An Experimental Study of the Door in the Face Technique
Social Psychology
Experiment Replication (Group Project)
An experimental Study of The Door in the Face Technique
Date: 28/4/2009
ABSTRACT Door in the face technique is a persuasion method in which a requester first asked an extreme request (which was refused) and then a smaller request. Our experiment was conducted to test the effectiveness of door in the face technique for inducing compliance with different strategies when giving requests. Hong Kong Community College (HKCC) students were randomly assigned to two conditions with or without the use of door in the face technique. We have predicted that a higher percentage of HKCC students would accept the actual request when door in the face technique was applied. The result of the experiment shows that the use of door in the face technique would actually increase the acceptance rates of actual request. Thus, this proves the effectiveness of the door in the face technique.
INTRODUCTION Persuasion plays an important role in interpersonal communication, especially in negotiation. By common supposition, acceptance of request generally depends on one’s attitude towards self-interest, ability, availability of time and so forth. However, from psychological viewpoints, one’s behavior must align with one’s attitude, otherwise, unpleasant psychological discomfort may result. Door in the face technique actually utilize this kind of discomfort. In order to remove the discomfort, one would change his or her behavior so that behavior aligns with attitude. Through the experiment, we investigate the effectiveness of “door in the face technique”.
An experiment conducted by Cialdini et al (1975), demonstrated the effectiveness of door in the face technique. It was proven to be an effective method to achieve compliance by first making the participants reject a demanding extreme request, and then lure the participants into accepting a smaller actual request.
To
Experiment Replication (Group Project)
An experimental Study of The Door in the Face Technique
Date: 28/4/2009
ABSTRACT Door in the face technique is a persuasion method in which a requester first asked an extreme request (which was refused) and then a smaller request. Our experiment was conducted to test the effectiveness of door in the face technique for inducing compliance with different strategies when giving requests. Hong Kong Community College (HKCC) students were randomly assigned to two conditions with or without the use of door in the face technique. We have predicted that a higher percentage of HKCC students would accept the actual request when door in the face technique was applied. The result of the experiment shows that the use of door in the face technique would actually increase the acceptance rates of actual request. Thus, this proves the effectiveness of the door in the face technique.
INTRODUCTION Persuasion plays an important role in interpersonal communication, especially in negotiation. By common supposition, acceptance of request generally depends on one’s attitude towards self-interest, ability, availability of time and so forth. However, from psychological viewpoints, one’s behavior must align with one’s attitude, otherwise, unpleasant psychological discomfort may result. Door in the face technique actually utilize this kind of discomfort. In order to remove the discomfort, one would change his or her behavior so that behavior aligns with attitude. Through the experiment, we investigate the effectiveness of “door in the face technique”.
An experiment conducted by Cialdini et al (1975), demonstrated the effectiveness of door in the face technique. It was proven to be an effective method to achieve compliance by first making the participants reject a demanding extreme request, and then lure the participants into accepting a smaller actual request.
To
References: Cialdini, R. B., Vincent, J. E., Lewis, S. K., Catalan, J., Wheeler, D., & Darby, B. L. Reciprocal concessions procedure for inducing compliance: The door-n-the-face technique. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1975, 31, 206-215.