| Abstract: | Abstract The effects of territory type and gender on compliance behavior were examined in a field experiment. Undergraduate students (N = 180; 90 men, 90 women) were approached by male experimenters in primary and public territories and in nonterritories (mobile individuals outdoors) and were asked to sign either an unappealing counterattitudinal petition or a petition more neutral in content. It was hypothesized that subjects would comply with the negative request most often in the nonterritory condition, least often in the primary territories, and an intermediate amount in public territories and that territory type would not affect compliance with the neutral request. The results fully supported all the hypotheses. In addition, an unexpected interaction occurred between territory type and sex of subject for the unappealing petition: Although female behavior paralleled male behavior in central and public territories, women in nonterritories resisted compliance more than men did. |
