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7 Secrets of Persuasion: Leading-Edge Neuromarketing Techniques to Influence Anyone

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7 Secrets of Persuasion is the first book to take the latest scientific insights about the mind and apply them to the art of persuasion. It directly translates the revolution in neuroscience that has occurred over the last 40 years into practical new techniques for effective persuasion.Whether your goal is to persuade one person—a husband, child, or boss—or the millions who might purchase an Apple Watch or a Budweiser, 7 Secrets of Persuasion will show you how the motivation that actually changes a behavior like smoking, voting, or buying, even if the person(s) doesn’t know why they do what they do.*Tap into the mental process that gives religious symbols, political symbols, and commercial logos their power.*Make a promise that is delayed, uncertain, and rational more compelling by making it immediate, certain, and emotional.*Transform your candidate, service, or product into the one people want to buy by utilizing what psychologists call the “fundamental attribution error.”

225 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 19, 2016

138 people are currently reading
496 people want to read

About the author

James C. Crimmins

1 book4 followers

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25 (15%)
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
Profile Image for Monesh B.
6 reviews
September 29, 2019
Loved the book !
This book goes deep into the functioning of the brain and how it intercepts information. The author then talks about various ways in which we can pursuade others to do what we want them to do. The marketing examples aligned greatly with the content. This book gives readers a new perspective on the advertisements we see in our day to day life.
Profile Image for Denise みか Hutchins.
389 reviews13 followers
February 3, 2021
This book ended up just as good as the title promised. The one negative I originally had, that is the repetitiveness of certain phrases, now seems obvious to me an employment of the persuasion secrets themselves. That isn't to say I didn't stop mentally rolling my eyes every time I saw "the lizard inside" or to say I didn't skim over certain paragraphs that were obviously repeating a concept I had only just read and accepted, but the value of this book is not diminished by its quirks.

I very much appreciated all the scientific evidence backing up and proving the claims, and the long sections at the end where I could look up the studies and other references if I so wished. It was also very helpful how many examples of putting the 'secrets' to work were provided. None of them really applied to me or my situations, but they allowed me to branch off and find my own solutions, solutions that never presented themselves until I saw other real-world applications in effect.

In short, I recommend this book to anyone needing to persuade anyone! Whether it be a personal relationship or an entire market segment, these secrets will ensure you have the greatest chance of success (and that you won't alternatively ruin your chances, either)!
Profile Image for Philmore Olazo.
Author 6 books4 followers
September 29, 2022
We can see persuasion in political campaigns, religion, self help, etc. But one of its most important uses can be seen in marketing.

Persuasion, at its core, is the use of emotions and sensations to motivate a change in the actions of individuals and not necesarely a change in their attitude, which is unchangable.

This book is a great introduction to the topic and it gives great examples of how many businesses have been using different methods to sell us stuff, both excelent examples and some prety bad ones, that are useful to see how not to do things.

Near the end it does get a bit redundant, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have fun while reading the tactics and information it shoes and how to aply them in the adverstisements I see day to day.
58 reviews14 followers
March 26, 2019
Crimmins dives deep into persuasive strategies here and tells us about the deep importance of appealing not to the rational mind, but instead to the automatic decision-maker within each person.

This was a very valuable read, not just because it granted insight into how to persuade people, but also because it grants insight into how we may be persuaded by others, and uh... To sometimes be inclined to reward them for their skill 🤭
2 reviews
October 2, 2022
Amazing book full of insights

