The Issue: In this chapter Cialdini talks about the idea of authority, its subtle cues, and just how much it plays into our lives today. Cialdini notes of not only the dangers of authority but the misconceptions we might believe due to simple triggers such as clothes, titles and supposed knowledge.
Major Strength: One of the most impressive things that Cialdini talks about regarding authority is when it comes to people we are taught to trust and believe above all. I felt that when authority was talked about in reference to Doctors it allowed for us to not only see that people would respect their knowledge to be prevailing purely by their profession, but how even nurses failed to question clearly wrong information purely by the doctors title of M.D. Another smaller example was of Larry King and the way in which he changed the tone of his voice due to the importance of his guest, demonstrating a very simple but poignant way of showing how authority at the route of it impresses us as humans and sparks a competitive nature in us also.
Major Weakness: Unlike Cialdini’s other chapters I felt that these examples of authority were rather on broad side. I recently saw an experiment that a group of people left a wallet in the middle of the street, but put a red tape outline around it. With a hidden camera it filmed multiple pedestrians passing this wallet by, glancing at it but not picking it up or touching it. The experiment showed that because the wallet had been outlined and with the color of danger or warning, this had prevented people from touching it. I think that Cialdini’s chapter could of benefited from touching on the smaller examples of how authority is intertwined in our everyday thinking, such as; responding to a request purely by someones age, not touching an object from a ‘do not touch sign’. These are all small authoritative cues that creep into our everyday life.
Underlying assumption: Authority is evident in everyday life, if a man is dressed in a nice suit and drives an expensive car we are less likely to yell at him for taking our parking space as opposed to a teenager who drives his mums mini van. Titles, clothes and a knowledgable authoritative tone lead people to think of importance.
Provocative Questions: Does authority and it’s ability to influence people fall under a particular theory that we currently been talking about? Could authority fall under framing theory? are we categorising events in our head as they are played out and the more knowledge that we feel is being bestowed upon us, the more diagnosis we decipher in our head, the more likely we are to comply?