Using this word can make you more influential: Harvard study

Sometimes, it takes a single word like because to change someone s mind.

That s according to Jonah Berger, a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who s compiled a list of magic words that can change the way you communicate. Using the word because while trying to convince someone to do something has a compelling result, he tells CNBC Make It: More people will listen to you, and do what you want.

Berger points to nearly a 50-year-old study from Harvard University, wherein researchers sat in a university library and waited for someone to use the copy machine. Then, they walked up and asked to cut in front of the unknowing participant.

They phrased their request in three different ways:

• May I use the Xerox machine?
• May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make copies?
• May I use the Xerox machine because I m in a rush?

Both requests using because made the people already making copies more than 50% more likely to comply, researchers found. Even the second phrasing which could be reinterpreted as May I step in front of you to do the same exact thing you re doing? was effective, because it indicated that the stranger asking for a favor was at least being considerate about it, the study suggested.

Persuasion wasn t driven by the reason itself, Berger wrote in a book on the topic, Magic Words, which published last year. It was driven by the power of the word.

via www.cnbc.com

Or you could just wait your turn.