Foot-in-the-door and problematic requests: A field experiment

Abstract

The “Foot-in-the-door” (FITD) is a compliance technique that consists of making a small initial request to a participant, then making a second, more onerous request. In this way greater compliance with the second request is obtained than under a control condition where the focal request is not preceded by the initial request. Most of the studies using this paradigm have tested prosocial requests. So the generalization of this compliance technique to other types of requests remains an open question. The authors carried out two experiments in which the FITD effect on deviant behaviors was tested. Results showed that the FITD technique increased compliance with the focal request, but only among male participants.

Keywords:

• Foot-in-the-door
• Deviant behavior
• Gender
• Compliance strategies

Notes

¹The experiment took place in May 2005, just before a referendum vote on the European constitution.

²The young confederate was the brother of the experimenter who observed the sequence of events from a distance.