ities investigated—Americans, Swedes, and Japanese. See Gergen et al.
(1975) for an account of the study.
- The Pittsburgh study was done by Greenberg and Shapiro. The
data on women’s sexual obligations were collected by George, Gournic,
and McAfee (1988). - To convince ourselves that this result was no fluke, we conducted
two more experiments testing the effectiveness of the rejection-then-
retreat trick. Both showed results similar to the first experiment. See
Cialdini et al. (1975) for the details of all three. - The Israeli study was conducted in 1979 by Schwartzwald, Raz,
and Zvibel. - The TV Guide article appeared in December 1978.
- The source for the quotes is Magruder (1974).
- Consumer Reports, January 1975, p. 62.
- Another way of gauging the effectiveness of a request technique
is to examine the bottom-line proportion of individuals who, after being
asked, complied with the request. Using such a measure, the rejection-
then-retreat procedure was more than four times more effective than
the procedure of asking for the smaller request only. See Miller et al.
(1976) for a complete description of the study. - The blood-donation study was reported by Cialdini and Ascani
(1976). - The UCLA study was performed by Benton, Kelley, and Liebling
in 1972. - A variety of other business operations use the no-cost information
offer extensively. Pest-exterminator companies, for instance, have found
that most people who agree to a free home examination give the exterm-
ination job to the examining company, provided they are convinced
that it is needed. They apparently feel an obligation to give their business
to the firm that rendered the initial, complimentary service. Knowing
that such customers are unlikely to comparisonshop for this reason,
unscrupulous pest-control operators will take advantage of the situation
by citing higher-than-competitive prices for work commissioned in this
way.
CHAPTER 3 (PAGES 57–113)
- The racetrack study was done twice, with the same results, by Knox
and Inkster (1968). See Rosenfeld, Kennedy, and Giacalone (1986) for
evidence that the tendency to believe more strongly in choices, once
made, applies to guesses in a lottery game, too. - It is important to note that the collaboration was not always inten-
tional. The American investigators defined collaboration as “any kind
Robert B. Cialdini Ph.D / 213