Compliance

Compliance is another important aspect of social influence. Often it is confused with conformity. Conformity occurs when the situation does not put the direct pressure for going with the majority. However, compliance is not a group influence. There is a direct pressure to comply to the request, though it does not appear so.

This is a situation where you give the person some liberty and then fall in a trap. The funny thing about this situation is that the victim usually gets some feeling of high self-esteem, which later may turn into the feeling of being cheated.

There are two common techniques that lead to compliance:

1)The“foot in the door” effect

This concept has been developed from the fact that once the seller has her foot in the door, a sale is no problem. This is a very popular technique among sales people. They usually start with a very small request like; can you spare a minute and fill this survey or can I have a glass of water etc. these initial demands usually so small that the person can hardly refuse to comply.

In 1966 Freedman and Fraser arranged a controlled experiment where one group was approached by a salesperson requesting them to put a small sign about auto safety on their windows. After two weeks, another sales person came and asked them to put a large, ugly sign about auto safety. The group that was approached twice complied more to the unreasonable request than the group that was asked only to put the big sign.

This foot in the door effect occurs due to some factors:

a)When the person agrees to help once, he thinks of himself as a helpful person. To keep this self-image, he accepts another demand even when it is clearly unreasonable.

b)For this effect, the initial request should be large enough to make people think high of them. For e.g. when the person tells time to someone, it does not affect his self-esteem, but when the person goes slightly out of way and spends some time in giving directions to the lost person, it boosts his self-image.

c)When the person accepts request out of his free choice, he is more likely to comply. If he gets the feeling that he is being forced, then he may withdraw.

People who refuse to accept the initial request often do not comply.

2)The “face in the door” effect

This is an exactly opposite situation where the person is asked to do a large favor which he is sure to deny. Then the smaller request is made. The person making demand actually wants the small favor but he knows that he is not going to get it if he asks only for that.

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