tions reasons, then, fraternities should want to incorporate community-
service efforts into their initiation practices. But they don’t.
To examine the second puzzle, we need to return to the Chinese
prison camps of Korea and the regular political essay contests held for
American captives. The Chinese wanted as many Americans as possible
to enter these contests so that, in the process, they might write things
favorable to the Communist view. If, however, the idea was to attract
large numbers of entrants, why were the prizes so small? A few extra
cigarettes or a little fresh fruit were often all that a contest winner could
expect. In the setting, even these prizes were valuable, but still there
were much larger rewards—warm clothing, special mail privileges,
increased freedom of movement in camp—that the Chinese could have
used to increase the number of essay writers. Yet they specifically chose
to employ the smaller rather than the larger, more motivating rewards.
Although the settings are quite different, the surveyed fraternities
refused to allow civic activities into their initiation ceremonies for the
same reason that the Chinese withheld large prizes in favor of less
powerful inducements: They wanted the men to own what they had
done. No excuses, no ways out were allowed. A man who suffered
through an arduous hazing could not be given the chance to believe he
did so for charitable purposes. A prisoner who salted his political essay
with a few anti-American comments could not be permitted to shrug
it off as motivated by a big reward. No, the fraternity chapters and
Chinese Communists were playing for keeps. It was not enough to
wring commitments out of their men; those men had to be made to take
inner responsibility for their actions.
Given the Chinese Communist government’s affinity for the political-
essay contest as a commitment device, it should come as no surprise
that a wave of such contests appeared in the aftermath of the 1989
massacre in Tiananmen Square, where pro-democracy protesters were
gunned down by government soldiers. In Beijing alone, nine state-run
newspapers and television stations sponsored essay competitions on
the “quelling of the counterrevolutionary rebellion.” Still acting in accord
with its long-standing and insightful de-emphasis of rewards for public
commitments, the Beijing government left the contest prizes unspecified.
Social scientists have determined that we accept inner responsibility
for a behavior when we think we have chosen to perform it in the ab-
sence of strong outside pressures. A large reward is one such external
pressure. It may get us to perform a certain action, but it won’t get us
to accept inner responsibility for the act. Consequently, we won’t feel
committed to it. The same is true of a strong threat; it may motivate
immediate compliance, but it is unlikely to produce long-term commit-
ment.
Robert B. Cialdini Ph.D / 71