influence-psychology
This Claude Code skill applies Robert Cialdini's six principles of influence (reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking, scarcity) to optimize product design, copy, and sales messaging. Use it when designing persuasive elements like landing pages, testimonial sections, urgency messaging, or trust signals, or when addressing conversion challenges and ethical persuasion questions.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/wondelai/skills /tmp/influence-psychology && cp -r /tmp/influence-psychology/influence-psychology ~/.claude/skills/influence-psychologySKILL.md
# Influence Psychology Framework
Apply six decades of persuasion science — Cialdini's research into why people say "yes" — to product, copy, and sales, ethically.
## Core Principle
**People don't make decisions rationally — they use mental shortcuts (heuristics) that can be triggered to influence behavior.** These shortcuts evolved because they're usually reliable, but they can also be exploited. Understanding them lets you design products, messaging, and experiences that align with how people actually decide.
## Scoring
**Goal: 10/10.** When reviewing or creating persuasive elements (features, copy, flows, campaigns), run the Quick Diagnostic, then score against the bands below and apply the ethics gate. Always report the current score and the specific change needed to reach 10/10.
- **9-10** — Multiple principles deliberately layered; every claim truthful; users can reverse the decision; passes the transparency test (still works if the user knows the strategy); safe for vulnerable users.
- **7-8** — Principles deliberately layered and honest, but one gap (e.g. weak reversibility, or a single principle where layering was possible).
- **5-6** — One principle present but generic, or leverage left on the table.
- **<=3** — No principle deliberately designed (relying on luck), OR any tactic is deceptive/coercive. Any fabricated proof, fake scarcity, or hidden-cost dark pattern caps the score at 3 regardless of other strengths.
## The Seven Principles of Influence
### 1. Reciprocity
**Core concept:** People feel obligated to give back to those who have given to them first.
**Why it works:** Humans are wired to avoid being indebted — the obligation to repay can overpower personal preference, and the return favor often exceeds the original gift.
**Key insights:**
- The gift must come first (before the request)
- Unexpected, personalized gifts beat expected, generic ones
- Even small gifts create obligation
**Product applications:**
| Context | Reciprocity Trigger | Example |
|---------|---------------------|---------|
| **Free trials** | Full access first, then ask to pay | Spotify Premium trial → subscription |
| **Content marketing** | Value upfront (guides, tools) | HubSpot free CRM → paid tools |
| **Referral programs** | Reward both referrer and referee | Dropbox: both get extra storage |
**Copy patterns:**
- "Here's a gift for you..." (before asking)
- "As a thank you for signing up..."
- "We noticed you needed help with X, so we..."
See [references/reciprocity.md](references/reciprocity.md) when building free trials, lead magnets, or referral rewards — gift tiers, email templates, day-by-day reciprocity-stacking, and A/B variables.
### 2. Commitment & Consistency
**Core concept:** People want to be consistent with their past statements, beliefs, and actions.
**Why it works:** Inconsistency is psychologically uncomfortable; once we take a stand, personal and interpersonal pressure pushes us to behave consistently with it.
**Key insights:**
- Small initial commitments lead to larger ones (foot-in-the-door)
- Public > private; written > verbal; active (user-generated) > passive
- Self-perception: we infer our attitudes from our behavior
**Product applications:**
| Context | Commitment Trigger | Example |
|---------|-------------------|---------|
| **Onboarding** | Easy yes, then larger asks | Duolingo: "Can you commit to 5 min/day?" |
| **Goal setting** | User publicly states a goal | Strava: "I want to run 50km this month" |
| **Habit formation** | Track streaks publicly | Snapchat streaks, GitHub contributions |
**Copy patterns:**
- "What's your biggest challenge with X?" (commitment to a problem)
- "How much would you like to save per month?" (numerical commitment)
- "You said you wanted to achieve X. Let's start with..."
**Onboarding sequence:** micro-commitment ("What brings you here?") → small action (click, choice) → public/written commitment (goal) → reinforce ("Based on what you told us...").
**Ethical boundary:** Make every commitment freely chosen and easily reversible — no trick opt-ins or locked-in defaults the user can't undo.
See [references/commitment-consistency.md](references/commitment-consistency.md) when designing onboarding or goal-setting flows — foot-in-the-door sequences and public-commitment tactics.
### 3. Social Proof
**Core concept:** People determine what's correct by finding out what others think is correct.
**Why it works:** When uncertain, we use others' behavior as a guide — "if everyone's doing it, it must be right."
**Key insights:**
- Most powerful when observers are uncertain; similar others = stronger proof
- Negative social proof backfires ("9 out of 10 don't...")
- Specific numbers beat vague claims ("2,347 users" > "thousands")
**Types of social proof:**
| Type | Definition | Example |
|------|------------|---------|
| **Wisdom of crowds** | Many people use/buy | "Join 50,000+ marketers" |
| **Wisdom of friends** | People you know use it | "3 of your friends use Notion" |
| **Expert** | Authorities endorse | "Recommended by Y Combinator" |
| **Celebrity** | Famous people use it | "Used by Elon Musk" |
| **Certification** | Third-party validation | "SOC 2 compliant", "App of the Year" |
| **User** | Similar people succeeded | "Startups like yours grew 10x" |
**Product applications:**
| Context | Social Proof Implementation | Example |
|---------|----------------------------|---------|
| **Landing pages** | User count, reviews, logos | "Trusted by 10,000+ companies" |
| **Signup flow** | Live signups, popular plans | "23 people signed up in the last hour" |
| **Feature adoption** | Show usage by others | "85% of teams use this feature" |
**Copy patterns:**
- "[X number] of [similar people] are already..."
