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.

Is scarcity just manipulation?

It becomes manipulation when the scarcity is fake. Ethical scarcity names a real constraint — limited cohort size, one-time availability, genuine deadline — and lets the audience decide with full information.

Why does scarcity work even when we know about it?

Loss aversion is older than reason. Even knowing you're being pitched on scarcity, the feeling of potential loss still registers. The ethical Curator's job is to make sure the loss framing is truthful.

How do I use scarcity without feeling pushy?

Pair it with abundance. 'This cohort closes Friday, and the next one opens in six months' reads as respectful. 'Only 3 spots left (urgency!)' reads as pushy.

Cialdini principle · Influence Profile

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Scarcity

You understand that rarity creates desire — and you frame it masterfully.

Kindred spirits

Hermès (legendary scarcity of the Birkin)
Y Combinator (cohort-based access creates real scarcity)
Steve Jobs (launched Apple products with orchestrated reveals)

The tendency to influence others by highlighting what is rare, limited, exclusive, or at risk of being lost. Your default move is to surface the cost of waiting — the closing window, the lost opportunity, the option that is about to disappear. You understand that the brain weights losses harder than equivalent gains, and you frame accordingly.

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