Door-in-the-Face Form of Persuasion and the Rule of Reciprocity

Door in the Face
Student's Name
Institutional Affiliation
Course Name and Number
Instructor
Date
Door in the Face
As a form of persuasion, "the door-in-the-face" relies on the following principle: Get someone to say no to a larger request first if you're afraid they'll say no to a smaller one first. Psychologists have discovered two reasons why saying "no" to a huge proposal almost always gives rise to saying "yes" to a following smaller request, even though this may seem strange. The first demand is a ridiculous one, and a sensible person would reject it. When the second intended request is made, the respondent appears to be more reasonable than the first demand. As a result, they are more likely to accept it.
The rule of reciprocity is a powerful one. Reciprocation is a principle that states that if someone does something for us, we feel obligated to do something for them back. If a friend wishes us a happy holiday season, we feel compelled to reciprocate (Howard, 2019). A friend asks for $100, and we say no. This is an example of using the rule of reciprocity to our advantage in the door-in-the-face technique. "I understand that $100 is a lot of money," says the friend. Instead, I'd appreciate a loan of $25. To show our gratitude, we agreed to give him $25 instead of $100, even though we had previously rejected his request for $100. The second reason the door-in-the-face technique works is shown in this example. It doesn't seem like much money when compared to $100. Door-in-face, therefore, accomplishes two goals: Reciprocity is invoked, and a contrast effect is created as we feel an obligation to move from "no" to "yes" when the requestor goes from a large to a small request.
Evidence and Implication
A researcher approached students on campus and asked them to accompany juvenile delinquents on a trip to the zoo as a first scientific demonstration of the door-in-the-face technique. There were only 13% agreed (Howard, 2019). The researcher asked another group of students the same question, but he used the door-in-the-face technique this time. When asked whether they would be willing to serve as mentors for juvenile offenders for two years at a time, the students said yes. Instead, the researcher asked if the students could chaperone the juvenile delinquents to the zoo. Half (50%) of those polled said they agreed (Genschow et al., 2021). The technique can backfire if the first request seems excessively large. However, as the results of the experiment conducted by Cialdini and colleagues demonstrate, requests can grow quite large before appearing unreasonable (Genschow et al., 2021). There's a lot to ask for two years of volunteer service with juvenile offenders.
So, how does it feel to be hit in the face with a door? As it turns out, using the door-in-the-face made us feel better about the transaction than not using it at all. Convincing an opponent to make a concession...