If you’ve been around the persuasion block for some time, you know this by now (and really don’t need to read this post).

If you haven’t you HAVE to know this now, it’s part of the ABC of influence.

People are more motivated by fear of loss than by desire to gain. This is true for the majority of people.

Fear of loss is one of the strongest emotional triggers, because it is a threat to our posessions. Marketers play that card regularly, when they limit the supply of something or set a time limit.

Robert Cialdini, author of the ground-breaking book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” has quoted an energy audit study. Researches went door to door and recommended housholders to insulate their homes.

Half of the householders got the following “pitch”: If you insulate your home, you will get an extra 50 cent per day.

The other half of the householders got a slightly different pitch: If you don’t insulate your home, you will loose 50 cent per day.

Keep in mind, both of these were the same offers. But there was a 150% difference in response! The people who were confronted with the chance of loss were 150% more likely to have their homes isolated than the people who were presented the option of winning 50 cent a day.

(You can listen to this Robert Cialdini speech at Princeton University, or just download the text-transcript).

If you know something about NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) you are aware of meta-programs, and you know already about “Moving Towards vs. Moving Away from”. These are primary motivation strategies.

Tony Robbins said “People will do more to avoid pain than they will do to gain pleasure.”

Many times when people try to influence others, they do so by telling them all the great stuff - all the pleasures they will gain. But is that enough? Sometimes yes. But oftentimes no. The most powerful persuadors in the in the world also make use of that avoiding pain-pattern.

Think about the church. If you behave according to the rules, you’ll go to heaven (infinite pleasure). If you behave wrong, you’ll go to hell (infinite pain).

Just think about politics. Utilizing fear is one of the oldest, but still most powerful instruments in the hands of politicians. They don’t just say: “Vote for my party and let’s make this country a better country.” They also say: “Vote for me, because I will protect you from nuclear terrorist attacks.” They say: “Vote for me because this country is at the brink of a depression.” They say: “Vote for me because the enemy is trying to invade.”

Moving towards = dangling a carrot in front of the donkey

Moving away from = whipping a horse to keep it going.

Fear of loss is a moving away from strategy (losing something is pain, you move away from pain).

Think about the car-salesman. When you picked your car, are negotiationg about the price, chances are pretty good that he will at some point in the negotiation process have some bad news for you: another prospect wants to buy the exact same car. If you are sincerely interested in that car, that puts pressure on you to act more impulsively, because you risk loosing something that you want.

Seth Godin also wrote a both funny and insightful post called Fear of loss, desire for gain