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social influence
You are more likely to agree after you have refused.
The door-in-the-face technique uses the psychological pressure of concession to secure a smaller request.
A 1975 study found that when researchers first made an outrageous request that participants rejected, those same participants were significantly more likely to agree to a subsequent, more reasonable request.
You feel a debt of reciprocity when someone 'compromises' for your sake.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Cialdini et al., 1975, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- What the check found
- The 1975 Cialdini et al. study is a foundational paper in social psychology. The mechanism of 'reciprocal concessions' remains the primary, though not exclusive, theoretical explanation for the effect.
- 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.