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influence
You agree to big requests to stay consistent.
A 1966 study found that people are more likely to accept a large favor if they first agreed to a small one.
Once you commit to a small action, you adjust your self-image to be the type of person who helps. Declining the second, larger request would create internal conflict between your new self-identity and your refusal, so you comply.
You are not helping; you are maintaining your own image.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Freedman and Fraser, 1966
- What the check found
- The study successfully demonstrated the effect as claimed. While the 'self-image' explanation is a common theoretical framework, it is just one of several competing psychological explanations for why the technique works.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.