Almost 30 years ago, Robert Cialdini wrote a classic book, “Influence”, on six principles underlying common compliance tactics.
Shortly after reading his book, I realized that the perspectives I’d seen so far on getting more people to edit Wikimedia felt incomplete: none seemed to address Cialdini’s basic claims about how we get people to do things:
| Mnemonic | Principle | Description |
|---|---|---|
| R | reciprocation | We experience strong social and internal |
| pressures to reciprocate gift-giving. The | ||
| gift-giver can often choose the form of | ||
| reciprocation. | ||
| C | commitment & | We usually strive to act in ways that are |
| consistency | consistent with our own self-image. Even small | |
| changes in our self-images resulting from new | ||
| commitments can produce large and lasting | ||
| changes in our behavior. | ||
| P | social proof | When uncertain about how to behave, we tend to |
| mimic visible bystanders who resemble us. | ||
| L | liking | We are more willing to do things for people we |
| like or find attractive. | ||
| A | authority | We respond to authority, both real and imagined. |
| S | scarcity | We covet scarce goods over abundant ones, |
| especially in competitive situations, and we | ||
| fear loss more than we enjoy gain. |
As for how these principles can be applied…? Here are three rough thoughts:
R, C: Ask people who’ve used Wikipedia intensely in the recent past to make an edit or to send a thank-you note, through Wikipedia, to one of the authors of the pages they were using.
P, L: Get some editors who resemble the demographic(s) you’d like to grow in to encourage (in person, in social media, in on-page ads…) readers to edit.
A, S: Ask some local authority figures – professors, mayors, first ladies – to praise/thank local editors.
P.S. - (Got other ideas? If so, please write about them and send me a link!)