice for achieving true belonging. We’ll also include advice from other experts on key actions related to true belonging: connecting with others and resolving conflicts productively.