to twenty-eight literary agencies and publishing houses. Ten years earlier, the book had sold a half million copies and had won the National Book Award. Now, appearing to have been authored by a lesser-known writer, the manuscript was deemed “inadequate” by all twenty-eight organizations – including Random House, the novel’s original publisher!

Here is another great example of

Some people perceive someone to be powerful because of his/her physical characteristics. For example, being tall can emit authority to another, even before you’ve spoken to that person. If you look back through history, presidential elections in the United States have been won by the taller candidate twenty out of twenty-three elections since 1900. Recognize that many of the things we possess serve as status symbols.

Authority by Public Opinion

Authority by public opinion is when a person has power or authority not directly because of their experience or expertise, but simply because they are held in high esteem by the public or by public outcry. An example of this is how scholarly or academic journals are more likely to publish articles of people who are fairly established and somewhat renowned within their respective field as compared to one who is virtually unknown. A really interesting study involved taking previously published articles written by prestigious and reputable authors and resubmitting them to those same journals without any alterations except replacing the authors with “unknown names.” Out of twelve resubmitted articles, nine of them went through the review process undetected, and eight of those were rejected! This was in spite of the fact that each had been published previously when all that was different were the names.

Another similar experiment was conducted when a writer typed out Jerzy Kosinski’s novel, Steps, word-for-word and sent the manuscript to twenty-eight literary agencies and publishing houses. Ten years earlier, the book had sold a half million copies and had won the National Book Award. Now, appearing to have been authored by a lesser-known writer, the manuscript was deemed “inadequate” by all twenty-eight organizations – including Random House, the novel’s original publisher!

Here is another great example of

he things we possess serve as status symbols.

Authority by Public Opinion

Authority by public opinion is when a person has power or authority not directly because of their experience or expertise, but simply because they are held in high esteem by the public or by public outcry. An example of this is how scholarly or academic journals are more likely to publish articles of people who are fairly established and somewhat renowned within their respective field as compared to one who is virtually unknown. A really interesting study involved taking previously published articles written by prestigious and reputable authors and resubmitting them to those same journals without any alterations except replacing the authors with “unknown names.” Out of twelve resubmitted articles, nine of them went through the review process undetected, and eight of those were rejected! This was in spite of the fact that each had been published previously when all that was different were the names.

Another similar experiment was conducted when a writer typed out Jerzy Kosinski’s novel, Steps, word-for-word and sent the manuscript to twenty-eight literary agencies and publishing houses. Ten years earlier, the book had sold a half million copies and had won the National Book Award. Now, appearing to have been authored by a lesser-known writer, the manuscript was deemed “inadequate” by all twenty-eight organizations – including Random House, the novel’s original publisher!

Here is another great example of

publish articles of people who are fairly established and somewhat renowned within their respective field as compared to one who is virtually unknown. A really interesting study involved taking previously published articles written by prestigious and reputable authors and resubmitting them to those same journals without any alterations except replacing the authors with “unknown names.” Out of twelve resubmitted articles, nine of them went through the review process undetected, and eight of those were rejected! This was in spite of the fact that each had been published previously when all that was different were the names.

Another similar experiment was conducted when a writer typed out Jerzy Kosinski’s novel, Steps, word-for-word and sent the manuscript to twenty-eight literary agencies and publishing houses. Ten years earlier, the book had sold a half million copies and had won the National Book Award. Now, appearing to have been authored by a lesser-known writer, the manuscript was deemed “inadequate” by all twenty-eight organizations – including Random House, the novel’s original publisher!

Here is another great example of

.” Out of twelve resubmitted articles, nine of them went through the review process undetected, and eight of those were rejected! This was in spite of the fact that each had been published previously when all that was different were the names.

Another similar experiment was conducted when a writer typed out Jerzy Kosinski’s novel, Steps, word-for-word and sent the manuscript to twenty-eight literary agencies and publishing houses. Ten years earlier, the book had sold a half million copies and had won the National Book Award. Now, appearing to have been authored by a lesser-known writer, the manuscript was deemed “inadequate” by all twenty-eight organizations – including Random House, the novel’s original publisher!

Here is another great example of

to twenty-eight literary agencies and publishing houses. Ten years earlier, the book had sold a half million copies and had won the National Book Award. Now, appearing to have been authored by a lesser-known writer, the manuscript was deemed “inadequate” by all twenty-eight organizations – including Random House, the novel’s original publisher!

Here is another great example of Authority by Public Opinion. An error in Intel’s Pentium chip was detected in 1994. News spread quickly about the flaw, and public outcry burgeoned even more when Intel tried to downplay the issue. It wasn’t long before Intel was flooded with e-mails and phone calls requesting a no-questions-asked return policy on the microprocessor. In the heat of the whole mess, complaints peaked at 25,000 in one single day! In spite of the huge public response, Intel refused to offer the requested return policy. Not surprisingly, the press got ahold of the story, and Intel’s stock dropped dramatically. Finally, Intel was forced to adopt a new return policy. What was the result of putting off public opinion for as long as they had? A mere $475 million write-off. In just a matter of weeks, public opinion had influenced the value of the entire company. Ignoring public opinion proved a very costly mistake.

Authority by External Characteristics

Some people perceive someone to be powerful because of his/her physical characteristics. For example, being tall can emit authority to another, even before you’ve spoken to that person. If you look back through history, presidential elections in the United States have been won by the taller candidate twenty out of twenty-three elections since 1900. Another example of how height scores points is in the battle for affection. Research suggests that women are significantly more responsive to a man’s published personal ad when he describes himself as tall. A final