Thien Pham
11/25/14
Compliance Techniques: Getting People to Say Yes
Shelley E. Taylor, Letitia Anne Peplau, and David O. Sears. “Compliance Techniques: Getting People to Say Yes.” Ten Steps to Improving college Reading Skills. Sixth Edition. John Langan2014. 505—508 .
“Compliance Techniques” was researched by Robert Cialdini and his associates and verified four important compliance techniques. The first technique was called “The Foot-in-the-Door Technique”; it meant they convinced a person to agree with a small request first. Then, when this person has agreed to the small request, he or she trended to agree to a larger request later. This technique was used in many fields; for example, people used this technique in many advertising campaigns or safe-driving experiments. The second technique was called “The Door-in-the-Face technique”. This technique was opposite to “The Foot-in-the-Door Technique”. It meant asking people to say yes to a large request first, and then making a small request after. For instance, the author gave the example about a person who considers the price of a used car. The seller would ask for the high price and then sell it for a lower price. A survey showed the different between two techniques was that “The Foot-in-the-Door Technique” worked when two requests were connected while “The Door-in-the-Face technique” worked when two requests were unconnected. The third technique was called “the Low-Ball technique”. This technique meant that asking a person to agree to something was not completed information and then telling the full story. To illustrate, the author stated that in one case, a researcher called people to join in a study scheduled for 7:00 am. Only 25 percent of the students showed up on time. In contrast, the researcher called people to join in a study. After they agreed to join in this study, the researcher would let them know that the study would be start at 7:00a.m. The result was that 55 percent of student agreed to