VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 22 (UPI) -- Sharing a birthday increases the likelihood of a sale or booking a dental appointment, researchers in Canada and Singapore say.
However, rudeness causes the shared similarity to lose its positive influence and the researchers warn against faking a shared birthday or birthplace to improve sales.
Experiments conducted by the researchers -- Lan Jiang, JoAndrea Hoegg, Darren W. Dahl, all of University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and Amitava Chattopadhyay of INSEAD in Singapore -- indicated the fundamental human need to connect with others plays a role in sales encounters.
For instance, a consumer sharing a birthday with a personal trainer was more likely to buy a gym membership and a patient who shared a birthplace with a dentist was more likely to book an appointment, the study finds.
"Creating misleading or fake similarities with a customer as a persuasion technique could lead to negative outcomes if the similarities are found to be disingenuous," the study authors say in a statement. "To mitigate the chances of this outcome, salespeople must be careful not to falsely claim similarities."
The study findings are published in the Journal of Consumer Research.
