Compliance gaining

12 Compliance Gaining

Rachel dewis/iStock/Thinkstock

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

• Define compliance gaining and list the six principles that function to gain compliance.
• Explain the reciprocity principle and a technique to employ it.
• Explain the social validation principle and a technique to employ it.
• Explain the commitment/consistency principle and a technique to employ it.
• Explain the liking principle and a technique to employ it.
• Explain the scarcity principle and a technique to employ it.
• Explain the authority principle and a technique to employ it.
• Discuss how culture factors into compliance gaining.
• Apply compliance gaining principles to a real-world context.

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Section 12.1 Defining Compliance Gaining

Every year in the United States, Disney releases one or two movies from its “vault” of clas-
sic movies. For example, in 2014 the movie The Jungle Book was released from the
Disney Vault in a Blu-ray Disc™ format. See https://video.disney.com/watch/the-jungle-book-
trailer-536ecc1e7d1a1fdbe23921b5.

Disney movies are offered for sale only for a limited time, after which they “go back in
the vault” for about 7 years. Before the advent of videotape recordings for the home in the
1970s, Disney would release movies through theaters in a 7-year cycle, which would allow
children and their parents to see classic animated movies (Smith, 2012). Once VHS
recordings became available, Disney continued with the cycle of limited releases, updating
the video products for DVD and then Blu-ray, with platinum and diamond editions, etc.
Rare or rediscovered content is added to the new editions, increasing their value. See
http://video.disney.com/watch/the-disney-vault-4bb39e5beef06a8833003b15.

Obviously, Disney does not have a literal vault for the films, but the imagery of a locked
vault reinforces the idea that access to the movies is scarce. Scarcity is meant to stimulate
demand for the movie and increase sales. Scarcity is one of six principles that persuasion
professionals use to increase the likelihood that someone will comply with a request.

In this chapter we will examine compliance, which is an action that is taken because it
has been requested. This means a person acts merely because he has been asked to do so.
There really is no change in attitudes, only a change in behavior. This is different from
persuasion. As you recall (from Chapter 1), compliance gaining is distinct from persuasion
because attitudes are not involved. A person still retains his or her free will in complying
with a request, but no internal change has occurred for that person.

12.1 Defining Compliance Gaining

You can think of compliance gaining as a type of interpersonal influence (Cialdini &
Sagarin, 2005). Much of the success of this interpersonal influence builds on social norms.
Therefore, the effectiveness of these principles of social influence will vary from one place
to the next to the extent that social norms vary from one place to the next (Rhoads &
Cialdini, 2002).

You will learn about six principles of compliance gaining. These principles have been
distilled and formulated by a distinguished social scientist, Robert Cialdini, after
years of observation and testing (Cialdini, 2009). The principles are reciprocity, social
validation, commitment/consistency, liking/friendship, scarcity, and authority. Keep in
mind that these are general tendencies, and not laws of behavior. Because people vary,
their responses to these principles will vary also. You should also know at the outset
that some of the techniques discussed in this chapter are unethical—a couple of them are
even illegal. Therefore, you need to be mindful of such applications in the real world.

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http://video.disney.com/watch/blu-ray-trailer-jungle-book-4eaa1405f72777fc2e2e78e7

http://video.disney.com/watch/the-disney-vault-4bb39e5beef06a8833003b15

http://video.disney.com/watch/the-disney-vault-4bb39e5beef06a8833003b15

https://video.disney.com/watch/the-jungle-book-trailer-536ecc1e7d1a1fdbe23921b5

Section 12.2 Reciprocity Principle

12.2 Reciprocity Principle

The first principle is reciprocity, which is an equitable exchange between two or more par-
ties; in more common terms, we know this as “returning a favor.” A person should be more
willing to comply with a request from someone who has previously provided a favor or a
concession. Societies have a long tradition of people exchanging gifts and favors. Generally,
receiving a gift can create a sense of obligation on the part of the person receiving the gift. We
tend to pay someone back after they have done something nice for us. In fact, some people
make it a point not to accept gifts or favors because they do not want to feel obligated to
someone in the future. Many businesses now make it company policy that employees are not
allowed to accept gifts from outside vendors or third parties for just this reason.

Humans are social beings and this
principle helps us survive as a society.
Parents of young children sometimes
swap babysitting services with each
other so they can have a night out. If
Ed helps his neighbor Tennyson repair
a fence one day, Tennyson likely will
offer to help Ed when he patches a con-
crete sidewalk in the near future. If we
cannot help each other in direct ways,
we will find some other way to do it.
One man I know mows the lawn for his
elderly neighbor, and she consistently
bakes cookies for him. This principle
helps a society function well, but this
principle can also be used on purpose
to influence another person’s behavior.

