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SOMEONE KNOCKS on your door. You recognize him as a kid from your neighborhood. He is selling popcorn as a fund-raiser for a club he is a member of at school. The club is trying to go to the state convention. How do you react? It depends on the story, or persona, you have of yourself when it comes to topics such as school, fund-raising, and your relationship to your neighborhood. Here’s one story you might relate to:
“I’m a very busy person. When I’m at home I want to relax, not get bombarded with people at the door selling things. I don’t like it when people bother me at home with these fund-raising schemes. The schools should pay for these trips and not make us buy this overpriced popcorn. This poor kid isn’t to blame, but I’m not going to buy the popcorn because it just perpetuates this behavior. Someone has got to act right on this. I’m the kind of person who does what is right on principle. I’m going to say no nicely, but firmly.”
Or maybe you can relate to this story:
“Oh, isn’t that great that the kids are going to the state convention. I remember when I went on a similar trip when I was in high school. It was really fun. Maybe not all that educational, but definitely fun! I’m the kind of person who encourages students to have lots of experiences outside of our own neighborhood. I am the kind of person who supports the school. I’ll buy some popcorn and help this kid out.”
Or maybe you can relate to this story:
“It kind of annoys me that there are always these kids selling things. But this is part of being a good neighbor. I’m part of the community. I am a good citizen of our neighborhood. I’ll buy the popcorn because that’s what a good community member would do.”
We have an idea formed in our minds about who we are, and what’s important to us. Essentially we have a “story” operating about ourselves at all times. Stories are powerful, as you’ll learn in Chapter 10.
We tell ourselves stories about ourselves. We have “self-personas.”
We tell ourselves stories about ourselves, and then we tell those same stories to others. We will take action based on one of the stories, or personas, we have about ourselves. We actually have more than one persona. We have different personas for different aspects of ourselves in relation to others. For example, there is a persona we have as a husband or wife, another persona we have as a parent, another persona at work, and yet another persona that defines our relationship with the neighborhood we live in. We make decisions based on staying true to our personas. Most of this decision-making based on personas happens unconsciously. Some aspects of personas are conscious or might even be pulled into consciousness, but most of the time the personas are under the surface.
We have multiple personas, but that’s not the same as multiple personalities!
These self-personas are important in decision-making because we strive to be consistent in our decision-making. These personas don’t have to be exactly alike, but we do strive for some consistency among these personas. There is a drive to make the personas “stick.” We will make decisions in order to have our personas stay consistent. This means that there is a higher likelihood that someone will take a particular action if a persona is “activated.”
It is more likely that someone will take a particular action if one of their personas is activated.
Once we make one decision consistent with one of the personas, we will try to stay consistent with that persona. We will be more likely to make a decision or take an action if it is consistent with that story or persona.
DO WE EVER make a decision or take an action that isn’t totally consistent with an existing persona or story we have? If the action is small (just a little different from the existing persona), it might be possible to convince us to take the action. Once we take that action, we actually will adjust our persona a little to fit. That means the next thing we are asked to do along those same lines will fit the new persona, and it will be easier to get us to take action.
If you ask someone to commit to something small first, then it will be easier to get a larger commitment from them later.
WHAT IF SOMEONE knocked on your door and asked you if you would be willing to put a huge, and not very well constructed, billboard on your front lawn that said in large block lettering: DRIVE CAREFULLY. Do you think you would agree? Well, most people in Palo Alto, California, who were asked to do so in a research study in 1966 said no.
Freedman and Fraser (1966) had a researcher pose as a volunteer and go door-to-door asking homeowners to allow just such a sign to be installed in their front yards. They were shown a photo of the sign that would be installed. The signs were quite large (they essentially would take over the front yard) and were fairly ugly. This was not an attractive object to have in their yards! Fewer than 20 percent agreed to have the signs installed in their yards. No surprise there. (Well, actually it is surprising that as many as 20 percent would agree at all.) That was the control group (Group A) of the experiment.
Here’s how the rest of the experiment went:
• In Group B, people were first contacted by an experimenter who asked them to put a small (three-inch) sign in the back windows of their cars that read Drive Carefully. Then, three weeks later, a different experimenter showed up to inquire about their interest in having a large DRIVE CAREFULLY sign installed in their yards.
• In Group C, people were first contacted by an experimenter who asked them to sign a petition to “Keep California Beautiful.” Then three weeks later, a different experimenter showed up to inquire about their interest in having a large DRIVE CAREFULLY sign installed in their yards.
