Page 31 - The Power to Change Anything

20 INFLUENCER

“They added creative embellishments. One girl actually trans-
forms a doll into a weapon of assault.” There she is—that cute
little girl in the frilly outfit—smacking Bobo with Raggedy Ann.
In addition to demonstrating that humans are influenced
by watching the behavior of others, Bandura was able to prove
that the violence pumped out by the television networks was
likely to exact a terrible toll on viewers. Dr. Bandura caps his
review of his classic study by stating with a twinkle: “This
research didn’t get me onto the Christmas-card list of the
broadcast industry.” But it did put him smack dab in the cen-
ter of influence research.
This work, when combined with hundreds of other
Bandura studies that have been aimed at fixing an ailing world,
teaches us the very first thing we need to know about influence.
Influence strategies can indeed be studied, tested, and mas-
tered. Bandura also taught us where not to waste our time. For
instance, if you want others to change, you don’t have to put
them on a couch for 10 years to learn about their critical child-
hood moments. You also need not trouble yourself by laying a
trail of Reese’s Pieces in front of others to propel them through
a maze. Humans aren’t simple-minded pawns who can be read-
ily manipulated to do whatever you like—even if you have the
right amount of candy.
In fact, Bandura found humans to be quite complicated. It
turns out that they think. Humans observe, cogitate, draw con-
clusions, and then act. All this is important to know because if
you want to change the world, you eventually have to change
how people behave. And if you want to change how they
behave, you have to first change how they think.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU

There’s good news in all of this. Since our ineffectiveness at
influencing others stems from a simple inability rather than a
character flaw or lack of motivation, the solution lies in con-