Gender, Age, and Responsiveness to Cialdini's Persuasion Strategies

Research has shown that there are differences in how males and females respond to persuasive attempts. This paper examines the persuasiveness of the six persuasive strategies Reciprocity, Scarcity, Authority, Commitment and Consistency, Consensus and Liking developed by Cialdini with respect to age and gender. The results of the large-scale study (N = 1108) show that males and females differ significantly in their responsiveness to the strategies. Overall, females are more responsive to most of the strategies than males and some strategies are more suitable for persuading one gender than the other. The results of our study also reveal some differences between younger adults and adults with respect to the persuasiveness of the strategies. Finally, the results show that irrespective of gender and age, there are significant differences between the strategies regarding their perceived persuasiveness overall, shedding light on the comparative effectiveness of the strategies.