594 Chapter
17
Social Psychology
Why does the foot-in-the-door technique work? For one reason,
involvement with the small request leads to an interest in an issue;
taking an action—any action—makes the individual more commit-
ted to the issue, which thereby increasing
the likelihood of future
compliance. Another explanation revolves around people’s self-
perceptions. By complying with the initial request, individuals may
come to see themselves as people who provide help when asked.
Then, when confronted with the larger request, they agree in order
to maintain the kind of consistency in attitudes and behavior that
we described earlier. Although we don’t know which of these two
explanations
is more accurate, it is clear that the foot-in-the-door
strategy is effective (Burger & Caldwell, 2003; Bloom, McBride,
& Pollak, 2006; Guéguen et al., 2008).
•
Door-in-the-face technique . A fund-raiser asks for a $500 contribution.
You laughingly refuse and tell her that the amount is way out of
your league. She then asks for a $10 contribution. What do you do?
If you are like most people, you’ll probably be a lot more compliant
than you would be if she hadn’t asked
for the huge contribution
fi rst. In this tactic, called the
door-in-the-face technique, someone makes
a large request, expects it to be refused, and
follows it with a smaller
one. This strategy, which is the opposite of the foot-in-the-door
approach, has also proved to be effective (Pascual & Guéguen, 2005,
2006; Turner et al., 2007; Ebster & Neumayr, 2008).
In a fi eld experiment that demonstrates the success of this approach,
experimenters stopped college students on the street and asked them to
agree to a substantial favor—acting as unpaid counselors for juvenile delin-
quents 2 hours a week for 2 years (Cialdini et al., 1975). Not surprisingly, no
one agreed to make such an enormous commitment. But when they were
later asked the considerably smaller favor of taking
a group of delinquents
on a 2-hour trip to the zoo, half the people complied. In comparison, only
17% of a control group of participants who had not fi rst received the larger
request agreed.
The use of this technique is widespread. You may have tried it at some
point yourself by perhaps by asking your parents for a large increase in your
allowance and later settling for less. Similarly,
television writers, by sometimes
sprinkling their scripts with obscenities that they know network censors will
cut out, hope to keep other key phrases intact (Cialdini & Sagarin, 2005).
•
That’s-not-all technique . In this technique, a salesperson offers you a deal at an
infl ated price. But immediately after the initial offer,
the salesperson offers an
incentive, discount, or bonus to clinch the deal.
Although it sounds transparent, this practice can be quite effective. In
one study, the experimenters set up a booth and sold cupcakes for 75¢ each.
In one condition, the experimenters directly told customers that the price
was 75¢. In another condition, they told customers that the price was origi-
nally $1 but had been reduced to 75¢. As
we might predict, more people
bought cupcakes at the “reduced” price—even though it was identical to the
price in the other experimental condition (Burger, Reed, & DeCesare, 1999;
Pratkanis, 2007).
•
Not-so-free sample. If you ever receive a free sample, keep in mind that it
comes with a psychological cost. Although they may not couch it in these
terms, salespeople who provide samples to potential
customers do so to
instigate the norm of reciprocity. The
norm of reciprocity is the well accepted
societal standard dictating that we should treat other people as they treat us.
Receiving a
not-so-free sample, then, suggests the need for reciprocation—in the
form of a purchase, of course (Cialdini, 2006; Park & Antonioni, 2007; Burger
et al., 2009).
The persuasive techniques identifi ed by social psychol-
ogists can be seen in practice at auto dealerships.
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