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

4

You Can’t Beat Biology

If you recall, the South Africa study tested for photos and similarity of last name of letter author of lender employees who were “sending the letter,” and that person’s race and gender were manipulated depending on the race and gender of the recipient of the letter (guessed by the names of the people). Then 10,000 pieces were sent with no photo as a control for this variable.1

Fascinatingly, photos of men caused people to stay home. Far fewer people receiving letters with photos of men came in for loans.

A photo of a female employee in the letter, on the other hand, increased people coming in for a loan significantly, often by as much as the same effect as a 2.2 percent lower interest rate per month offering!

More significantly, the letter with a photo of a female employee, when sent to men, increased the number of those coming in for a loan, so much so that the offer would have had to have been a 4.5 percent lower interest rate per month to generate the same result!

More significantly yet? When the men had previously taken out loans from the lender three or more times, the photo of a female had an even greater impact.

Men did not positively respond to a male photo in a significant way and only slightly less so than those receiving letters with no photo at all.

Female customers showed no significant reaction in responding to the loan offer, whether the photo was of a man, a woman, or there was no photo at all.

Many other influential variables were tested ...