Compliance without pressure: Some further data on the foot-in-the-door technique

A replication of the Freedman and Fraser (1966) “foot-in-the-door” technique was attempted in which subjects were exposed to one of two prior requests and were then asked to comply with a larger request. The results showed that subjects receiving prior requests complied with the larger request significantly more often than did control subjects. The mechanism by which the technique operates was discussed.     

Blood donation and the foot-in-the-door technique: a limiting case.

Three experiments testing the effectiveness of the foot-in-the-door technique for recruiting blood donors consistently failed to demonstrate that this procedure influences either verbal or behavioral compliance, suggesting that the generality of the foot-in-the-door phenomenon is limited. Experiment 1 attempted to demonstrate that an earlier failure of this technique was due to poor operationalization rather than to the magnitude of the critical request or to the invalidity of the phenomenon, but it failed to do so. Experiment 2, designed to more closely resemble other foot-in-the-door studies by using telephone contacts and an initial request for persons to answer questions, was conducted to examine other possible explanations for the two previous failures. This experiment also failed to show any foot-in-the-door effect. Experiment 3 was a conceptual replication of Experiment 2 but used personal contacts. One apparent foot-in-the-door effect emerged in this case, but it was more likely due to a factor other than the experimental treatment. It is concluded that although the foot-in-the-door procedure may indeed influence verbal compliance with requests for minimal forms of aid, it probably will not significantly affect people's willingness to comply with more substantial requests involving behaviors that are psychologically costly to perform.     

Appearance (ethnic origin) of requester affects the foot-in-the-door technique

A study was designed to examine the effect of the appearance of the requester within one of the variants of the foot-in-the-door paradigm, that is, the foot-in-the-door with implicit demand described by Uranowitz in 1975. A confederate (Black vs. Blanc vs. Beur2) approached the participant in a park and presented a small request. Three steps further, the confederate "accidentally" dropped 30 sheets of paper. Whether or not the participant helped the confederate in retrieving the dropped pamphlets was recorded as the implicit dependent variable. The foot-in-the-door effect was observed solely when the requester was Blanc. This result shows that the foot-in-the-door effect is not as strong as the literature suggests and undermines the usual interpretations of the foot-in-the-door effect in terms of self-perception and commitment.     

The effect of the two feet-in-the-door technique on tobacco deprivation

The ‘Foot-in-the-door’ (FITD) is a well-known compliance technique that increases compliance with a request. Many investigations on this paradigm have generally used prosocial requests to test the effect of the technique. A new evaluation of the effect of the FITD technique was carried out on tobacco deprivation. A two feet-in-the-door technique in which the target request was preceded by two small target requests was used to encourage students to stop smoking for 24 h. The results were compared with two single foot-in-the- door procedures in which the final request was only preceded by one small request, as well as with a control condition using only a 24 h stop-smoking request. Results showed that the single FITD and the two feet-in-the-door procedures were effective to increase verbal compliance (accepting to stop smoking) but only the two feet-in-the-door technique significantly increased behavioural compliance (not smoking for 24 h) with the request.     

A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of the low-ball compliance-gaining procedure

IntroductionThe low-ball (Cialdini et al., 1978)¹ is a compliance-gaining technique consisting of making an attractive initial offer to get a person to agree to the request and then making the terms less favorable (target request).Objective and methodsThe effectiveness of this technique was evaluated in a meta-analysis using 17 references, 23 studies, 44 subgroups and a combined sample size of 4733.ResultsAnalysis reported a weighted mean correlation coefficient of r = .16 and a weighted mean odds ratio of OR = 2.47. Moderator analysis reported that the low-ball was more efficient with a high cost request in terms of effort for the participant and when the solicitation of the target request is deferred.ConclusionThese findings appeared congruent with commitment theoretical explanation of the low-ball.     

Claw-in-the-door: pigeons,like humans,display the foot-in-the-door effect

Animal Cognition - People are more likely to comply with a large request when it is preceded by another, smaller request, and this is known as the “foot-in-the-door” (FITD). The FITD...     

Duration of attention: The perceptual deprivation effect

College students viewed 18-sided randomly generated polygons. They were told to attend to each form until they “finished looking at it.” Before each stimulus presentation, 2, 16, 30, or 44 sec of perceptual deprivation was administered. The results indicated that there was a direct relationship between the duration of perceptual deprivation and the duration of attention. The results were interpreted in terms of the deprivation establishing a need for stimulation that is satisfied by attending.     

Training teachers as mediators: Efficacy of a workshop versus the bug-in-the-ear technique

The implementation of behavior modification techniques in school settings often relies on effective training of teachers as mediators. At the conclusion of Phase I, the performance of an experimental group of 13 teachers who were taught behavior modification by means of an inservice workshop was compared with a no-treatment control group. Although the experimental group scored higher on a paper-and-pencil test of behavior modification, there were no differences between the two groups on selected observed in-class behaviors. During Phase II, half of the experimental group of teachers received two hours of bug-in-the-ear (BIE) training in their own classrooms. BIE resulted in changes in the classroom behaviors of praise and contingency statements. These results are discussed in terms of the situation and response mode specificity of behavior and in terms of the implications for future workshops and research.     

The cognitive interview technique: Reviving the issues

The cognitive interview technique (CI) has received considerable attention as one of the most succssful interview techniques applied to real-life investigations, particularly police investigations. Although the general effects of CI are well documented, there are grounds for critical assessment. In this paper the theoretical principles behind the cognitive components of CI are provided. Variables that have been manipulated will be reviewed, as will conditions under which CI has been studied. The intention is to generalize across the major studies of CI and explore what patterns are present in the data. Issues are introduced that attempt to refine the theoretical underpinnings of CI, and provide direction for research.     

Relative deprivation versus system justification: Polemical social representations and identity positioning in a post‐Soviet society

Societal changes involving power reversal may pose challenges to system justification by a subordinate minority group that had previously held a more privileged position. Derived from originally exploratory qualitative investigation, this paper presents an account of endorsement of justifying the status quo versus the voicing relative deprivation in the context of post‐Soviet Estonia. Experiences of alternative societal arrangements in history were actively deployed by (minority ethnic) Estonian Russians to generate temporal comparisons with the past as a cognitive alternative to the present status quo and give voice to experiences of relative deprivation. A struggle for positive social identity was interpreted to motivate Estonian Russians to mobilize the past as a cognitive alternative to delegitimize the status quo. By contrast, Russians were portrayed as invaders, and the Soviet past was represented as unjust by (the majority ethnic) Estonians, whereas the present system was depicted as fair and equitable. Mutually, polemical representations of history and narratives of identity provide the lenses through which the legitimacy of new societal arrangements following the major social change is interpreted. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of sleep deprivation on decision making: a review

Few sleep deprivation (SD) studies involve realism or high-level decision making, factors relevant to managers, military commanders, and so forth, who are undergoing prolonged work during crises. Instead, research has favored simple tasks sensitive to SD mostly because of their dull monotony. In contrast, complex rule-based, convergent, and logical tasks are unaffected by short-term SD, seemingly because of heightened participant interest and compensatory effort. However, recent findings show that despite this effort, SD still impairs decision making involving the unexpected, innovation, revising plans, competing distraction, and effective communication. Decision-making models developed outside SD provide useful perspectives on these latter effects, as does a neuropsychological explanation of sleep function. SD presents particular difficulties for sleep-deprived decision makers who require these latter skills during emergency situations.