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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe First ‘Nigerian Prince’ Scam
In 1966, Stanford University psychologists Jonathan Freeman and Scott Fraser observed an interesting phenomenon in their experiments: someone who has already agreed to a small requestlike opening the door for youwould become more, not less, likely to agree to a larger request later on. In one study, they asked 150 housewives in Palo Alto, California, if they would sacrifice two hours of their time: a research team of five or six people would come to their homes to classify the household products they used. It was, as anyone would agree, a fairly big askinvasive and time-consuming both. It didnt seem likely that many people would be willing to comply. Some of the women, however, had already been contacted once before. That time, in a phone call, theyd been asked to spare a few minutes to answer some brief questions about their preferred brands of soap.
The Grifters Real Game? Psychology
When Freeman and Fraser looked at the results, they found a striking difference between the willingness of that one group and the rest of the women in the study. Over half of them agreed to the second requestas compared with one-fifth of those who had not had to respond earlier. In other words, once someone does you anything that can be perceived as a favorpicking up a dropped glove (how many con artists love the dropped clothing article!), lending you a quarter for the phone (only a quarter! its an important call), spending a few minutes on that phone with you in conversationthat person becomes more likely to keep doing even more on your behalf. Freeman and Fraser called it the foot-in-the-door technique. The funny thing is, they later found, the approach worked even if the person doing the requesting the second time around was someone else: doing a small favor seemed to open the door to being nice, generally speaking. Its one of the reasons that con artists often work in groups. Theres the roper, the one who makes the first request, engaging his chosen persuasive strategies of choice, and then theres the inside man, a second member of the group who sweeps in for the kill, with the real request (the con that will be played out). You are already in a giving mood, and you become far more likely to succumb than you wouldve been without the initial prime.
It makes sense. We often make judgments about ourselves based on our actions, something psychologist Daryl Bem calls self-perception theory. If we yell at someone, were rude, but if we open the door for them, were nice. As nice people, well, we do nice things. Thats just who we are. And there are few things we like more than thinking ourselves good: we like proof that we are decent, giving, generous human beings. As Cialdini points out, one of the elements that make us more vulnerable to persuasion is our desire to maintain a good image of ourselves. If something is framed so as to make us feel like worthy people, we are much more likely to comply with it. We want to be behave in a way thats consistent with the image weve created.
Consistency here plays a crucial role in the other direction, toonot just in our evaluation of ourselves but in our evaluation of the person were helping: if Ive helped you before, you must be worth it. Therefore, Ill help you again. If Ive given you a job in my company, I will keep helping you with your redemption and will keep trusting you, and may even give you my campaign to run. You are worthy. Otherwise, I wouldnt have invested my time and resources in you. If Ive given you an investment for your new colonizing mission, I will keep providing you with capital and eager settlers, maybe even some ships. You must be worth it: otherwise, I wouldnt have given you any money to begin with. Its the logic behind many a successful rope, and the logic that has propped up one of the longest-running cons of them all: the Nigerian prince.
http://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/the-first-nigerian-prince-scam/
Aerows
(39,961 posts)approximately 5% of the population cannot resist good sales techniques and will agree to anything if you spin it correctly.
MerryBlooms
(11,769 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)PO Box 123
Donut City, Wottalottaland
You'd get at least a few thousand $10 bills.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Thus proving the point.......
clever.
valerief
(53,235 posts)deal with my employer's endless surveys, let alone some random fool's survey.
Whatever happened to thinking?