Principle Of persuasuin : Foot In the Door - Term Paper Example

Analysis The foot in the door technique functions by allowing for a means of gaining future leverage through small increments. Simply, it functions as the individual attempting to gain a large favor begins by asking the other individual for a smaller favor and the working their way to the larger question. This technique has been used in virtually every social and business context imaginable and has thus been studied by a number of researchers and theorists (Burger 1994). One of the earliest such studies was conducted in California (Freedman 1996).

The study considered the foot in door technique utilizing housewives. The test was structured such that the housewives first received a phone call inquiring about a number of questions related to products implemented in the home environment. This element of the research was the foot in the door portion, it was followed by a telephone call given to the housewives asking if they would be interested in allowing five individuals to come to their home to inspect their cabinets and storage space for products used.

The research demonstrated considerable differences between the participants that were asked to admit the individuals before receiving the phone call than those asked afterwards. Indeed, the rate differential was as much as 50% higher when the foot in door technique was implemented. . fficacy of this persuasion technique and In all, it’s clear that there is a considerable advantage when utilizing the foot in door technique, not simply for business negotiations, but also for general psychological experiments, as the drunken driving contract indicates.

Experimental Analysis In placing this theoretical perspective into a real world context I ventured onto the social networking platform Facebook. While Facebook has generally been used by individuals as a means of communicating with friends or keeping in touch with lost associates, it can also be used as a valuable networking tool. My experiment concerned promotion. I have a close friend that has started a picture design business for individuals on Facebook and her entire existence is based on the promotion she receives from individuals sharing her design page on her wall.

In my experiment I incorporated the foot in door technique in an effort to ascertain its effectiveness within the social networking spectrum. The way I conducted the experiment was by first messaging individuals and asking that they simply share the page on their wall. It was difficult for me to ascertain the response rate to this request, but from indirect methods, such as gaging the new members of the page and the increase in design requests. In the next step of the experiment I friend requested the individuals and then worked towards developing a level of affinity with them.

After this I requested that they share my friend’s design page on their wall. In the second scenario there was considerably more success rates as the individuals nearly unanimously agreed to share the design page on their walls. While this is a somewhat simplistic experiment, it’s clear that in this instance it is highly effective. In these regards it