Outliers: The Story of Success is Malcolm Gladwell’s third installment of how people and social phenomena work. In his new book, Gladwell delves into what it takes to achieve high levels of success and how successful individuals at the top of their respective fields get there. As the myth of individual merit and intelligence is unraveled, Gladwell explores the “true” key factors for success … culture, circumstance, timing, birth and luck.

When asked what he hopes readers take away from his new book, Gladwell responded saying:

I think this is the way in which Outliers is a lot like Blink and Tipping Point. They are all attempts to make us think about the world a little differently. The hope with Tipping Point was it would help the reader understand that real change was possible. With Blink, I wanted to get people to take the enormous power of their intuition seriously. My wish with Outliers is that it makes us understand how much of a group project success is. When outliers become outliers it is not just because of their own efforts. It’s because of the contributions of lots of different people and lots of different circumstances— and that means that we, as a society, have more control about who succeeds—and how many of us succeed—than we think. That’s an amazingly hopeful and uplifting idea.

Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive is Robert Cialdini’s latest effort at gathering research findings in behavioral psychology, social science, and related areas that can then be used to generate tips on how to be more persuasive in one’s personal and professional lives. 

Yes! is composed of fifty short chapters, a few of which are: How can you become a Jedi Master of persuasion? How can rhyme make your influence climb? and How can inconveniencing your audience increase your persuasiveness?

Each chapter begins with the description of a particular line of experimental research that demonstrates how individuals process information and make decisions. The authors then segue from the scientific data into a discussion about how the information can be used to make oneself more persuasive.

For more information about Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive and to hear Cialdini’s interview on NPR, visit NPR Talk of the Nation.