Fundraising organizations use this principle quite often. For example, they will include
stickers, return address labels, a notepad, or some other type of small gift when they send
out a solicitation for funds. Including the small gift increases the likelihood that someone
will send a donation in return. Likewise, food servers at a restaurant who include a small
gift such as foil-wrapped chocolate candy along with the bill tend to receive much higher tips
(Strohmetz, Rind, Fisher, & Lynn, 2002). Interestingly, it is not the gift itself but the server’s
apparent generosity that leads to higher tips. In a follow-up study with four conditions, the
server was instructed (a) not to offer candy with the bill; (b) to offer each diner one piece of
chocolate; (c) to offer each diner two pieces of chocolate; or (d) to offer one piece of choco-
late, turn to walk away, and then, as if as an afterthought, return to offer a second piece of
chocolate. Each one of the candy conditions resulted in higher tips than the control condi-
tion, as before, and offering two pieces of chocolate resulted in higher tips than just offering
one piece. Further, the “afterthought” condition led to even higher tips than the two-piece
condition. This means that it was the server’s apparent generosity, more than the amount of
the gift itself, that led bill payers to reciprocate with a higher tip.

Image Source/Image Source/Superstock

We are more likely to agree to requests from people
who have provided us a gift or favor.

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Section 12.3 Social Validation Principle

One technique that follows from the reciprocity principle is the door-in-the-face technique.
This technique involves making an extreme request, which is rejected, and then following that
up with a much more modest request, which was the initial objective. All things being equal,
the person will be more likely to agree to the request. This tendency is based on reciprocal
concessions, which is a type of a favor. By making a concession on the original request, the
requester can expect the target person to make a similar concession as well.

Let’s say that you wanted to have some of your roommate’s peanut butter, but your roommate
was likely to say no to you, based on your extensive history of mooching. You could ask, “Can
I have your sirloin steak that’s in the refrigerator?” When your roommate says no, you follow
up by asking, “Well, can I have a few tablespoons of your peanut butter?” All things being
equal, your roommate, not wanting to appear callous or unreasonable in the face of your con-
cession, is likely to agree.

Fundraisers often use the door-in-the-face technique. They will ask for a rather high dona-
tion, knowing that you most likely will refuse. Then, the fundraiser will request a much more
modest amount. The next time that you get a solicitation request in the mail, take a look at
the amounts that are requested. Usually, the response card will suggest a series of donation
amounts such as $500, $250, $100, $20, or $5. The target donation that they are seeking is
$20. You subtly reject the higher figures, which makes the $20 figure seem like a more reason-
able request. The $5 figure is too small to make it worth your while, so that the $20 figure is
bracketed between extremely high values and the pittance value. The next-to-last value is the
target donation amount.

12.3 Social Validation Principle

The second principle is social validation. A person should be more willing to comply with a
request if that behavior is consistent with what similar other people are thinking or doing. In
other words, we look at what other people are doing as a guide to what we should do.

You probably know that bartenders and musicians often “prime” the tip jar with a few bills to
encourage people to make a contribution. Have you wondered, however, if it is better to prime
the jar with bills or with coins? Scientists in New Zealand tested this in a field experiment by
setting a Plexiglas® box at the entrance to an art gallery and secretly filming people’s donation
behavior. Then, they left different combinations of currency to see how they might influence
donations (see Figure 12.1).

When the box held bills primarily, fewer people made donations, but the donations them-
selves were higher in value. When the box held mostly coins, a larger number of people made
donations, but the individual donations were lower in value. When the box was empty, the
total value donated was substantially less. Apparently, the empty box suggested a norm that
most people were not donating. The scientists concluded that the best combination was a mix
of bills and coins to suggest that both types of donations were appropriate.

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Section 12.3 Social Validation Principle

I recently came across a message that was intended to increase people’s participation in a
donation campaign. The message stated, in part, that “11% of the employees in our organiza-
tion have already made a donation.” What do you think that message was communicating?
The author of the message presumably was trying to get more people to participate in the
campaign, but the unintended effect of the message most likely was that “very few people are
participating in the campaign.” And, consequently, most people likely would feel less pressure
to participate if they were made aware that most of their peers were not participating either.
This is an example of a descriptive norm. You will recall (from Chapter 2) that a descriptive
norm contains information about what other people are doing. An injunctive norm contains
information about what most people approve of or disapprove of in a particular situation.

