Glossary · Across all seven principles
The Contrast Principle
Want to know how the Contrast Principle works? Whether you want to use it in your own requests, or spot it when someone uses it on you, you're in the right place.
You'll find the definition, the published study behind it, and ideas for how to use it ethically.
Also called perceptual contrast, the contrast effect.
The definition
What is the Contrast Principle?
It is not one of the seven principles of influence. It comes from the same research, and it works across all seven.
How we judge something depends on what we experienced just before it.
People take the Influence Assessment to learn which principles they lean on, and where they lose people.
Here is how it works:
The contrast principle describes a feature of human perception: when two things are presented one after the other, the difference between them looks larger than it is. Something seems more expensive after something cheap, and cheaper after something expensive. In Dr. Cialdini's work it is not one of the seven principles but an amplifier that makes each of them land harder.
The study behind it
The three buckets
Described by Cialdini in Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, 1984
A classic demonstration uses three buckets of water: one cold, one at room temperature, one hot. Place one hand in the cold water and the other in the hot, then put both into the room-temperature bucket. The same water feels warm to one hand and cold to the other. Influence uses the demonstration to show why the order in which options are presented shapes how each is judged.
Where you'll see it
How to recognize the Contrast Principle.
Spotting it, in your own requests and in other people's, starts with knowing where it tends to show up.
You'll see it in: Showing the premium option before the standard one, presenting a smaller request after a larger one, setting a proposal beside the cost of doing nothing.
How to use it
How to use the Contrast Principle ethically.
Here is how to use it ethically:
Every comparison offered should be a real alternative. Showing a deliberately poor option only to flatter the one you want chosen misleads the person deciding.
Discover more
Find out which principles you lean on.
Which principles do you lean on?
Take the free Influence Assessment to see which of the seven you lean on and where you lose people. Your result is free; the full report is $49.
Related terms
- Foot-in-the-Door TechniqueAgreeing to a small request makes people more likely to agree to a larger, related one later.Read the definition
- Door-in-the-Face TechniqueA large request that is refused, followed by a smaller one, makes the smaller one more likely to be accepted.Read the definition
- Low-Ball TechniqueOnce people commit to a decision, they tend to stick with it even after its cost rises.Read the definition