In the control group (Group A) only 20 percent agreed to have the large DRIVE CAREFULLY signs installed in their yards. What about Groups B and C?
In Group B, which had been asked to first put the small Drive Carefully signs in their car windows and then were approached later to put the large signs in their yards, 76 percent said yes to signs in their yards. For Group C, which had been asked first to sign a petition to Keep California Beautiful (a totally different cause than Drive Carefully), 46 percent agreed to the big ugly signs. It’s important to note that in both B and C, different experimenters returned to make the second request—people in those groups were not agreeing simply because they had a relationship of any sort with the person asking.
So 20 percent vs. 46 percent... 20 percent vs. 76 percent.... Why were people much more willing to put a big ugly sign in their yards in these two other conditions?
By agreeing to the request to put the small Drive Carefully sign in the back windows of their cars, a persona was activated in Group B. They were telling themselves the story that they were people who cared about the community at large; they cared about safety. So when they were later asked about installing the big ugly signs, well, for most people that particular request now fit the persona they had about themselves.
With Group C, where people were first asked to sign a petition to “Keep California Beautiful,” the petition activated a persona that said “I’m a person who cares about the community,” but it didn’t necessarily activate a persona that said “I’m a person who cares about safety.” When they were asked later to do something a little bit different (to install the huge DRIVE CAREFULLY sign in their yards), that request was only somewhat consistent with the original persona that was activated. The “I’m a person who cares about the community” persona was shared with both requests, but the “I’m a person who cares about safety” was missing. The agreement was double that of Group A (46 percent, compared to 20 percent), but still not as high as the condition of Group B (76 percent).
If you want someone to take action, you need to get a commitment first to something small that will activate a persona, and then you need to ask for a commitment to something larger later. And the more public you can get that commitment (like putting a sign in your car window), the stronger the persona change will be. Making a commitment silently to yourself (for example, telling yourself that you care about the community, but not showing this idea to others) is not as strong as saying the commitment aloud to someone else or taking an action like signing a petition (or posting a sign).
IF WE MAKE a commitment publicly, or write it down, the commitment and consistency effect is even stronger.
Deutsch and Gerard (1955) asked people to estimate the length of some lines. They were looking at the effect that others might have on decision-making. They had other people who were part of the experiment estimate the length of the line incorrectly. Would the subjects go along with the incorrect estimates they were hearing from others, or would they stick (commit) to the answer they felt was correct? If you read Chapter 2 on social validation, you won’t be surprised to discover that estimates were influenced by the lengths people heard from others.
I think this study is interesting, though, in light of some other findings. In addition to looking at group influence, Deutsch and Gerard also looked at whether there were situations in which commitment to a decision would be stronger.
• Before hearing what others had to say on the length of the line, Group 1 wrote their estimates on paper. They were told not to sign the paper, and that they would not be turning in the sheets of paper.
• Group 2 wrote their estimates on a “magic pad,” and then lifted a sheet and the estimate was erased without anyone seeing it.
• Group 3 was told to write their estimates on paper, to sign their papers, and they were told that their papers would be collected at the end of the experiment.
Would the groups vary in terms of how strongly they stuck to their commitment of the length of the line?
Group 2 was most likely to change their decisions and to give incorrect estimates. Groups 1 and 3 reacted the same way. They were five times less likely to change their answers. They were more committed to their original estimates, regardless of what they heard others say.
Signing their names or being told they were going to hand in their estimates did not seem to make a difference. Just the act of writing it on a piece of paper was enough to make them commit.
Writing something down is a powerful act of commitment.
FOR AS LONG as there were PCs, I was a PC type person. My husband was a Mac person. We would archly defend the technology of choice. Over time, I learned to just ignore his Mac comments, and he learned to use a PC, since that was what we had at home (his Mac was at his office, where he is a newspaper editor).
Then the iPod came out, and I decided that would be a great gizmo to have while exercising. I actually did feel a twinge of dissonance when I broke a little bit from my non-Apple, all-PC persona to buy an Apple product. But it was only a type of MP3 player really, right? So it was a small action away from my usual persona. Not too drastic.
But it was a crack in my PC persona. I was now a PC person who used an Apple product. I loved my iPod. And over time, my PC persona began to give way. I was becoming a person who believed in Apple products. This created a huge amount of dissonance, and when it came time to purchase a new laptop, I dissipated the dissonance by buying a Mac laptop. I had effortlessly erased years of a PC persona, because my persona had already been sliding that way, even though I was not conscious of the slide until it came time for the larger purchase.
