Reading focus
Syllabus: How Do Social Influence and Power Work?
Trace what changes between the first and later requests.
Why you’re reading it. Separate an influence procedure from its proposed mechanism.
A question to consider. How would you test whether a small workplace favor changes self-image rather than familiarity with the requester?
Why this reading
Can accepting a small request affect a later decision? Two field studies compare this sequence with alternatives and ask what might explain the difference.
Before you read
The foot-in-the-door procedure makes a smaller request before a larger one. Agreement, actually performing an action, familiarity with a requester, and a changed self-image are distinct possibilities.
Read for
- Compare the first study's performance, agreement-only, familiarization, and single-contact conditions.
- Follow how the second study changes the requester, task, and issue.
- Distinguish agreement to the large request from its eventual completion.
Consider afterwards
- What extra comparison or measurement would establish that a small commitment changed self-perception rather than merely willingness to say yes?
Editorial context
These Palo Alto samples were predominantly women contacted at home. One control was added later; the second study grouped conditions by neighborhood blocks. Some contrasts were uncertain. The findings do not identify a unique mechanism or guarantee that sequential requests will work elsewhere.