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.

Can the clothes we wear influence our thinking and behaviour? For example, do we become more intelligent when we wear a doctor’s coat? Or do we become more helpful when we wear a nurse’s coat? Some recent studies on so-called “enclothed cognition” suggest that there might really be some truth to this phenomenon…But how robust are the effects really? Could the effects be replicated?

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Studies and books (only a small selection):

Adam, H., & Galinsky, A. D. (2012). Enclothed cognition. Journal of experimental social psychology, 48(4), 918-925.

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

Burns, D. M., Fox, E. L., Greenstein, M., Olbright, G., & Montgomery, D. (2019). An old task in new clothes: A preregistered direct replication attempt of enclothed cognition effects on Stroop performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 83, 150-156.

Jones, M. G., Lee, T., Chesnutt, K., Carrier, S., Ennes, M., Cayton, E., … & Huff, P. (2019). Enclothed cognition: putting lab coats to the test. International Journal of Science Education, 41(14), 1962-1976.

Kraus, M. W., & Mendes, W. B. (2014). Sartorial symbols of social class elicit class-consistent behavioral and physiological responses: A dyadic approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(6), 2330.

López-Pérez, B., Ambrona, T., Wilson, E. L., & Khalil, M. (2016). The effect of enclothed cognition on empathic responses and helping behavior. Social Psychology.

Mendoza, S. A., & Parks-Stamm, E. J. (2020). Embodying the police: the effects of enclothed cognition on shooting decisions. Psychological reports, 123(6), 2353-2371.

Zimbardo, P. G. (1969). The human choice: Individuation, reason, and order versus deindividuation, impulse, and chaos. In Nebraska symposium on motivation. University of Nebraska press.

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.

Benjamin Franklin not only entered the history books as one of the founding fathers of the USA, but is also mentioned in many psychology textbooks. His ingeniously simple method of turning an opposing politician into one of his closest allies and friends received a lot of attention, especially from social psychologists. But does the Benjamin Franklin method really work? Or can the Benjamin Franklin effect not be proven in empirical studies…?

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Studies and books:

Jecker, J., & Landy, D. (1969). Liking a person as a function of doing him a favour. Human relations, 22(4), 371-378.

Burck, E. (2016). New psychology of influence: exploring manipulation. BoD Books on Demand.

Burck, E. (2019). The manipulated brain: psychology of unconscious influence. BoD Books on Demand.

When we get to know somebody who has a somewhat similar personality we immediately feel a connection to this person. Unfortunately this can be used to influence us…

Literature

Burger, J. M., Messian, N., Patel, S., del Prado, A., & Anderson, C. (2004). What a coincidence! The effects of incidental similarity on compliance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30(1), 35-43.

When we get to know somebody who has a somewhat similar personality we immediately feel a connection to this person. Unfortunately this can be used to influence us…

Literature

Burger, J. M., Messian, N., Patel, S., del Prado, A., & Anderson, C. (2004). What a coincidence! The effects of incidental similarity on compliance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30(1), 35-43.

At the beginning of the 70s social psychologist Henri Tajfel could show, that even minimal similarities can lead to preference for in-group members and/or discrimination against out-group members… (minimal group paradigm)

Sometimes situations turn out to be much worse than we initially thought. Nevertheless, we often do not pull back. Unfortunately, this human behavior can be exploited using the low-ball technique.
But is the low-ball technique more effective than the foot-in-the-door-technique?

Sometimes situations turn out to be much worse than we initially thought. Nevertheless, we often do not pull back. Unfortunately, this human behavior can be exploited using the low-ball technique …

Sometimes situations turn out to be much worse than we initially thought. Nevertheless, we often do not pull back. Unfortunately, this human behavior can be exploited using the low-ball technique …