It is important to note that we examine the behavior of people who we think are similar to us.
That is one reason why political candidates list endorsements on a campaign website. Simi-
larly, many companies and organizations want Facebook users to “like” their page. A large
number of likes suggests a strong degree of social validation, which, in turn, should lead to
a greater number of customers or volunteers, and so on. In one field experiment, scientists
sought to determine if a person’s tendency to “like” a status update might be influenced by
who has already “liked” it (Egebark & Ekström, 2011). The experiment had three conditions,
(a) one in which one unknown user liked the update, (b) one in which three unknown users
liked the update, and (c) one in which one known peer liked the update. A single unknown
user had no effect on a person’s tendency to “like” an update. However, endorsement either
by three unknown users or by one peer significantly increased the likelihood that a user
would “like” the update. This effect was limited to clicking the “like” button, a relatively simple
behavior. The endorsements had no such effect on the likelihood that a user would add a com-
ment, which is a more effortful behavior.

Figure 12.1: The effect of the social validation principle on
donation behavior

Based on the findings in Martin and Randal’s study, what might be the most lucrative way for a bartender
to prime the tip jar?

Source: Martin, R., & Randal, J. (2008). How is donation behavior affected by the donations of others? Journal of Economic Behavior and
Organization, 67(1), 228–238. Copyright © 2008, Elsevier.

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Section 12.4 Commitment-Consistency Principle

One technique that follows from this principle is
the list technique. In this technique, you show
a target person a list of similar other people who
have already engaged in this behavior. For example,
if you are asking people to sign a petition, it helps
if you have several pages of names of people who
have already signed the petition. People are much
less likely to be one of the first people to sign a peti-
tion, but they are much more likely to sign a peti-
tion if it looks like many similar people have already
signed the petition. So, let’s say that you want to get
members of a sorority to participate in a food drive.
You will have a higher participation rate if you are
able to show a list of other members of that specific
sorority who have already agreed to participate. Or,
if you want a sorority, as a whole, to agree to par-
ticipate in the food drive, you should first show a
list of other sororities that have already agreed
to participate in it. The type of factor that can be
used to show that someone identifies with another
group of people is nearly endless. It can be based
on geographic area, such as showing someone that
everyone else in their neighborhood has agreed to
participate, or based on ethnicity, gender, employ-
ment, religious affiliation, and so on.

12.4 Commitment-Consistency Principle

A third principle is the commitment-consistency principle. After a person commits to a
position, that person should be more willing to comply with a request for behavior that is con-
sistent with that position. As you saw in Chapter 10, people have a tendency to be consistent,
or at least to want to be. That is, they want to behave the same way in a variety of situations,
and they want their attitudes and behavior to be consistent with each other. People not only
want to be consistent, but they also want to appear to be consistent because consistency sig-
nals to us someone who is rational and reasonable. For the commitment to have an effect on
subsequent behavior, it is important for the commitment to be voluntary, active or effortful,
and public or visible to others (Rhoads & Cialdini, 2002). The principle still works, although
sometimes not as strongly, when the commitment isn’t effortful or public. Many techniques
stem from this principle. We will examine them in more detail here.

One technique that I used as a salesperson is sometimes called the four walls technique.
That is, you get the person to say yes to a series of questions, each one of which is intended to
probe the likelihood that the person is ready to make a purchase. If a person responds con-
sistently to these questions, he boxes himself in (thus the name “four walls”) to act in accor-
dance with his responses. For example, during a test drive the salesperson can ask does the
car handle well? (Yes.) Is the steering wheel responsive? (Yes.) Do you like the comfort of the
fabric? (Yes.) Is the display easy to read? (Yes.) Does the car ride quietly? (Yes.) Did you feel

age fotostock/age footstock/Superstock

We are more likely to sign a petition if
we believe other people who are simi-
lar to us have already signed it.

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Section 12.4 Commitment-Consistency Principle

the power of the engine? (Yes.) Will this car have better fuel economy than your current one?
(Yes.) If the payments are right for your budget, would you like to go ahead and buy this car
today? (Yes.) The idea is that the customer has expressed a positive attitude toward the prod-
uct several times. If the customer has agreed to many reasons why the vehicle is a good choice
and has many favorable features, it would be illogical (inconsistent) not to explore purchasing
the car. Of course, as you learned in Chapter 9, if the customer believes that the salesperson is
using a sales technique, this one, like any other technique, could backfire.

