Making Compliance Seem More Important: The “Just-One-More” Technique of Gaining Compliance

Abstract

A new compliance-gaining technique is introduced called the “just-one-more” (JOM) technique that increases compliance rates by including the phrase “I just need one more person to help.” Two studies are reported (N = 160 in each). The first established the effectiveness of the technique as compared to a direct request. The second tested the hypothesis that goal difficulty moderates the technique's effectiveness in a 2 (JOM or direct request) × 2 (requester needs five surveys or 100). Results indicate that the JOM was substantially more effective than a direct request in the 100 surveys condition but not the five.

Keywords:

• Charity
• Compliance Gaining Technique
• Goal-Gradient
• Social Influence

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christopher J. Carpenter

Christopher J. Carpenter (PhD, Michigan State University, 2010) is in the Department of Communication at Western Illinois University in Macomb.