Taking the personalities of others into account when choosing your influence strategy can supercharge the effectiveness of your negotiation. Here we discuss the 5 point personality model to enhance your influence.
Duncan Stevens is regularly hired as a keynote speaker to give talks and demonstrations using his in depth understanding of the psychology of people as to how we can influence others. If you have been any of his performances or keynote speeches you may have seen one of his demonstrations of influence.
One of the most astonishing for members of the audience is when he invites a participant up onto the stage. They they cover their eyes with a blindfold and then hold a large rock in their hands. Duncan then demonstrates a technique he has honed over many years caller ‘Influence without awareness’. Using this technique, he can get them to genuinely describe that they are feeling the softness and roughness of a sponge. When they look down (and to the rest of the audience), they see that they are in fact holding a big heavy rock. This experiment can be repeated many times and Duncan showcases this with a phone being felt as a deck of playing cards or a teaspoon being felt as a soup ladle, amongst others. With the second, the person is describing that they feel. In this instance, a small silver teaspoon in their hands and when they lift the blindfold off their eyes they will see that in fact it is a large soup ladle.
One of the core applications of influence that Duncan showcases in these demonstrations is one which also informs decision-making when it comes to buying a product or service or even voting. This is ‘personality analysis’. Having been a psychological illusionist and master of influence for the best part of 10 years Duncan has honed the ability to be able to identify peoples key personality traits in a very short space of time and then use them to demonstrate experiments.
We all exhibit a wide range of personality traits. In fact, leading psychologist, Gordon Allport, and one of the founding figures of personality psychology, identified that we exhibit over 4,000 of them.
Prior to Allport’s identification of 4,000 personality traits, Raymond Cattell had identified 16 dimensions of human personality, whilst Hans Eysenck’s created a three-factor personality theory. Eysenck identified these traits as psychoticism, extraversion, and neuroticism and their bipolar opposites.
Many researchers agree that Cattell’s theory was far too complicated whilst Eysenk’s was far too limited in its scope. Allport’s theory on the other hand was too detailed. As a result, a more distilled down 5 factor personality types theory emerged off the back of these. These described the range of traits that form the building blocks of our personality. These traits were later coined ‘The Big Five’ with O.C.E.A.N as its acronym.
It is these 5 core personality types that Duncan is quick to identify and work with in any initial interaction with a participant in one of his performance pieces. By combining this quick evaluation of their personality with other more subtle influence techniques, (some of which are shared in this blog of micro-masterclasses), he is able to influence participants’ actions and behaviours. Demonstrations include the aforementioned influencing them to describe the feeling of a sponge when they are just holding a rock. (There is no hypnosis or embedded suggestion in these demonstrations, just the intimate and covert use of influence which we will talk about later on).
Making an assessment of the 5-factor personality traits of the person you want to influence when it comes to the subtle art of influence and persuasion is absolutely key.
Below is the the 5-factor personality model which should be considered when tailoring your influence to anybody or anything. Next to them are the questions you may want to ask yourself about the subject:
Openness – Are they open-minded and authority challenging?
Conscientiousness – Are they self-disciplined and prefer structure, plans and order?
Extraversion – Do they enjoy spending time with others?
Agreeableness – Are they warm, friendly and place other people’s needs before their own?
Neurotic – Do they tend to worry a lot?
If you take the first letter of each, this will create the acronym O.C.E.A.N.
As mentioned earlier, if you send the same message to different people in the same demographic they may have very different world views.
As an example of this, an open person may be more sociable and therefore more likely influenced by the views of others in their own peer group or social circle.
A conscientious person may be more ordered and structured and therefore be more influenced by a rational, fact based argument.
An extraverted person often seeks to engage with experiences and to respond to excitement or attention.
An agreeable person may be more altruistic and tend to put the community and societal needs ahead of their own. They are more likely to be influenced by those in their community or society.
A neurotic person may be more heavily influenced by an emotional message.
Duncan has been an influence expert for most of his adult life. He is the director and founder of the Influence Association and a highly sought after keynote speaker. He also travels the world preforming as a psychological illusionist demonstrating some of his incredible influence skills. If you would like to learn more about any of his services, then do not hesitate to get in touch using the button below.