The trial close is another technique that relies on the commitment-consistency principle. The
trial close is used to address potential objections and takes this format: If I could . . . , would
you . . . ? For example, the salesperson would say, “If I could get the car payments to less
than $350, would you buy this car today?” Or, “If I could find a model that had a DVD player
installed, would you buy it?” Once the customer makes a commitment, the salesperson will do
everything possible to meet that condition. If the salesperson can meet that condition, then
the customer is more likely to follow through . . . or raise another objection. If the customer
refuses to make any commitment, then the salesperson knows that the customer is not a seri-
ous prospect at that time.

Another technique is the foot-in-the door technique. In this case, the requester asks for a
small favor, which almost certainly will be granted. In fact, the target would look unreason-
able if he did not go along with the request. Then the requester follows up with a larger and
related favor. People who agree to the first request are much more likely to agree to the sec-
ond larger request. For example, people who were asked to give someone the time of day were
more likely to agree to a subsequent request to give that person some spare change (Guéguen
& Fischer-Lokou, 1999). In one field experiment, homeowners were asked to wear a small
lapel pin to promote a local charity, while others were not (Pliner, Hart, Kohl, & Saari, 1974).
A week or so later, people who had agreed to wear the pin were more likely to contribute
money to that charity. What happened was that wearing the lapel pin changed the person’s
attitudes so that the person developed a slightly favorable attitude toward the charity. Then,
when the person was asked for a donation, that favorable attitude meant that the person was
more likely to give money. After all, a person’s attitudes and behaviors need to align, or be
consistent, as you saw in Chapter 10.

Another technique is the bait-and-switch tactic, which is illegal in most states. Retailers
might advertise a particular product at a special low price. When the customer arrives to take
advantage of the special price, he or she finds out that the product is no longer in inventory,
or that it is missing a particular feature that he or she thought would be included. In essence,
a retailer attracts customers with one product (the “bait”) and then tries to sell them another
product (the “switch”). However, because the customer has already made the commitment
of driving to the store and investing the effort to get there, the consumer typically agrees to
purchase some other similar product at a higher price. That is why many states insist that the
advertised product be in stock on the day the ad runs. Auto dealers even have to display in the
ad the stock number of the advertised vehicle.

A similar technique is called the lowball technique. In this technique the salesperson pitches
an unreasonably low price to get the customer to make some sort of commitment, either a
commitment to come to the store, or a commitment to try the product, or so on. However,
when the time comes to make the actual purchase, the salesperson “discovers” some reason
why the initial price cannot be honored. The salesperson might not have known that floor mats

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Section 12.5 Liking Principle

were not included in the price, or that a special paint protection package had been added, and
so on. Of course, lying about a product’s price is unethical. Unlike the bait-and-switch tech-
nique, the lowball technique does not involve trying to switch a customer to another product.
Instead, the lowball technique focuses on attracting a customer with an unrealistically low
price for a product and then raising the price for that same product.

Another tactic is the legitimization-of-paltry-favors technique. This is also known as the
even-a-penny-would-help technique. Most people want to see themselves as being kind, con-
siderate, and helpful, and it would be heartless—that is, inconsistent with their self-image—to
turn down a request for a single penny. All things being equal, people will agree to a request if
even a small, token, or trivial amount is requested. This request makes it acceptable to offer a
trivial amount of help. In this case, it is difficult for the target to refuse to help and still be con-
sistent with their idea of being a nice, helpful individual. Ironically, once a person agrees to help,
the amount they give usually is more than the trivial amount that the requester mentioned. For
example, if Susan asks John to give just a dollar to a charity fundraiser, and John agrees to give,
John likely will give $4 or $5, and not just the single dollar. So, the technique increases the likeli-
hood that someone would give, but it does not really affect the amount that a person would give.

12.5 Liking Principle

The fourth principle is called the
liking, or friendship, principle. A per-
son should be more willing to comply
with requests of friends or of other
people who they like. We tend to like
people who are similar to us. The basis
for this similarity, as you recall from
Chapter 11, can be almost anything.
Not surprisingly, we also like people
who pay us compliments. We also like
people who cooperate with us to help
us meet some sort of an objective. You
are probably more likely to help your
friends when they ask you for help
than you are to help a stranger. This is
only natural. However, some organiza-
tions take advantage of this principle to
increase people’s compliance behavior.

