Someone knocks on our door to ask for a donation to an association that fights a rare disease, we can say that we currently have no money. Now, let’s imagine that the same institution knocks on our door again to give us a brooch, they ask us to wear this brooch for a week to raise awareness of the importance of raising funds to combat this disease. After two weeks, they come back and ask us for a donation, there’s a good chance we’ll contribute to that, we just saw how the door-to-door technique works.
There are many psychosocial techniques to manipulate you without realizing, in fact, the job of some people is to design tactics to gain a concrete advantage without us noticing, the technique of foot at the door is one of the best known. and more studied in social psychology.
- Beaman’s team (1983) defines a foot at the door as a technique to ask a small favor from the person you intend to get something from.
- According to Beaman.
- “start with cheap driving in a context of free choice (thus guaranteeing an answer) and then ask for a related.
- Larger favor that we really want to achieve.
- “.
The underlying factors that cause further behavior of greater magnitude are commitment and coherence. Individuals who have agreed to perform voluntary conduct are more likely to accept a subsequent request that goes in the same direction, even if it is more expensive (provided they have accepted the previous one).
For example, if we position ourselves in favor of some kind of thinking, it will be easier for us to behave with behaviors related to that thought, in this way we maintain an internal and external coherence, that is, in the eyes of In addition, the effectiveness of this technique is more effective when the commitment is public, the person has chosen it publicly or the first commitment made has been costly.
“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they’ve been deceived. “Mark Twain.
Feedman and Fraser (1966) asked some people to put in their garden a very ugly and very large sign that could say, “Drive carefully. “Only 17% of people agreed to wear it.
Another group of people was invited to sign a road safety document first, when it was an application involving little compromise, most signed it and soon after asked them to put the big ugly sign in their garden. of them agreed.
What is the relationship between this technique and the sects?We must not forget that this is a technique of persuasion. The first contact with the sects is usually to participate in small meetings. A small donation is subsequently requested. Once the first steps are taken, we are more likely to commit to continue the behavior.
Such behavior may include spending weekly hours on the sect, increasing donations of money, or other assets. In more extreme cases, cases have also been documented in which supporters have been forced to perform sexual services and even participate in collective suicides under an apparent deception of volunteering.
Are people crazy? No, are people being manipulated?-José Luis Sampedro-
Although they go unnoticed, these techniques are used to achieve something for all of us, when they call us and ask us if we have the Internet our answer is usually yes, in this way they leave us predisposed to continue listening. The next question is usually whether we would like to pay less. Again, our answer is yes, they already have us!
Another important aspect in some cases is the lack of time to think. If we pay attention to it, the proposals they propose to us are for a limited time: “Tomorrow, this price will no longer be available”. we are such that we respond in the affirmative without having processed the information.
You’ll definitely learn to say, won’t you? And detecting all these manipulative techniques is important to prevent them from getting from us something we are not willing to offer. A little boy? It can become a bad response when we have to reject a subsequent request, so the next time we say yes, we’ll definitely think about it better.
“When we think we’re driving, we’re really motivated. ” Lord Byron