If social influence techniques affect behaviour and information output during face-to-face engagements in a military context. An exploratory study.
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2016-04-21
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en
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This study addresses the effectiveness of social influence techniques in the military context of Mali where Dutch Special Forces engage with locals in order to gather information. It seeks to answer the research question: To what extent do Cialdini’s influence techniques predict the information output and the behaviour of the interlocutor during KLE’s between Dutch Special Forces and Malian locals for MINUSMA? This question is relevant, because civilian evidence on Cialdini’s techniques does not mean that they will work in a military and intercultural context where the stakes are high and trust is a precondition. A corpus consisting of 40 meeting reports of the engagements was analysed. For these reports was coded which techniques were used, which information categories were mentioned and how the interlocutor’s behaviour was characterised. Authority, commitment and consistency, liking, reciprocity, and scarcity were used. The information categories comprised the political, military, economic, social, information, and infrastructure situation (PMESII), attitude towards MINUSMA, and a point of contact. Commitment and consistency, liking, reciprocity, and scarcity could explain the variance for several information categories and behaviour scales. Consequently, these techniques should be applied in the military context when the specific outcome is desired.
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