Regents Professor of Psychology and Marketing
Arizona State University

Speech title:
The Power of Persuasion and Pre-Suasion

Robert B. Cialdini is Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University. He has been elected president of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award of the Society for Consumer Psychology, the Donald T. Campbell Award for Distinguished Contributions to Social Psychology, the (inaugural) Peitho Award for Distinguished Contributions to the Science of Social Influence, The Lifetime Contributions Award of the Western Psychological Association, and the Distinguished Scientist Award of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology.

Professor Cialdini’s book Influence, which was the result of a three-year program of study into the reasons that people comply with requests in everyday settings, has sold over 5 million copies while appearing in numerous editions and 44 languages. His more recent book Pre-Suasion was an immediate New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Publisher’s Weekly bestseller. Dr. Cialdini attributes his interest in social influences to the fact that he was raised in an entirely Italian family, in a predominantly Polish neighborhood, in a historically German city (Milwaukee), in an otherwise rural state.