In the context of persuasion strategies, the door-in-the-face technique involves
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2Department of Social Psychology, University of Tilburg, P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, the Netherlands Show Find articles by Loes Janssen Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer 1Department of Marketing, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, the Netherlands 2Department of Social Psychology, University of Tilburg, P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, the Netherlands Bob M. Fennis, Phone: +31-50-3637065, Fax: +31-50-3638252, Email: [email protected]. Contributor Information.  Copyright © The Author(s) 2010 This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. If detected, the persuasion strategy, also called the door in the face technique, could be less effective over time than you’d like.By PON Staff — on April 21st, 2022 / Dispute Resolution Have you ever heard of the door in the face technique? In a classic and rather amusing study from 1975, Arizona State University professor Robert Cialdini and his colleagues sent research assistants around campus posing as employees of the county’s juvenile detention center. They stopped people randomly on walkways and asked them if they would consider chaperoning a group of juvenile delinquents on a day trip to the zoo for no pay. What do you think was the most common answer? That’s right: 83% of those asked passed on this unusual request. Next, the research assistants approached different people with an even bolder request: Would they be interested in being considered to serve as an unpaid counselor at the juvenile detention center? They were told this volunteer position would require two hours of their time each week for a minimum of two years. Not surprisingly, people didn’t exactly jump at this opportunity, either: In fact, everyone asked said no. But the researchers didn’t let them just walk away. They then asked them if they would instead be willing to consider chaperoning a group of juvenile delinquents on a day trip to the zoo for no pay. Their responses were enlightening: A full 50% said yes, they would. Claim your FREE copy: Dispute ResolutionDiscover how to improve your dispute resolution skills in this free report, Dispute Resolution: Working Together Toward Conflict Resolution on the Job and at Home, from Harvard Law School. Why did people become so willing to agree to consider the significant request after turning down a much larger one? According to Cialdini and his team, when we back down from an extreme request and ask for less, the other party views this as a concession and feels compelled to reciprocate it. The norm of reciprocity compels us to try to repay in kind what someone else has “given” us, from a favor to an invitation to a concession in negotiation. Cultural anthropologists believe the drive to reciprocate was hardwired into our brains over the course of human history because it allowed us to share resources and skills in a “web of indebtedness.” In the context of negotiation and persuasion, Cialdini refers to the strategy of following up an extreme request with a moderate one the “door in the face” (DITF) technique, playing on the image of a homeowner slamming the door in a salesperson’s face after she makes a ridiculous request. Research suggests that if a negotiator follows up the extreme request with a more moderate one, the proverbial door may stay open. Will they get even, with the door in the face technique?Given that door in the face technique has been studied only in one-off interactions, Professor Ricky S. Wong of Hang Seng Management College in Hong Kong and his colleagues wondered whether it could have a negative impact on a second negotiation with the same counterpart. If we sense that someone has used the door in the face technique to gain an advantage, we may try to “get even” by demanding more ourselves. After all, the norm of reciprocity works both ways—we respond in kind to negative as well as positive behaviors. For their first experiment, the researchers divided 180 undergraduate students into the role of buyer or seller. The buyers were trained on how to use the DITF in a natural manner, and some of them were instructed to use the technique in the first of two negotiations with their counterpart. Specifically, they were told to ask their seller for the lowest price possible for a display screen and then, if their offer was rejected, to immediately make a more moderate request. Other buyers, those in the control group, were told not to use DITF but to negotiate as they saw fit. When we back down from an extreme request and ask for less, the other party views this as a concession and feels compelled to reciprocate it. After the first negotiation, some of the sellers were educated on various negotiation strategies, including DITF, and asked whether they thought their counterpart had used any of them. Next, the same pairs engaged in a second negotiation over the sale of a microchip, playing the same roles. After the second negotiation, those in the role of seller were told they’d be codeveloping a new product with someone and were given a choice between working with the same counterpart or being assigned to a new one. In the experiment, sellers who detected that their counterpart used DITF in the first negotiation, as compared to those who did not, made more demanding opening offers in the second negotiation and reached better outcomes. They also viewed their counterpart as less trustworthy and were more likely to choose a new partner for the collaborative project. Overall, the study results seem to suggest that using the door in the face technique, and perhaps other persuasion techniques, could backfire if your counterpart senses that you have attempted to manipulate him or her. The findings suggest a note of caution to drawing simplistic conclusions from Cialdini’s 1975 study. What is the doorThe door-in-the-face technique is a compliance method commonly studied in social psychology. The persuader attempts to convince the respondent to comply by making a large request that the respondent will most likely turn down, much like a metaphorical slamming of a door in the persuader's face.
What is the doorThe Door in the Face Technique
Initially you make a big request which a person can be expected to refuse. Then you make a smaller request which the person finds difficult to refuse because they feel they should't always say NO! For example, negotiating a pay rise with your boss.
What is the doordoor-in-the-face technique. asking for a large commitment and being refused and then asking for a smaller commitment.
What is foot in the face technique?The foot-in-the-face technique involves asking for a moderately difficult task to be completed and then, regardless of what the person says, you ask immediately for a second [moderately difficult] task to be done.
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