PART II: CHANGING ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR
CHAPTER 10:INTERPERSONAL PERSUASION
chapter takes an interpersonal thrust, focusing on concepts and research
in interpersonal persuasion. A broad area that encompasses social psychology
and interpersonal communication scholarship, interpersonal persuasion
focuses on the psychology and dynamics of compliance. The classic influence
techniques are reviewed, including foot-in-the-door, door-in-the-face,
and low-balling. These techniques, with their many applications to interpersonal
selling, work under particular conditions, and for precise psychological
reasons. The "when" and "why" of interpersonal persuasion
are discussed; this is intended to provide students with an introduction
to the intricacies of sequential influence techniques. The second section
of the chapter explores compliance-gaining, a distinctly interpersonal
domain. The chapter introduces the major compliance-gaining strategies,
as well as contextual influences on people's choice of compliance-gaining
techniques. Compliance-gaining is a complex arena, and the final sections
of the chapter discuss the complicated cognitive dynamics of gaining compliance,
as well as ethical issues that surround compliance-gaining and interpersonal
persuasion more generally.
AND ISSUES TO KNOW
Closed-ended and open-ended research methods
Contextual influences on compliance-gaining
Individual differences in compliance-gaining
Ethical issues in interpersonal persuasion
Resistance and compliance
Applications of compliance-gaining
OF MAJOR TERMS
influence techniques: interpersonal influence strategies in which
influence proceeds in stages, each of which provides the foundation for
subsequent changes in behavior.
Foot-in-the-door technique: the classic persuasion strategy
in which persuaders begin with a small request and then follow it up with
a second, larger -- and target -- request.
Door-in-the-face technique: a persuader makes a large request
that is almost certain to be denied, and, following rejection, returns
with a smaller request, the target request the persuader had in mind at
Low balling: the persuader induces an individual to comply
with a request and then "ups the ante" by increasing the cost
"That's-not-all" technique: a communicator presents
a request, and then tells the receiver "that's not all": an
additional small product accompanies the larger item, supposedly in this
situation only. The approach is theoretically more effective than one
in which both products are presented at the same time.
Fear-then-relief: the persuader deliberately places the
recipient in a state of fear, only to quickly eliminate the threat, and
replace it with a mild request for compliance.
Pique technique: a communicator makes a request in an unusual
manner, thereby piquing the target's interest.
Disrupt-then-reframe technique: persuader disrupts the script
of a communicative request and then reframes the request, encouraging
the receiver to process the issue in a new way.
Compliance-gaining: communicative behavior in which an agent
engages in an effort to elicit from a target an agent-selected behavior;
one-on-one interpersonal communication encounter in which a communicator
requests compliance from another individual.
Closed-ended compliance-gaining survey method: questionnaire
that provides respondents with hypothetical situations, and asks them
to choose from among various strategies for compliance on a quantitative
Open-ended compliance-gaining survey method: respondents
describe in their own words how they would gain compliance from others.
Responses are subsequently categorized by trained researchers.
Social exchange: an interpersonal persuasion strategy in which Person A provides Person B with a tangible or psychological reward; in exchange, when Person A approaches B with a request for compliance, B feels pressure to comply.
- Summarize the main
aspects of compliance techniques discussed in the first part of the
chapter (foot-in-the-door, door-in-the-face, low balling, that's not
all, fear-then-relief, pique, and disrupt-then-reframe). Why are techniques
like this called "compliance without pressure"? Compare and
contrast the techniques in terms of strategy and psychological dynamics
(reasons why they work).
is a rich, complex area. Why is it viewed as an interpersonal persuasion
arena? With particular situations in mind, discuss how cognitions, self-presentational
concerns, and conflicting interpersonal and intrapersonal goals can
operate to make compliance-gaining something of a dynamic dance of communication.
- Select one social
or health-related problem. Focusing on one or more of the concepts discussed
in the chapter, systematically discuss ways to harness interpersonal
persuasion ideas to help people cope with this problem.
- Review the discussion of ethics in this chapter and chapter 1. With these and your own ethical
intuitions in mind, present a forceful argument that: (a) interpersonal
persuasive communications, including manipulative influence attempts, are ethical;
or (b) such communications are unethical, on balance. Try your hand
at defining "ethical" and what constitutes
an ethical influence attempt.
