Invisible Influence: The Power to Persuade Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere

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Identity Convergence

You may or may not know your Self, but you’re about to see how those you influence will identify with you to the point they will do burdensome tasks they normally wouldn’t do for you, just because you asked.

Two female undergraduates sit across from each other doing a task, crossing out letters L, K, and S on a puzzle sheet.1 One is in on the experiment and known as a “confederate.” The experimenter leaves the room after they begin. The timer goes off. Two minutes pass. The experimenter returns.

There are three conditions in this experiment:

1. The confederate briefly converses with the other woman after the task, before the experimenter returns.

2. The confederate and the other woman sit silently until the experimenter returns.

3. A woman does the puzzle alone.

The experimenter collects puzzle sheets and gives credit toward graduation in all three conditions.

In each condition the women leave the room. Once outside the confederate pulls an essay from her backpack and asks a “huge favor” of the other woman.

“I have an eight-page paper that I need someone I don’t know to read and write a one-page paper with written comments as to whether it was persuasive or not. Would you do it?”

Here’s what happens, related to the three conditions of the experiment:

1. 48.7 percent agree.

2. 48.6 percent agree.

3. 26.3 percent agree.

The two women in conditions 1 and 2 have shared an experience. They identify with each other.

In a later study the conditions were manipulated ...