Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini

1. Reciprocation: People will be nice if you are.
2. Consistency: It’s easier to get people to comply with requests they see as consistent with what they’ve already said.
3. Social proof: People will more likely say yes when they see other people doing it too.

Phishing emails manipulate us via mental shortcuts. There are seven shortcuts or psychological principles of influence that can be exploited by phishers. These include authority, commitment, liking, perceptual contrast, reciprocation, scarcity and social proof.

An example o...

People are often lazy to think, not just cognitively biased. It makes everyone susceptible to influence strategies, even if we are familiar with them. These tactics depend on accepting and obeying the symbols of authority, the power of liking, the value created by scarcity.

These influence ...