Compliance Gaining

1. Common strategies and tactics Compliance Gaining

2. What is compliance gaining? • Focus is on intentional efforts to get people to do what you want • Emphasis is on behavioral conformity, not necessarily belief or attitude change

3. How a parent might try to get a teenager to study 1. Promise: If you comply, I will reward you. For example, you offer to increase Dick’s allowance if he studies more. 2. Threat: If you do not comply, I will punish you. For example, you threaten to forbid Dick to use the car if he doesn’t start studying more. 3. Expertise (positive): If you comply, you will be rewarded because of the “natureof things.” For example, you tell Dick that if he gets good grades he will be able to get into college and get a good job. 4. Expertise (negative): If you do not comply, you will be punished because of the “nature of things.” For example, you tell dick that if he does not get good grades he will not be able to get into a good college or get a good job. 5. Liking: Act friendly and helpful to get the person in a “good frame of mind” so that he/she will comply with the request. For example, you try to be as friendly and pleasant as possible to put Dick in a good mood before asking him to study. 6. Pregiving: Reward the person before requesting his/her compliance. For example, you raise Dick’s allowance and tell him you now expect him to study. 7. Aversive Stimulation: Continuously punish the person, making cessation contingent on his/her compliance. For example, you forbid Dick the use of the car and tell him he will not be able to drive until he studies more. 8. Debt: You owe me compliance because of past favors. For example, you point out that you have sacrificed and saved to pay for Dick’s education and that he owes it to you to get good enough grades to get into a good college. Marwell & Schmidt’s typology

4. 9. Moral Appeal: You are immoral if you do not comply. You tell Dick that it is morally wrong for anyone not to get as good grades as possible and that he should study more. 10. Self-Feeling (positive): You will feel better about yourself if you comply. For example, you tell Dick that he will feel proud if he gets himself to study more. 11. Self-Feeling (negative): You will feel worse about yourself if you do not comply. For example, you tell Dick that he will feel ashamed of himself if he gets bad grades. 12. Altercasting (positive): A person with “good” qualities would comply. For example, you tell Dick since he is a mature and intelligent person he naturally will want to study more and get good grades. 13. Altercasting (negative): Only a person with “bad” qualities would not comply. Forexample, you tell Dick that he should study because only someone very childish does not study. 14. Altruism: I need your compliance very badly, so do it for me. For example, you tell Dick that you really want very badly for him to get into a good college and that you wish he would study more as a personal favor to you. 15. Esteem (positive): People you value will think better of you if you comply. For example, you tell Dick that the whole family will be very proud of him if he gets good grades. 16. Esteem (negative): People you value will think the worse of you if you do not comply. For example, you tell dick that the whole family will be very disappointed in him if he gets poor grades. Marwell & Schmidt--continued

5. Accuse Acknowledge Advise Apologize Approve Argue Ask Assert Assure Attack Blame Boast Challenge Claim Comment Complain Compliment Confess Confirm Criticize Demand Disagree Disclose Excuse Explain Forbid Forgive Give Kellermmann (2004) examined 50 plus strategies • Hint • Insist • Inform • Insult • Joke • Justify • Offer • Order • Permit • Plead • Point out • Praise • Prohibit • Promise • Protest • Question • Remark • Report • Reprimand • Request • Ridicule • Suggest • Summarize • Tell • Thank • Threaten • Vow • Warn

6. 1. Reciprocity • “norm of reciprocity” as a cultural universal • creating perceptions of obligation and indebtedness • Buying someone a drink at a bar • Campaign donations and political lobbying • Police interrogation: befriending the suspect

7. Reciprocity in interpersonal contexts • dating behavior and sexual compliance gaining • Morr & Mongeau (2004): “men have higher sexual expectations than women and sexual expectations are heightened when alcohol is available.” • reciprocity can create uninvited debts and trigger unfair exchanges

8. 2. Commitment and consistency • Cognitive inconsistency is psychologically uncomfortable • People want to appear to be consistent • not appearing wishy-washy, two-faced • Initiation rituals • fraternities • Marine “blood-pinning” ceremony • Gangs • Public commitments are more binding

9. Consistency in interpersonal contexts • consistency and peer pressure • consistency and organizational culture • May be important to activate someone’s attitudes to initiate consistency

10. Cognitive dissonance • guilt appeals, buyer’s remorse • inducing hypocrisy • broken promises • words versus deeds • social contracts • example: “True Love Waits” program

11. 3. Social proof • “canned” laughter on sitcoms • drinking and spring break • flashing for beads during Mardi Gras • the bystander phenomenon • Darley (1970) students participating in a conference call were less likely to help in a group of five (30%) versus a group of 2 (62%) versus alone (85%) when one of the callers feigned a seizure.

