Human interaction at its basest can be described as a clash of wills. Different parties with different agendas come together, each hoping to get what they want with as little effort or cost as possible. Everyone wants something for as close to nothing as they can get. This was the impetus for the exploration of the foot-in-the-door technique.
The foot-in-the-door technique, also called the gradation technique, refers to the assumption that a person who has already complied with a small request is more likely to agree to a larger one later. This technique contrasts significantly with others that aim to influence behavior in that it seeks to do so without the use of “external pressure.”
While much attention has been paid to pressure-based techniques, not nearly as much emphasis has been placed on techniques like the foot-in-the-door technique, leaving many questions as to their effectiveness and limitations unanswered.
This absence of investigation is what prompted Stanford University’s Jonathan L. Freedman and Scott C. Fraser to execute their 1965 study on the foot-in-the-door technique.
The study consisted of two similar experiments.
The first experiment was simple enough. 136 housewives from Palo Alto, California, picked randomly from a telephone directory, were chosen as test subjects and divided into four groups. Members of the first two groups received a call from an experimenter claiming to be a representative for the California Consumers’ Group. During the call, they were asked to participate in a survey regarding household soaps. This served as the “small request” with which researches would attempt to induce compliance to a larger request.
In the first group, called the Performance condition, subjects who agreed ...
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... initial request, agreed to the larger request. Also, as the researchers hypothesized, groups where either the issue or task was similar had higher percentages of compliance. However, even the one group where neither the task nor the issue was similar yielded more compliance than the control group.
The results of the second experiment did not do much to confirm or deny the supposition developed in the first experiment that attachment to a person or issue plays a significant role in increasing the rate of compliance. After all there was a marked increase in compliance in two groups whose first and second request did not deal with the same issue.
Based on this, the researchers surmised that it was possible that the change in attitude brought on by involvement was not necessarily toward a specific person or issue, but rather toward granting the requests in general.
This conclusion was disproved from Milgram’s experiment. The majority of the subjects obeyed the experimenter to the end. There were several reactions to the experiment. Some people showed signs of tension or stress, others laughed, and some showed no signs of discomfort throughout the experiment. Subjects often felt satisfaction by obeying the experimenter.
The demonstrations create a logical appeal to the watcher because the simplicity and affordability of the product is proven. The simplicity of the product is exemplified in two demonstrations. First, Billy May casually throws a ball into a washing machine like a basketball, and then starts up the machine. This method of carefree laundry is juxtaposed against attempting to measure out powder detergent and spilling it all over the laundry you intended to wash. Then, the ease of use is further shown by two children using the product to start a load of laundry. Completing this chore in three seconds establishes the hassle free qualities of the product. If Children can do it, why can’t you? Overall, the thesis of the advertisement is thoroughly proven, and then proven again, and then corroborated by the next demonstration. Billy May spreads his arms over a year’s supply of Oxi Clean Detergent Balls being compared in size to a year’s supply of regular laundry detergent. For the fiftieth time, the superiority of the product is demonstrated because a year’s supply of normal detergent boxes towers over the Oxi Clean Detergent Balls, which take up considerably less space. Again, the thesis that this product makes life simpler and easier to tolerate is strengthened by a viewer’s comparative analysis. If children can use it, and if a year’s supply of the product is lighter than one week of your normal
2.) We began our study by interviewing a classmate, then interviewing another PLHS student for homework and recording our data. We then proceeded to fill out a Google form, which aided us in planting the anonymous data in a data table and combining it. Following that, we sorted and graphed the data by gender and ethnicity to see how different groups responded to each inquiry. Upon doing th...
Compliance gaining is a term used in the social sciences, specifically in sociology and communication studies, to identify the act of intentionally trying to alter behavior. The term refers to how people try to get other people to do things, or comply. In short, the term compliance gaining strategies are used to define the tactics we use to persuade others to think or act in a desired way.
Admittedly, many psychologists define attachment as an enduring affectionate bond that one person forms between himself and another person throughout life. Since Mary Ainsworth provided the most famous research: strange situation, offering explanations how each individual differences in attachment. However, in this Adult Attachment Style questionnaire that I took, I found many factors relevant to attachment as it was defined in the textbook. For example, in the textbook, it defines attachment based on Ainsworth research, the strange situation by observing attachment forms between mother and infants. Which they are described in four attachment styles: securely attached, insecure avoidant, insecure resistant, and insecure disorganized. The questions on the questionnaire were based on those areas to determine my style of attachment.
Cassidy, J., & Shaver, P.R. (1999). Handbook of attachment: Theory, research, and clinical applications. New York: The Guilford Press.
...hers developed and should be used for further investigation of the issue. There were some limitations that should have been examined, however, to make this experiment more effective. One concern is that the sample allocation was not random, because people were able to choose which group they wanted to be in. These individuals could have picked the immediate intervention group because they care more about their health than others in the community. Another issue was the dada analysis because the groups were so vastly different in size and the delayed group did not give an adequate amount of demographic information for comparison. Yet, the researchers did a good job in ethical considerations by guiding their experiment with the principles of principlism. They also had a clear purpose of the research and what problem they were trying to identify and find a solution for.
...d for consent to proceed with the study. The participants were given thorough instructions that at any during the survey you can withdrawal your participation in the research, and that this is to benefit research to society. Participation is this survey was voluntary was emphasized. Participants were told that the surveys should take no longer than fifteen minutes and the personal information will remain confidential their results may be shared, but for research purposes only. The questionnaire will have a demographic sheet and a 50 item questionnaire divided into two sections. One part has a four point Likert scale (0= Almost Never, 1=Sometimes, 2= Often, 3 =Almost Always) and the other part is a selection of A or B. It was also reiterated that the participants had the right to withdraw from the research study at any time; there will be no consequences or penalty.
Perhaps the compliancy factor did not convince me to buy a car that day, because I didn’t feel obligated to buy the car; the car sales men were very rude and were clearly trying to take advantage of me. According to Cialdini, Cacioppo, Bassett, and Miller research shows that the these compliance strategies are a great tool for increasing profitable sales and for influencing our social behaviors, because people instinctively feel a sense of commitment and obligation to the products and the people they like (1978). For instance, when we ask a friend for a favor, we feel the need to reciprocate, because people want to be helpful. There is also a great importance of social compliancy in groups and to authority. All these social influences have an impact on how we respond to others requests, having an important impact on our behavior. (Meyer,
In addition, this articles overall effectiveness was not what I was expecting. The article was overwhelming because of all the people she mentioned and then she tried elaborating what they all said after each interview! “For my most recent bo...
Kobak, R., & Madsen, S. (2008). Disruptions in Attachment Bonds: Implications for theory, research and clinical intervention. In J. Cassidy & P.R. Shaver (Eds.), Handbook of Attachment: Theory, research and clinical applications (2nd Edition).
Reicher, S. D., Haslam, S. A., & Smith, J. R. (2012). Working toward the experimenter: reconceptualizing obedience within the Milgram Paradigm as identification-based followership. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(4), 315-324.
Another aspect of this principle is applied to the persuasion which is developed through companies who develop relationships with customers. This is certainly something which is developed over a long period of time. This could, for example, be used to develop a
Wood, W. (2000). Attitude change: Persuasion and social influence.. Annual Review of Psychology, 51(1), 539.
Pretty, R.E. & Wegener, D.T. 2010. Attitude change: multiple roles for persuasion variables. Advanced social psychology: the state of the science, 1-78.