the billboard went up, who could they conceivably hold responsible
but themselves and their own damnably strong civic spirit? They probably
never even considered the guy with the “keeping California beautiful”
petition and all that knowledge of jujitsu.
Notice that all of the foot-in-the-door experts seem to be excited about
the same thing: You can use small commitments to manipulate a per-
son’s self-image; you can use them to turn citizens into “public ser-
vants,” prospects into “customers,” prisoners into “collaborators.” And
once you’ve got a man’s self-image where you want it, he should comply
naturally with a whole range of your requests that are consistent with
this view of himself.
Not all commitments affect self-image, however. There are certain
conditions that should be present for a commitment to be effective in
this way. To discover what they are, we can once again look to the
American experience in the Chinese prison camps of Korea. It is import-
ant to understand that the major intent of the Chinese was not simply
to extract information from their prisoners. It was to indoctrinate them,
to change their attitudes and percep-tions of themselves, of their polit-
ical system, of their country’s role in the war, and of communism. And
there is evidence that the program often worked alarmingly well.
Dr. Henry Segal, chief of the neuropsychiatric evaluation team that
examined returning POWs at the war’s end, reported that war-related
beliefs had been substantially shifted. The majority of the men believed
the Chinese story that the United States had used germ warfare, and
many felt that their own forces had been the initial aggressors in starting
the war. Similar inroads had been made in the political attitudes of the
men:
Many expressed antipathy toward the Chinese Communists but
at the same time praised them for “the fine job they have done in
China.” Others stated that “although communism won’t work in
America, I think it’s a good thing for Asia.”^7
It appears that the real goal of the Chinese was to modify, at least for
a time, the hearts and minds of their captives. If we measure their
achievement in terms of “defection, disloyalty, changed attitudes and
beliefs, poor discipline, poor morale, poor esprit, and doubts as to
America’s role,” Dr. Segal concluded that “their efforts were highly
successful.” Because commitment tactics were so much a part of the
effective Chinese assault on hearts and minds, it is quite informative
to examine the specific features of the tactics they used.
Robert B. Cialdini Ph.D / 57