Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking

Chapter 6. Influence: The Power of Persuasion

If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.

——BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

The epigraph sums up this entire chapter. You might be wondering why I didn't include this within Chapter 5's discussion of psychological principles of social engineering. Psychology is a science and a set of rules exists in it that, if followed, will yield a result. Social engineering psychology is scientific and calculated.

Influence and persuasion are much like art that is backed up by science. Persuasion and influence involve emotions and beliefs. As discussed in some of the earlier chapters, you have to know how and what people are thinking.

Influence and the art of persuasion is the process of getting someone else to want to do, react, think, or believe in the way you want them to.

If you need to, reread the preceding sentence. It is probably one of the most powerful sentences in this whole book. It means that using the principles discussed herein, you will be able to move someone to think, act, and maybe even believe the way you want him to because he wants to. Social engineers use the art of persuasion every day and, unfortunately, malicious scammers and social engineers use it, too.

Some people have devoted their life to researching, studying, and perfecting the art of influence. Those such as Dr. Ellen Langer, Robert Cialdini, and Kevin Hogan have contributed a very large repository of knowledge in this field. Mix this knowledge ...