He’s One of Us.

In partnership with

When Dr. Cialdini first wrote the book Influence back in 1984 the concept of Unity was omitted.

When he released the updated and revised version of the book he added a few things, this idea is one of the additions.

Unity:

The rule of unity states that we are likely to be influenced by people we see as one of us.

If you are familiar with the in-group vs. out-group bias then this will make sense.

When we see people as belonging to the same group as us we view them more favorably than someone who is not in our group.

Some things that we build an “in group” are things like race, religion, and ethnicity.

This obviously has its pros and cons.

For example, Bernie Madoff almost exclusively targeted and scammed Jewish people because he himself was Jewish.

The underlying assumption for the people he scammed was, “This guy is like me, he wouldn’t scam one of his own.”

Probably having this thought unconsciously. But influenced many of his victims to trust him.

Other things that form an “in group” are shared experiences.

This is why military vets bond so quickly. Especially, if they were stationed in the same place.

Fraternities and sororities do the same thing.

Working on something together will create that in-group too.

The idea is to turn the “Me” into “We.”

There’s a reason 400,000 professionals read this daily.

Join The AI Report, trusted by 400,000+ professionals at Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI. Get daily insights, tools, and strategies to master practical AI skills that drive results.

Sign up now for free and work smarter, not harder.