Is persuasion legal?

Yesterday the conversation in Brian Kurtz’s Titans Xcelerator mastermind drifted to Robert Cialdini.

In case you don’t know Robert Cialdini, he’s known as a persuasion genius.

He made is mark when he wrote Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion which quickly became the ultimate resource guide for copywriters and marketers.

Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade was his next best-selling book.

I’m currently reading Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive.

Cialdini has dedicated his life to researching influence and persuasion.

His books are not based on his opinion.

They’re based on scientific research.

On yesterday’s mastermind call, everyone started holding up copies of Cialdini’s books.

There were about 45 people on the call and almost everyone owned one of Cialdini’s books.

That’s influence!

So, is it ethical to intentionally influence or persuade someone?

Years ago, I was at a Dan Kennedy conference and one of the speakers influenced the audience with an NLP-filled presentation.

NLP is Neuro-Linguistic Programming.