This book has provided me with a lot of information that has come in handy as I craft my advertisements.
I loved the fact that the information in the book is backed by thorough research. It is also great that the author has provided simple examples that quickly drive the point home.
255 reviews2 followers
October 21, 2024
How to influence people by appealing to the lizard brain or to the automatic brain…very appealing premise and I was excited to read it. I found it just ok, it was fairly basic and I did not leave with any revelations. It’s a pretty easy read and brief which I am a fan of.
658 reviews4 followers
June 20, 2017
Good explanation of how people make decisions and how you can plead your case in ways that make them want to listen.
Profile Image for Jake.
131 reviews
April 28, 2018
This is a book I want to keep re-reading because it's so simple and straightforward, but deep enough that the more I read, the more there is to understand.
Profile Image for Jason Wicky Ong.
344 reviews5 followers
June 1, 2020
A good contemporary add-on to any persuasion books. A bit repetitive but concepts taught are not bad.
Profile Image for Amir Jabbari.
162 reviews8 followers
June 24, 2021
A real page-turner, the author has masterfully combined the best studies carried out in the field of neuromarketing leading to one of the best books ever written on the topic.
Profile Image for Ed.
67 reviews
July 27, 2021
There are more examples for advertising in the book, but some examples are for everyday life and the persuasion techniques can be applied by the common man as well.
25 reviews1 follower
January 6, 2022
Excellent application of Behavioral economics to all kinds of persuasion and advertising
10 reviews2 followers
November 9, 2022
Highly underrated book. The science behind persuasion has been very simply and easily explained.
Profile Image for franthormel.
42 reviews
December 8, 2022
Talks about lizard brain (the automatic system) and how it is the main target when it comes to persuading.
9 reviews
July 22, 2025
Interesting ideas, backed up by empirical data and case studies. Lacked some sophistication in argument, but maybe I missed the key point being in the simplicity of the explanation.
Profile Image for Zhijing Jin.
347 reviews63 followers
July 14, 2020
This book is a "hack" to persuade people (profitable for advertisement people), but the approach it presents is not ethical. Admittedly, you can take advantage of results from psychology studies, but *do not* apply them to hack human minds, for your own profit.

Three ways to persuade people from high to low:
1. Through personal charisma (Think of Buddha's speech, Churchill's optimism that shred light to WWII, Pope's speech which conveys belief to and empower people, Mandala, Gandhi, etc.)
2. Through reasoning (Thinking of how you are persuaded by experts, professors, or rigorously written position essays / news articles / books)
3. Through "decorations," including rhetorics (which makes listeners feel good, but does not help reasoning), psychological hacks (just as in this book), and propaganda skills (you can check out The Crowd and 1984 for a full list of propaganda skills, such as "reinvent a vocabulary")

If this book is ethical, the same theory can justify the Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will, which uses a lot of these techniques. Also, some may use the "bad intent" test to say that as long as readers use these techniques in a good way, it is okay. This is also not true. You cannot use an unethical tool, no matter what you want to achieve. Moreover, the main context of this book is in the lucrative business world, and provides people tools to exploit psychological hacks to earn more money.

Remember that as we grow more mature, it is not about what we can do, but what we should (and should not) do.

I understand why some readers feel attracted by the book, and I am here just to provide another angel to think about it. Apologize in advance in case I misunderstood the ethics of this book.

Profile Image for Wassim Slim.
9 reviews4 followers
January 15, 2017
The book does a good job in compiling a number of revelations that are inferred from other groundbreaking books and sending them in a clear and concise manner.

It does not spend too much effort in trying to explain deeply the psychology behinds the 7 secrets but rather it illustrates how these "secrets" can be used on a practical level to the reader.

Straight to the point, and quick to read this book can be quite helpful to the reader.You don't have to be in marketing, advertising to benefit from the many insights on persuasion that are included in this book.
Profile Image for Don Palmer.
50 reviews
March 1, 2018
A bit repetitive, but I enjoyed it and learned quite a bit - especially about the powerful impact of our expectations on perceptions and the ability to persuade. Here’s a helpful quote about that from the conclusion:

"What we see, feel, taste, or smell depends to a great degree on what we expect to see, feel, taste, or smell. What the eye sees depends, only in part, on what is there to be seen. What the eye sees also depends on what it expects to see. No eye is without expectation. No eye is innocent. You can create the expectation."
Profile Image for David Doyle.
34 reviews
June 4, 2020
This was a fantastic read/listen (MP3 Disc version).

The author is an authority on the topic of persuasion with a PhD in his field of interest.

Not only does the author, James C. Crimmins, show how to influence, but dives in deeper to explain the way that the brain physically/mentally works, it’s anatomy, but in a very easy to understand and uses easily digestible examples of how and why our brains do what they do.

This is a book for everyone, no matter who you are.
451 reviews6 followers
September 29, 2019
A totally fascinating book on persuasion in the real world. The author has worked in advertising so provides great examples from there. I'm not likely to forget the lizard in a hurry.
This is a life skill, not just a sales skill.
19 reviews
August 21, 2018
Very, very informative. The book explains how to speak to people and how to effectively persuade people to do things, whether it is in a small or a large scale.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews

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