The Evoking Freedom Technique is one of the simplest and at the same time most effective influencing techniques that have been investigated by psychologists in studies so far. In most cases it is enough to add one of the following sentences to a request:

“…, but you are free to accept or to refuse.”

“…, but don’t feel obliged.”

“…, feel free to say no.”

The technique probably works so well because we usually react to other people’s requests with reactance. That is, we initially have the impulse to say “no” because we don’t want to be restricted in our freedom (e.g. freedom of what we do with our time or money). However, as soon as someone assures us that we are completely free to decide, our sense of freedom is restored (evoking freedom), reactance is reduced and compliance increases. It is also interesting that the effectiveness of this technique varies according to culture (individualistic and freedom-loving versus collectivistic)…

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Studien und Bücher (nur kleine Auswahl):

Burck, E. (2019). Das manipulierte Gehirn: Psychologie der unbewussten Beeinflussung. BoD–Books on Demand.

Burck, E. (2016). Neue Psychologie der Beeinflussung: Die Erforschung der Manipulation. BoD–Books on Demand.

Carpenter, C. J. (2013). A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of the “but you are free” compliance-gaining technique. Communication Studies, 64(1), 6-17.

Carpenter, C. J., & Pascual, A. (2016). Testing the reactance vs. the reciprocity of politeness explanations for the effectiveness of the “but you are free” compliance-gaining technique. Social influence, 11(2), 101-110.

Farley, S. D., Kelly, J., Singh, S., Thornton Jr, C., & Young, T. (2019). “Free to Say No”: Evoking freedom increased compliance in two field experiments. The Journal of social psychology, 159(4), 482-489.

Samson-Secrieru, L., & Carpenter, C. J. (2017). Examining mindlessness and friendliness in the evoking-freedom compliance-gaining technique. Communication Research Reports, 34(4), 368-375.