12. Social modeling of behavior • social modeling and the media • MTV’s “Jackass” show • Smoking rates in cinema are higher than for the public at large in R rated movies, and for male characters (Omidvari, et al 2005). • Unsafe sex: (Gunasekera & Chapman, 2005): 98% of movies with sex scenes make no mention of safe sex

13. 4. Liking, the “friendly thief” • Liking as an indirect influence strategy • Relies on the “peripheral route” to persuasion (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) • Liking is a pervasive tool of influence • Operates in friendships, the workplace, with strangers, in social groups (school, church. etc.), and in sales/commerce.

14. Liking operates in numerous ways • Attractiveness can facilitate liking • Perceived similarity can facilitate liking • Immediacy can facilitate liking • Ingratiation can facilitate liking • Humor can facilitate liking • Favors can facilitate liking

15. Attractiveness and liking • Why is attractiveness so persuasive? • Socialization processes: equating beauty with good, ugly with evil • “halo effect”: physical attractiveness is generalized to other personality traits • liking: we admire, and want to be admired by, attractive people • Caveat: attractiveness is less influential when “central processing” is used

16. advantages of attractiveness • Attractive people are judged as happier, more intelligent, friendlier, stronger, kinder, and better at communicating (Knapp, 1992) • Attractive defendants are more likely to receive lenient sentences (Castellow, Wuensch, & Moore, 1991) • Strangers are more likely to lend assistance to attractive people (Benson, Karabenic, & Lerner, 1976) • Teachers perceive attractive students to be more intelligent (Ritts, Patterson, & Tubbs, 1992)

17. Similarity and liking • Byrne (1971) we tend to like people who are similar to us • Similarities may involve beliefs, personality traits, demographic characteristics, lifestyles, appearances • DePaulo (1992) persuaders can build rapport buy mirroring another’s nonverbal behavior

18. Ingratiation and liking • Other enhancement • Compliments, flattery, charm • Variation: Use of a 3rd party to deliver the compliment • Opinion conformity • Agreeing, reinforcing, “Yes” man approach • Variation: initially disagree, then yield • Self presentation • Bragging, posturing, name dropping

19. Studies on ingratiation’s effectiveness • DeLuga: ingratiators gained a 5% edge over non-ingratiators in garnering positive workplace evaluations • Gordon (1996) ingratiatory behavior has a positive, modest effect on targets’ judgments and evaluations

20. Immediacy can facilitate liking • Immediacy: actions that convey warmth, closeness, friendliness, and involvement (Anderson, 1999) • Common verbal immediacy behaviors • Calling someone by name, verbal reinforcement (“good point,” “great idea!”), expressing verbal interest (“tell me about your vacation!”) • Common nonverbal immediacy behaviors • closer proximity, smiling, nodding in agreement, eye contact, touch

21. 5. Ethos: the power of authorities • Roughly 1 in 4 commercials relies on a celebrity endorser • 10% of advertising expenses go to pay celebrity endorsers (Agrawal & Kamamura, 1995) • Berger (2000) claims Americans live in a “celebritocracy” • Yet only 3% of those surveyed admitted they would buy a product based on a celebrities say so

22. Blind obedience: deferring to authorities • Abu Ghraib: low ranking soldiers followed the orders of outside contractors • Milgram (1974) 65% of subjects followed orders to shock another person repeatedly • Hofling et al. (1966) the Astrogen experiment; 95% of hospital nurses complied with an improper directive • Cult leaders (Jim Jones, David Coresh, Marshal Applewhite)

23. 6. Scarcity • Psychological reactance theory (Brehm, 1966, Brehm & Brehm, 1981) • cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1953) and lost opportunities • Stock market investing and the herd mentality • Con artists, scams

24. Strategies relying on the scarcity principle • Limited numbers; “limited edition,” “while supplies last,” “limit 1 per customer” • Collectibles, memorabilia and scarcity • limited time, “limited time offer,” sales “windows” • Businesses that cater to time’s scarcity • Lenscrafters, 1 hour photo, Jiffy Lube, drive through services, drive-through tellers