 What makes a person buy one car over another? What makes a girl choose which guy to date? What makes people press the buy now button? Charlie Munger, also known as Warren Buffett's former business partner, created a list of 25 cognitive biases that can affect our decisions. Now not every person falls for all of these, and some biases will affect you more than others. But if you master these biases, you'll become a better persuader and become better at preventing impulse decisions that you might regret later. So if you like getting scammed, then don't watch this entire video. Otherwise, let's get started. Now I personally would separate these into different biases, but the first one is reward slash punishment tendency. If you want to persuade people, just offer them big rewards and incentives. Practically everyone has a price. This might seem obvious, but Charlie says every year he realizes how much he has underestimated the power of incentives. So this bias alone is worth spending hours talking about. On the other hand, people tend to flee from punishment. So you want someone to lose weight or to quit drugs, then start by telling them all the potential health issues. The second is liking slash loving tendency. We tend to ignore the faults of other people, products, or companies that we admire. One of my favorite books on this subject is How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. But in general, just be nice, look sexy, and people will be hypnotized by you. The third bias is the opposite, disliking slash hating tendency. Not much people ever talk about The Good Hitler did, why? Because we tend to ignore the virtues and positive stuff about people we dislike. The fourth is doubt avoidance tendency. If we are unsure about a decision, we try to quickly remove any doubt by making an ill-informed quick decision. So if you want to become more persuasive, then simply increase your certainty. Like if you don't enjoy the rest of this video, then I promise you a free time machine so I can refund your time. No questions asked. The fifth is inconsistency avoidance tendency. Our brain conserves programming space by being reluctant to change. It's why eliminating bad habits can be difficult. The foot in the door technique is a great example of how people like to stay consistent. For example, can I borrow the car to go to school? Followed by, can I borrow the car for the weekend? The idea is to get people to agree to a small task or request first, then they'll be more likely to agree to a bigger one. The sixth is curiosity tendency. Curiosity has been one of the main drivers in human progress throughout history. Imagine if no other resources existed where you could learn the rest of the 25 biases from. And I said you'd have to buy my ebook for $7 to learn the rest. How would that make you feel? The seventh is canty and fairness tendency, which is pretty much the golden rule that is to treat others how you want to be treated. It's the bias that makes a 300 pound big guy willing to line up behind an old lady and follow the first come first serve rule. Another example is letting in other drivers on the freeway believing that they will reciprocate in the future. So think about situations where you get mad at strangers for not sharing who don't even owe you anything. The eighth is envy slash jealousy. This is self-explanatory. Even Buffett says it is not greed that drives the world, but envy. So be careful with this one, as showing off too much might make people dislike you. Like this is one of the reasons some people don't like Donald Trump. The ninth is reciprocation tendency, which is related to the seventh. We tend to want to return to favor when someone gives us something or helps us out. This is why some supermarkets offer free samples, or why car salesmen might offer free coffee. But it is not why my e-book is free. I'm just nice. The tenth is influence from mere association tendency. When Nike found out that Manny Pacquiao called the gay community dumber than animals, they immediately ended their long-term partnership with him. Association is that powerful, and that is why models are often used to showcase products. Another example is how we associate price with the quality of the item. That's why some companies make crappy products and price it high. The eleventh is simple pain avoiding psychological denial. We have a habit of distorting the facts. There are stories of mothers who receive news that their son from the army died and refuse to believe it. We can trick ourselves to numb the pain. Get rich quick or lose weight quickly scams work effectively on people who are in denial. The twelfth is excessive self-regard tendency. People tend to think highly of themselves. Most people in online dating sites think they're more attractive than they really are. So when persuading people, make them feel special and that just for them, you're going to give them a big discount or something. But it doesn't even have to be big. There's a study that shows how waitresses can increase their tips by simply using mints. I'll put a link to an article in my descriptions. The thirteenth is over optimism. Well I got a pill that in 20 days you'll lose 100 pounds. In general, we have a tendency to be optimist, especially in new environments, that things will turn out fine. The fourteenth is deprival super reaction tendency. People tend to act irrational with intensity even to small losses sometimes. This is why limited time offers are powerful. Even Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett, two of the most successful people in this world, both hate being in auctions because they always feel like getting manipulated. Going once, going twice, sold to the man wearing the fedora hat. The fifteenth is social proof. There's an automatic tendency to think and act as others around think and act. This simplifies our thoughts. This is why products are always filled with testimonials and reviews. The sixteenth is contrast mystery action tendency. Want to make a house look big, then compare it to a tent. Want to make the same house look small, then compare it to a skyscraper. What sounds better? It's all yours for just a monthly payment of $49.99? Or it's all yours for less than a cup of coffee from Starbucks a day. The seventeenth is stress influence tendency. Stress can cause us to make bad decisions. Think of time shares where they might put you in a tight room where you just want to get out. More times when you buy something and they say they're going to check with their manager first, then they come back 10 minutes later, you talk some more and then they say again, well let me go talk to my manager again. Then you say screw it, I'll just take it. The eighteenth is availability misweighing tendency. The mind works with what is easily available to it, like fast food. We might buy things that's available right in front of us even if there's something much cheaper somewhere else. This is why we have instincts, so the mind doesn't have to work as hard figuring stuff out. So if you got a confusing website or advertisement, then good luck. The nineteenth is the use it or lose it tendency. Too many people learn a skill to simply cram for a test or presentation instead of trying to actually understand it fluently. So practice and share these tendencies after this video. As much as I like sharing things, one of the biggest reasons I make these videos is for myself. The twentieth is the drug misinfluence tendency. This is a very strong tendency that costs lives. It is often supplemented by simple pain avoidant psychological denial. The twenty first is senescence misinfluence tendency. As we age there is a natural loss of certain skills and abilities. So if you got a website targeted for older people, make sure the fonts are big. Try to speak slower and enunciate your words more. The twenty second is authority misinfluence tendency. Humans tend to follow leaders. It's one of the reasons I sometimes quote people of authority, like I did with Mr. Buffett earlier. If you want more insight, just look up Milgram's experiment. The twenty third is the twaddle tendency. People like to spend a lot of time on nonsense. Think of TV and how so much people watch things like the Kardashians. So in marketing, make sure there's a lot of content and consider making things longer. I've been to seminars that lasted over 10 hours and at the end, everyone was virtually buying and signing up. The twenty fourth is the reason respecting tendency. We're often scared to sell because we got competitors, but sometimes even giving a meaningless reason increases compliances. The word because is very powerful. There's a study where a person successfully jumps in front of a line to use a copy machine simply by saying, excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make copies? The twenty fifth and most important of all is the Lollapalooza tendency. This basically says if enough cognitive biases are activated at the same period of time, you'll become a helpless zombie. Now because you're special and watch the whole video, I got an offer just for you. If you subscribe right now, like the hundreds before you, you'll get a chance to win a free, positively brainwashed t-shirt signed by any celebrity of your choice. And as a bonus, you'll win a mystery box that will give you a chance to win up to $100,000. And if that's not all, you'll win the latest iPhone and a new Lambo. But you gotta act now before Hitler steals your gifts. Believe me, the biggest thing you'll regret is not subscribing six months ago. Congratulations. If you didn't fall for that, then you're part of the 1% who passed the test. So choose one of the following. You can either A, subscribe and like. B, listen to the share bear over there and show that you care. C, watch my latest video. Or D, tell me to quit YouTube.