The impact of individual differences on influence strategies

Persuasion and its applications aim at positively changing human behavior and they work the best when they are tailored to individuals. Recent studies show that individuals could give different responses to the same persuasion strategies which lead to personalization of persuasion strategies for better effectiveness. This study investigates what persuasion strategies are more effective for whom. More specifically, the relationship between the Big Five Personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness) and six persuasion strategies (authority, reciprocation, scarcity, liking, commitment and consensus) is explored. This study was conducted with 381 university students. A structured questionnaire comprising the Big Five Inventory Personality Trait scale and the Susceptibility to Persuasion Strategies scale was used to collect data. The Bayesian estimation was employed to reveal causal relationships. The results show that there are significant relations between personality traits and influence strategies. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.