What is the Influence Gap Analysis?

The Influence Gap Analysis (IGA) is a free 5-minute assessment that measures your personal influence style across Dr. Robert Cialdini's seven universal principles of persuasion — reciprocity, commitment, social proof, authority, liking, scarcity, and unity — plus contrast, the meta-principle that amplifies every other principle. You receive a signature combining your primary and secondary principles and can unlock a deeper Mastery quiz to test your knowledge of ethical influence.

How long does the Influence Gap Analysis take?

The basic Influence Gap Analysis takes about 5 minutes. It is a 24-question forced-choice test that produces your influence signature: a primary principle paired with a secondary principle, drawn from Cialdini's seven principles plus contrast.

What are Cialdini's seven principles of influence?

Dr. Cialdini's seven principles are reciprocity (we repay what we receive), commitment and consistency (we honor our prior choices), social proof (we follow what others do), authority (we defer to credible experts), liking (we say yes to people we like), scarcity (we want what is rare), and unity (we say yes to those we share an identity with). The Influence Gap Analysis also measures contrast — the amplifier that makes each of the seven land harder.

Is the Influence Gap Analysis free?

Yes. The basic Influence Gap Analysis is completely free and does not require an account or email to receive your signature. An optional paid Mastery quiz unlocks a deeper 64-question knowledge test plus a personalized influence report.

Is this the official Cialdini test?

Yes. The Influence Gap Analysis is built on the published research of Dr. Robert Cialdini, the Regents' Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University and the world's most-cited social psychologist on persuasion. It uses Cialdini's seven principles plus contrast as its measurement framework.

What does my influence signature mean?

Your signature is a pairing of your primary influence principle (the lever you reach for first) and your secondary principle (the lever you use to back it up). For example, an Authority+Reciprocity signature describes someone who leads with credibility and reinforces it with generous gestures, while a Liking+Social-Proof signature describes someone who leads with warmth and reinforces it with what others are doing.

Can I share my Influence Gap Analysis result?

Yes. Every result has a unique share link and downloadable signature image, so you can compare results with colleagues, friends, or your team. Team accounts also produce an aggregate radar so you can see how a whole team's influence style is distributed.

How is the Influence Gap Analysis different from a personality test?

Personality tests like Myers-Briggs, Big Five, or DISC measure stable traits (e.g. introversion, conscientiousness). The Influence Gap Analysis measures something different: which of the seven Cialdini levers you naturally reach for when you want to persuade, negotiate, or lead. It is a behavioral influence-style assessment, not a personality test.

Isn't framing the same as manipulation?

The frame is manipulation only when it hides a real trade-off or fabricates a decoy. When the alternatives you show are genuine options the other side actually has, framing is clarity — you're helping them see the full choice they face.

How is Contrast different from Scarcity?

Scarcity says the option might disappear. Contrast says the option looks different next to something else. They combine powerfully — 'locking in now' vs. 'waiting for the next cohort at list price' uses both — but they're distinct levers.

Where does Contrast come from in Cialdini's work?

Contrast is the underlying mechanism in rejection-then-retreat (door-in-the-face) and perceptual contrast studies Cialdini has cited since the original Influence book. The Cialdini Institute's Principles of Persuasion Mastery programme teaches it as the amplifier — the meta-principle that makes every other influence move land harder, rather than the eighth item in a list.

Cialdini principle · Influence Profile

← All principles

Contrast

You shape decisions by controlling what each option is compared against.

Kindred spirits

Steve Jobs (iPhone launch — priced against a PC, not a phone)
Warren Buffett (frames every deal against the opportunity cost of doing nothing)
Skilled negotiators in real estate, M&A, and sales ops

The tendency to influence others by controlling what an offer is compared against — using anchors, sequencing, and reference points so the chosen option feels obviously right. Your default is to control the reference point — the price the listener has just seen, the alternative just rejected, the version of the offer that came before. You understand that audiences experience your offer relative to whatever they encountered last, and you put what they encounter last under your own control.

Best at

Pricing strategy, proposal design, and negotiation
Executive decision-making where trade-offs need to be made legible
Any context where the same offer needs to land differently for different audiences

Watch-outs

Engineering anchors that look engineered — credibility collapses when the frame is exposed
Over-trusting the frame and under-investing in the substance of the offer
Missing audiences who make decisions on warmth or identity rather than comparison

Tell-tale signs

You never present one option — you always include the worse alternative
You think in anchors: what am I being compared against?
You can reshape a 'no' by changing the reference point, not the offer

Thrives in

Pricing, negotiation, proposal design, executive decision-making

Struggles with

Decisions presented in isolation, rapport-first audiences, emotional pitches

Related principles

Authority Scarcity Commitment & Consistency

Take the Assessment

Cialdini principle · Influence Profile

← All principles

Contrast

You shape decisions by controlling what each option is compared against.

Kindred spirits

Steve Jobs (iPhone launch — priced against a PC, not a phone)
Warren Buffett (frames every deal against the opportunity cost of doing nothing)
Skilled negotiators in real estate, M&A, and sales ops

Best at

Pricing strategy, proposal design, and negotiation
Executive decision-making where trade-offs need to be made legible
Any context where the same offer needs to land differently for different audiences

Watch-outs

Engineering anchors that look engineered — credibility collapses when the frame is exposed
Over-trusting the frame and under-investing in the substance of the offer
Missing audiences who make decisions on warmth or identity rather than comparison

Tell-tale signs

You never present one option — you always include the worse alternative
You think in anchors: what am I being compared against?
You can reshape a 'no' by changing the reference point, not the offer

Thrives in

Pricing, negotiation, proposal design, executive decision-making

Struggles with

Decisions presented in isolation, rapport-first audiences, emotional pitches

Related principles

Authority Scarcity Commitment & Consistency

Take the Assessment

Contrast

Good things, in formation.

Contrast