the guy and walked away; but somehow, because I had complied with
his initial request, I felt a need to be consistent, and I complied with his
second request. Yes, much to my own disbelief, I actually subscribed
to SKI magazine (which I occasionally enjoy reading, but had no inten-
tion of subscribing to), gave him a five-dollar initial-subscription fee
and left as quickly as possible, feeling quite frustrated with what I had
just done and not understanding why I had done it.
“Although it still pains me to think about it, in reflecting on the incid-
ent after reading your book, I’ve now figured out what happened. The
reason this tactic worked so effectively is because once small commit-
ments have been made (in this case, giving a kiss), people tend to add
justifications to support the commitment and then are willing to commit
themselves further. In this situation, I justified complying with the
second request because it was consistent with my initial action. If I had
only listened to my ‘stomach signs,’ I could have saved myself a lot of
humiliation.”
By extracting a kiss, the salesman exploited the consistency principle
in two ways. First, by the time he asked for her aid in the magazine
contest, his prospect had already gone on record—with that kiss—as
agreeing to help him win a contest. Second, it seems only natural (i.e.,
congruent) that if a woman feels positively enough toward a man to
kiss him, she should feel positively toward helping him out.
86 / Influence