- "[Name/Company] increased [metric] by [%]"
- "Don't take our word for it. Here's what [users] say..."
**Ethical boundary:** Disclose when proof is curated or cherry-picked (e.g. "selected reviews") rather than pBuild lean, opinionated products using the 37signals philosophy from "Getting Real", "Rework", and "Shape Up". Use when the user mentions "Getting Real", "Rework", "Shape Up", "37signals", "Basecamp method", "six-week cycles", "fixed time variable scope", "appetite vs estimates", "betting table", "breadboarding", "fat marker sketch", "build less", "underdo the competition", "opinionated software", "we have too many meetings", "how do we ship faster", or "stop overbuilding". Also trigger when cutting scope to ship sooner, running a small team, or avoiding long-term roadmaps. Covers shaping, betting, building, and the art of saying no. For MVP validation, see lean-startup. For design sprints, see design-sprint.
Guided journey from a working codebase grown slow and tangled to one measurably fast, cleanly bounded, and readable. Orchestrates eight skills phase by phase - working-with-legacy-code, clean-architecture, software-design-philosophy, refactoring-patterns, system-design, ddia-systems, release-it, pragmatic-programmer - every phase carries its method inline so it runs standalone, asking the user questions at every decision point and recording results in the project docs/ folder (PERFORMANCE.md, ARCHITECTURE.md, ARCHITECTURE-OPTIMIZATION-PLAN.md) so the journey resumes across sessions. Use when the user wants to make an app faster, untangle drifted boundaries, fix slow endpoints and queries, or says ''it works but it is slow and getting worse''. For an untested prototype, improve-code-quality; for an aged codebase you fear to touch, remove-technical-debt; for greenfield structure, design-code-architecture; for marketing-site page speed, improve-website. For one framework in isolation, invoke that skill directly.
Create uncontested market space using value innovation instead of competing head-to-head. Use when the user mentions "blue ocean", "red ocean", "strategy canvas", "ERRC framework", "value innovation", "non-customers", "buyer utility map", "the market is too crowded", "how do we stand out", or "escape the price war". Also trigger when exploring a new market category, or finding underserved or non-customers. Covers the Four Actions Framework, Six Paths, buyer utility map, and value-cost trade-offs. For real strategy formulation and bad-strategy detection, see good-strategy-bad-strategy. For tech adoption strategy, see crossing-the-chasm. For product positioning, see obviously-awesome.
Structure software around the Dependency Rule: source code dependencies point inward from frameworks to use cases to entities. Use when the user mentions "architecture layers", "dependency rule", "ports and adapters (hexagonal)", "onion architecture", "screaming architecture", "where should business logic go", "decouple from the database", "swap the framework without a rewrite", or "keep business rules independent". Also trigger when deciding which layer code belongs in, isolating core logic from infrastructure, defining module boundaries, or debating whether the framework should call your code or the reverse. Covers component principles, boundaries, and SOLID. For code-level quality, see clean-code. For domain modeling, see domain-driven-design.
Write readable, maintainable code through disciplined naming, small functions, and clean error handling. Use when the user mentions "clean up this code", "this function is too long", "code smells", "naming conventions", "boy scout rule", "single responsibility", or "unit test quality". Also trigger when reviewing a pull request for readability, untangling a messy function, debating comment styles, or improving error-handling patterns. Covers SRP, comment discipline, formatting, and unit testing. For refactoring techniques, see refactoring-patterns. For architecture and dependency rules, see clean-architecture.
Start and scale networked products using Andrew Chen''s "The Cold Start Problem" framework for network effects. Use when the user mentions "network effects", "chicken and egg", "cold start", "two-sided marketplace", "atomic network", "hard side", "liquidity", "critical mass", "invite-only launch", "how do I get my first users", or "the marketplace has no buyers or sellers". Also trigger when launching a marketplace, social, or collaboration product that is worthless without other users, deciding launch sequencing and seeding tactics, or diagnosing stalled network growth at scale. Covers the five stages: cold start, tipping point, escape velocity, hitting the ceiling, and the moat. For word-of-mouth virality, see contagious. For habit-driven retention, see hooked-ux.
Engineer word-of-mouth and virality using the STEPPS framework (Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, Stories). Use when the user mentions "go viral", "word of mouth", "shareable content", "social currency", "why people share", "referral program", "nobody is sharing it", or "make this spread". Also trigger when designing shareable features, crafting social campaigns, or building products that spread through peer recommendation. Covers environmental triggers and high-arousal emotional content. For sticky messaging, see made-to-stick. For persuasion tactics, see influence-psychology.
Build a weekly cadence of customer touchpoints using Opportunity Solution Trees, assumption mapping, and interview snapshots. Use when the user mentions "continuous discovery", "opportunity solution tree", "weekly interviews", "assumption testing", "discovery habits", "product trio", "outcome-based roadmap", "how do I talk to customers regularly", "we keep building things nobody uses", or "connect research to the roadmap". Also trigger when setting up regular customer feedback loops, prioritizing which experiments to run, or tying discovery insights to delivery work. Covers experience mapping, co-creation, and prioritizing opportunities. For interview technique, see mom-test. For team structure, see inspired-product.