Some companies’ sales strategies depend largely on the liking principle. A young man named
Milton once went on a job interview at a company that sells financial products and services.
The interview went well, but Milton was struck by a question at the end of the interview. The
interviewer asked him how many friends and family he had in the local area. Milton, a college
student, replied that he had very few friends and family in that area. After the interview, he
remarked to me that it was odd that they would ask that question. I explained to him that this
company probably was using the liking principle for sales. That is, Milton would be asked to

Exactostock/Exactostock/Superstock

We tend to like people who appear to be similar to
us, whether in race, gender, clothing, or personality.

mag81516_12_c12_249-266.indd 256 8/26/14 4:19 PM

Attractive

Likable

CompetentIntelligent

SuccessfulSociable

Section 12.5 Liking Principle

contact all of his friends and family and try to sell them financial products. Because he was
their friend or their relative, they would be more likely to agree to his request. I then warned
him that once he ran out of friends and family to call, he likely would be dismissed from
his job, presumably because of the decline in his sales performance. This company was well
known for its high level of turnover in its sales force. Essentially, the company was “hiring”
people who had networks of friends to use those networks to sell product. This is a common
hiring strategy used by organizations that employ commission-based salespeople.

Network marketing companies thrive on this principle. A hostess invites her friends to a party
for jewelry, or home cleaning products, or nutritional supplements, and so on. The people
who attend are more likely to buy something because of a sense of obligation or loyalty to
their friend. The distributor, or seller, displays the products and describes their features and
benefits, but the fact that the people in attendance are friends of the hostess increases the
likelihood that they would purchase something.

This liking principle applies to a range of personal characteristics. We tend to like people who
are physically attractive, and this carries over into how we evaluate them on other dimen-
sions, which is known as a halo effect, as shown in Figure 12.2. We attribute all sorts of posi-
tive outcomes to physically attractive people, believing them to be more sociable, and, to a
lesser degree, more intelligent (Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani, & Longo, 1991). Even when peo-
ple are exposed to pictures of a politician for a fraction of a second, they are likely to perceive
more attractive candidates as being more competent, and this tendency is reflected in actual
voting results (Verhulst, Lodge, & Levine, 2010). Of course, physical attractiveness can back-
fire too. In one set of experiments, photos of attractive children, versus unattractive children,
generated less empathy for attractive children and fewer charitable responses from viewers,
as long as the need was moderate (Fisher & Ma, 2014).

In addition to liking people who
are physically attractive, we like
people who share some sort of
similarity with us, as you read in
Chapter 11. We also like people
who flatter us, even if we know
the flattery was less than sin-
cere. In fact, the flattery does not
even need to be true, and it still
works (Rhoads & Cialdini, 2002).
We also tend to like and favor
people with whom we cooper-
ate (Brewer, 1979). Once we
have interacted with someone in
a group setting, we tend to like
that person more, even months
later, which means mere famil-
iarity enhances liking, unless we
have gotten to know that person
a little too well (Norton, Frost, &
Ariely, 2013).

Figure 12.2: The halo effect

Can you think of a time when the physical attractiveness of a
person influenced your beliefs about their other personal
characteristics?

Attractive

Likable

CompetentIntelligent

SuccessfulSociable

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Section 12.6 Scarcity Principle

12.6 Scarcity Principle

A fifth principle is scarcity. A person will normally try to secure opportunities that are scarce
or running out. If something is rare, or risks becoming rare, it becomes more valuable. Typi-
cally, something that is harder to obtain tends to be more valuable. Consider Virgil’s®
root beer (https://www.virgils.com/#about). The product packaging highlights the fact
that the beverage is made from a blend of unique and rare herbs and spices, such as anise,
wintergreen, pimento berry oil, and cassia oil. These spices were sourced from around the
globe and were chosen after years were invested in developing the beverage’s taste. These
facts are meant to make the root beer more valuable, and worth the higher price that
is charged compared to other root beer competitors.

Likewise, manufacturers capitalize on the scarcity principle all the time. Makers of figurines will
create “special editions” of a particular doll. Early access to a Disney theme park is only valu-
able if the access is limited to a few peo-
ple, and not the general public. A book
author will go on tour, offering to sign
copies of her latest novel to promote the
book’s sales. Having the author’s signa-
ture makes the book much more valu-
able because there is a limited quantity.

One technique that comes from this
principle is the deadline technique.
You see it all the time. Advertisers will
say that a particular offer is available
only for a “limited time,” such as 1 week,
or 3 days, or 24 hours. It could be that a
product is available for a limited time,
or in limited quantities; or it could be
that a special discount, price, or incen-
tive is available for a limited time.

Just as people hate to miss out on a good deal, people more generally are also susceptible to
wanting to avoid a loss. So, framing a message in terms of avoiding a loss tends to be more
effective than framing a message in terms of making a gain (Rhoads & Cialdini, 2002). Scar-
city is not …