- Is social exchange ethical? Or is it morally blameworthy? If you think it depends on the situation, explain how situational principles could help us sort out when exchange is morally acceptable and when it is not.
- Let's say that
you agree to help your roommate proofread a short assignment for her
communication class. A few days later she returns asking if you would
mind helping her edit a longer paper for a social psychology course.
She has employed which compliance technique:
c. low balling
d. that's not all
works for all these reasons but one:
a. contrast effect (the second request seems less costly in comparison
to the first)
b. reciprocal concessions (individuals go along with the norm that "you
should make concessions to those who make concessions to you")
c. self-perception (people infer they are helpful people after complying
with the initial
d. guilt (people feel guilty about turning down the first request)
- The pique and disrupt-then-reframe
techniques work by:
a. arousing cognitive dissonance
b. evoking central processing
c. rewarding the individual for her kindness
d. interfering with people's standard refusal script
- To measure compliance-gaining,
a researcher asks you to write down how you get your way when making
requests of your parents. The researcher has employed which of these
- Intimacy, dependency,
and rights illustrate which of the following:
a. contextual influences on compliance-gaining
b. individual differences in compliance-gaining
c. unethical aspects of compliance
d. coercive, unsavory forces
- These types of
ethicists disapprove of lies because they distort truth or are intrinsically
wrong. They are ___________ philosophers:
- What is unique about the resistance approach to compliance?
a.) it argues that people frequently resist persuasive messages
b.) it says that when attitudes are strong, people resist persuasion
c.) the approach notes that certain people are gullible and cannot easily resist persuasion, and it is useful to identify these individuals.
d.) the approach says that rather than making messages more appealing, persuaders should figure out to overcome people’s resistance to persuasion
Answers: 1: a, 2:
c, 3: d, 4: b, 5: a, 6: b, 7: d
persuasion is a rich, multifaceted arena. Explore such persuasion in
action by arranging with real-life persuaders to observe them plying
their trades. You might watch car salespeople, clothing store salesmen
or women, telemarketers, or other professional persuaders. Develop a
code sheet, using the psychological models of compliance and compliance-gaining
strategies as guides for organizing your observations. For example,
you might look to see if salespeople use the door-in-the-face technique,
whether and when it works, or if they use direct or indirect, or hard
or soft, techniques. Keep a careful record of what you observe, even
comparing one or two different salespeople (comparing a male and female
sales agent might be interesting).
- Interpersonal persuasion
can be viewed as an attempt to overcome people's resistance step by
step, little by little. This is particularly important in the health
arena. Interview persuaders trying to change health behaviors (physicians,
clinical psychologists, nutritional counselors, AIDS prevention volunteers).
Ask them how they try to influence patients by neutralizing or overcoming
their resistance to a behavioral change (see Box 11-1).
This article offers
a glimpse into the ways that interpersonal persuasion occurs in real life.
It focuses on the negative, shady sides of interpersonal influence, telling
the story of a mortgage company that develops a battery of strategic persuasive
techniques -- a veritable con game with elaborate, deceptive sales procedures
-- to induce people to borrow money from the company. You should find
the descriptions in the following investigative story of interest:
from fine print with Wall Street's help," by Diana B. Henriques
and Lowell Bergman, The New York Times, March 15, 2000, pp. A1,
Much of the story
is technical; however the inside pages (or later sections) catalogue the
specific techniques the company employed. The story, which was discussed
briefly in the chapter, raises a variety of questions. After reading it,
make a list of the interpersonal persuasion techniques the company used,
trying to categorize them in clear, cogent ways. Draw on theories discussed
in the chapter. What was unethical about the company's tactics? Draw on
your own intuitions and the book's discussions of ethics to make statements
about the ethics of using such sales procedures to hook customers
“Radio payoffs are described as Sony settles,” by J. Leeds and L. Story, The New York Times, July 26, 2005, pp. A1, C4.
The article describes how Sony BMG Music Entertainment arranged a series of payoffs to radio stations, giving a program director PlayStation 2 games or sending a DJ one Adidas sneaker for playing a song called “A.D.I.D.A.S.” The gambit attracted the attention of New York’s attorney general, who took legal action. Describe examples of social exchange chronicled in the article. What makes this problematic, indeed unethical? What can we do to help people resist falling prey to the allure of exchange?