Is there an audiobook of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion?

Yes. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Robert B. Cialdini.

How long is the Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion audiobook?

The Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion audiobook runs 20 hr 43 min.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini book cover for the Book of the Day psychology book review

Our score

4.6/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

Kindle$35.00−34%$22⁹⁹

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EDITION PUBLISHEDMay 2021

Genres

Non-Fiction Psychology Business

Themes

Reciprocation and the weight of an unasked-for giftCommitment, consistency, and promises put in writingSocial proof and copying people like usAuthority, scarcity, and manufactured urgencyDefending yourself against compliance tactics

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Name: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Price: 22.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: Robert B. Cialdini

Robert B. Cialdini

Robert Cialdini spent three years undercover in sales, fundraising, and telemarketing to find out why people say yes. Influence is the report: seven levers, each with the study behind it and a short section on refusing it. The 2021 edition adds unity, the principle about shared identity, and a great many pages.

The Review

Our take

People run shortcuts. Given more decisions than attention, we pick one reliable-looking cue and act on it, which works fine right up until somebody learns to counterfeit the cue. Cialdini's demonstration animal is a mother turkey that will mother anything emitting the right cheep and ignore a silent chick, including a stuffed predator wired to a tape recorder. He spent three years inside the trades that make a living off the human version of that trick, taking sales jobs, sitting through fundraising scripts, training as a telemarketer. What came back is seven levers: reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority, scarcity, and unity, which is new to this edition.

Every principle gets a chapter built the same way. A story from the field, then the study that pins the mechanism down, then a run of examples, then a short section on refusing it. The turquoise that sat in an Arizona case for months until a clerk misread a note and doubled the price, after which it sold out. The Palo Alto homeowners who agreed to display a small safe-driving card and two weeks later let a stranger plant an enormous billboard on the front lawn. Listerine advertising the taste people hate twice a day, and gaining trust for admitting it. Cialdini is careful about what each piece of evidence actually supports, and the endnotes run long enough to check him.

The Monday-morning version is unusually concrete for a psychology book. Give something real before asking for anything, and make it a favor rather than a trade. Ask for the small commitment first, get it in writing, get it in the other person's words. Supply social proof from people who resemble the person you are asking, not from a bigger and more impressive crowd. Lead with the weakness in your own case, because a damaging admission buys more credibility than any volume of assertion. State scarcity only when it is true, since the tactic runs on being believed and one fake deadline spends that forever. None of this needs a budget. It does need you to decide what you are willing to do to people.

The cost is length. The expanded edition runs close to six hundred pages, well past the lean book that made Cialdini's name, and the additions are digressions about as often as they are upgrades. Chapters that used to move now stop to catalog variations. There is also the age of the foundation. A good deal of the underlying work dates to the sixties and seventies, an era of social psychology whose headline results have taken a beating over the past decade, and to his credit Cialdini revises several of the famous cases instead of defending them. The seven principles themselves have held up better than most of that literature.

Why you should read

Readers who liked Predictably Irrational or Thinking, Fast and Slow
Anyone working in sales, fundraising, or negotiation
People who want to spot manipulation aimed at them
Readers who want the study behind every claim

What to expect

Seven chapters, one principle each, defenses included
Close to 600 pages in the expanded edition
Field stories first, laboratory evidence second
Long endnotes for anyone who wants to check

The image that lasts is from an airport. A Krishna devotee presses a flower into a traveler's hand, refuses to take it back, then asks for a donation, and the traveler pays for a gift he never wanted and drops it in the first trash can he passes. Volunteers fished the flowers out and put them back into circulation. Cialdini watched that loop run for years before he wrote it down, and once you have seen it, your inbox starts to look different.

Reviewed by Jordan · How our reviews are written

Our verdict

4.6/ 5

Outstanding

Listen to Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion free with an Audible trial Narrator, runtime & our audio review

Buy on Amazon

Kindle$35.00−34%$22⁹⁹

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Prices may vary.

Where to read or listen

Is there an audiobook of Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion?: Yes. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion has an Audible audiobook edition, narrated by Robert B. Cialdini.
Listen to Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion free with an Audible trial
We earn from qualifying Amazon purchases.
How long is the Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion audiobook?: The Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion audiobook runs 20 hr 43 min.
How much does Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion cost?: On Amazon: Kindle $22.99. Prices as of August 26, 2026 at 3:46 AM EDT and may change.

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Common questions

What is Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion about?: People run shortcuts. Given more decisions than attention, we pick one reliable-looking cue and act on it, which works fine right up until somebody learns to counterfeit the cue. Cialdini's demonstration animal is a mother turkey that will mother anything emitting the right cheep and ignore a…
Is Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion worth reading?: We scored Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion 4.6 out of 5. Robert Cialdini spent three years undercover in sales, fundraising, and telemarketing to find out why people say yes. Influence is the report: seven levers, each with the study behind it and a short section on refusing it. The 2021 edition adds unity, the principle about shared…