Whether Apple did this on purpose or not, the introduction of the iPod was a masterful lead-in to getting people to switch from PCs to Macs.
CIALDINI (2007) REPORTS that if a public commitment is not “owned” by a person, and is mainly made to gain a large reward, the individual is not deeply committed and will not show deep commitment in future behavior. If we believe that we have voluntarily chosen to act in a certain way because of our inner beliefs instead of strong outside pressures, we feel more committed. A large reward, for example, may lead us to action, but it will not create inner responsibility for the action, and we won’t feel committed to the action.
Growing commitment
Interestingly, you can “grow” commitment. Cialdini (2007) reports that a mild admonition or small threat of punishment can encourage us to behave in certain ways. After we do behave that way, we have a tendency to want to be consistent, and may therefore take personal responsibility for the behavior, which then leads to deep change. The pressure for consistency causes the commitment to deepen.
When you go through pain
I went from an iPod to a Mac to an iPhone. The transition from PC to Mac was not easy (too many years on PCs, I guess), but I was determined to stick with it until I was comfortable. In fact, the harder it was, the more determined I got. My first iPhone had problems. I had to send it back. I had waited almost a year to get an iPhone. The replacement worked better, but it still didn’t work correctly. I’ve called AppleCare once already, and we solved the problem—for about an hour. Then things got worse, and I couldn’t even make phone calls. However, I was very forgiving. I still liked my iPhone, even though I couldn’t get it to work right. I was sure it would all get taken care of and would all work out. I would never have been that patient with any other cell phone. But I’m committed to Apple now. It took me years to make the switch to Apple, and getting the iPhone was a long and arduous process. You would think that these problems would erode my commitment to Apple, but it did just the opposite. It strengthened my commitment. (By the way, the phone is working better, but I still have some issues. Really, I’m sure I’ll solve them soon.)
IN ORDER TO get us to take a particular action on a Web site, the Web site will have to activate a persona that would take that action.
Let’s say you are not someone who normally gives money to charities that provide aid to other countries, but that you are a person who enjoys playing trivia quizzes. A friend forwards you a link to a Web site where you play a trivia quiz, and every correct answer results in a bucket of clean water being donated to a country in need of clean water. You decide to try it to see how your trivia skills stack up. At the end of the session, you are told you just donated 50 buckets of clean water to another country. Now you are a person who donates aid. If you are then asked to pass the Web site on to another person, or to donate money for more aid, you are more likely to take either of these actions, since your persona has been expanded.
When Is a Survey More Than a Survey?
YOU GO TO an e-commerce Web site and buy a shirt. After the purchase, you are asked to fill out a survey. If you liked the site, you will respond positively to the survey questions. The owners of the Web site might really be trying to get your opinion so they can improve the site. But whether they realize it or not, they also just got you to commit to the site. Although you probably weren’t announcing your reaction to the site to the whole world, you did provide a response (more than just in your head). Any time we state positive feelings or opinions about a product or service to someone else, even if that someone else is a faceless person behind a Web site, we have committed. And that commitment increases the likelihood that we will engage with that Web site again.
Surveys can be used not only to gather data from customers, but also to elicit a public statement of support that will help clinch commitment.
THE MORE PUBLIC the commitment, the more it will stick—and the more it will affect current and future behavior. Completing an anonymous survey is better than no commitment at all, but it is still fairly hidden. To strengthen the level of commitment, Web site owners can heighten the public element of the action. A review posted at the Web site for others to read is a stronger public statement of commitment. If you have written a review of a product or a testimonial of the company, you have made a more public commitment. You are saying, “I am a person who believes in this product,” or, “I am a person who donates to this organization,” or “I am a person who buys from this company.” (This assumes that the review is positive, of course. Writing a negative review is just as strong of a commitment, but in the opposite direction.)
Reviews act on others as a form of social validation (see Chapter 2), but they also act on the self as a form of commitment. If we write a positive review, we will then want to stay consistent, and that means we will take more action to interact with the site, the company, and the organization. If you want to build commitment to your brand, your company, or a product, then make sure you give visitors the opportunity to write a review.
If we write a positive review, we will then want to stay consistent, and that means we will take more action to interact with the site, the company, and the organization.
Ask people to commit to an idea verbally or, even better, in writing.
If possible, do this in stages, so that you are asking for the commitment first and then, at a later date, asking for an action that is consistent with that commitment.
Getting people to write or sign something strengthens commitment.
If we go through a difficult experience, we will be even more committed to the product or affiliation.