The Psychology Trick You’re Probably Already Falling For…

In this video, we explore the intriguing concept of the “ego trap”—an influence technique that leverages the idea that people are more likely to agree when it affirms their positive qualities. We examine the recent study “Egotistic Trap as a Social Influence Technique” by Dolinski, Grzyb, and Kulesza (2023), which provides a detailed analysis of this approach.

The study highlights just how powerful this technique can be: In one experiment, 52.4% of participants agreed to take part in a survey when they were told it was aimed at intelligent people—a significant increase compared to 32.7% in the control group. In another experiment, the willingness to have cars inspected at official workshops rose from 56.7% to 71.7% when participants were told, “reasonable customers have their cars officially inspected.”  There’s also an alternative version of the ego trap that might be even more effective…

There are only a few psychological influencing techniques that unfold their power with a single phrase or a small follow-up sentence. One of them is the “This Is My Only Request” technique, which is used very successfully by “money collectors” from a wide variety of organisations. But how effective is the technique really? And what mechanisms of action underlie the “This Is My Only Request” technique? Polish researchers have investigated these questions in exciting field experiments…

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Studies and books:

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.

Burger, J. M., & Guadagno, R. E. (2003). Self-concept clarity and the footin-the-door procedure. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 25(1), 79–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15324834BASP2501 6

Dolinska, B., & Dolinski, D. (2014). Fear-then-relief, legitimizing a paltry contribution, and charity. Revue Européenne de Psychologie Appliquée/European Review of Applied Psychology, 64(1), 29–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.erap.2013.04.002

Freedman, J. L., & Fraser, S. C. (1966). Compliance without pressure: the foot-inthe-door technique. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4(2), 195–202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0023552

Howard, D. J. (1990). The influence of verbal responses to common greetings on compliance behavior: the foot-in-the-mouth effect. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 20(14), 1185–1196. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1990.tb00399.x

Grzyb, T., & Doliński, D. (2017). “This is my only request”–using the ‘Omega’strategy to boost the success of charity drives. European Review of Applied Psychology, 67(4), 181-185.