Foot-in-the-Door

Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon!

People tend to comply more readily with a large request if they have already agreed to do a smaller favor.

Examples in Research: "In an early study, a team of psychologists telephoned housewives in California and asked if the women would answer a few questions about the household products they used. Three days later, the psychologists called again. This time, they asked if they could send five or six men into the house to go through cupboards and storage places as part of a 2-hour enumeration of household products. The investigators found these women were more than twice as likely to agree to the 2-hour request than a group of housewives asked only the larger request." (psychcentral.com)

Examples in Pop Culture:

http://youtu.be/OTXmQEje8GA

At the beginning of __ Remember the Titans __, Coach Boone's initial request was for the white and black students to play football together but as the movie progresses you start to see that he builds on to his initial request. While at football camp, Coach Boone makes each team member room with and get to know everyone of the opposite race. Camp starts off with the whole team fighting and not wanting to integrate but at the end of the week the majority of the team has come together as a whole to achieve both racial harmony and triumph. Once back home from football camp the Titans are harassed by everyone with racial prejudice but as the season goes on and the Titans are undefeated they slowly start to gain support from their community. By the end of the movie the Titans became an example for the rest of the community and slowly they started changing their ways as well. Coach Boone started off with a small request, asking them to play football, with bigger intentions and without the team knowing it they eventually complied with Coach Boone's desired request.



Examples in Business: "As you might have guessed, this tactic can be very useful in business. If you can get customers to sample your product, take a survey about your product or service, or even just talk to you, they are much more likely to buy from you. Kiosks at the mall use the foot-in-the-door phenomenon on a regular basis. They always ask if they can talk to you for just a minute, and then they force you to sample their product and tell you all about it. Complying with their request to talk to you for just a minute makes you much more likely to buy their product."(Wordpress.com)



Connections to NHS culture/life:
 * "Can I go over to Suzy's house for an hour?" followed by "Can I stay the night?"
 * "Can I borrow the car to go to the store?" followed by "Can I borrow the car for the weekend?"
 * "May I turn in the paper a few hours late?" followed by "May I turn it in next week?"



Bibliography: http://cle538.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/the-foot-in-the-door-phenomenon/ <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 110%;">http://psychcentral.com/encyclopedia/2009/foot-in-the-door-phenomenon/