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Foot in the door)
Foot-in-the-door technique, also known as the Foot-in-the-door phenomenon, is a persuasion method. In it, the persuader does something small in order to catch the target's interest, before moving on to what he really wants. This may be a small, insignificant offer which the receiving party cannot logically refuse. After the receiving party has accepted the offer, the offeror proposes another, but more significant offer. Because the receiving party has already accepted the smaller offer from the offeror in the past, he will be more inclined to accept the second offer than from someone he had just met. A related trick is the Bait and switch.
The term refers to the stereotype of a pushy door to door salesman inserting his foot in someone's front door so they become unable to close it and terminate the conversation, without actually invading their home. But as this refers to a non-salesmans term the "Foot in the Door" can also refer to doing or saying something that would persuade the "Consumer" to open up to what you were selling.
Modern examples of metaphorical 'foot-in-the-door' practice include not only traditional sales techniques, but can also include the practice of charities
mass-mailing small free gifts (such as pens) to recipients in the hope of persuading them to open the letter and consider donating money, rather than simply throwing the letter in the wastebasket. Cults are also said to employ this technique, with the 'foot in the door' being a casual conversation on the subject of philosophy, or a group meeting, which does not immediately resemble the target's idea of a cult.
An episode of the BBC thriller series Hustle featured the foot-in-the-door technique as applied to con tricks: a conman offers a businessman a supposedly low-risk, high-return investment involving a relatively small amount of money. After receiving the mark's money, the conman waits for a few days before handing him a much larger amount of money back, claiming that the investment has paid off: the "return" is in fact the conman's own capital, temporarily sacrificed. He then later returns with the prospect of a similar investment, involving far more money. When he receives this money, he flees.
The film The Sting, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, also employs this technique. In order to get a high rolling underworld boss to bet half a million dollars, they allow him to win sixteen thousand dollars at first - gaining his trust.
Door-in-the-face technique
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The door in the face (DITF) technique is a persuasion method. The persuader approaches an individual with a request that is so demanding or outrageous that it would most likely be refused. Then, the persuader presents a smaller and more reasonable request which was the intended request. The individual accepts the second request because it seems smaller than the first. If the persuader had simply made the smaller request first he would have been turned down, but because the larger one was presented first the individual views the second option as a gain over the first offer. Another explanation is that the individual reciprocates with a compliance to the concession.
There is also a feeling of guilt associated with the DITF technique of sequential requests (Cialdini, 2000). A person is also more likely to agree with the second request because they feel guilty for having rejected the first request. A reference point (or framing) construal can also explain this phenomenon, as the initial bad offer sets a reference point from which the second offer looks like an improvement.
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Examples
Imagine a product that is obscure or new to the market and the price it will reach once it becomes widespread is generally unknown. A salesman could first ask an outrageous price for the product, then after the customer refuses, he can ask another price, which is lower than the first one but still somewhat higher than the intended price. However, because the prospective buyer was just presented with a less desirable alternative, he is more likely to pay the price.
As a version of the above example, shops are sometimes accused of raising prices before announcing a discount, so that the discounted price is the same or even higher than the original price. People are more inclined to pay it because the non-discounted price is higher still and thus creates the illusion of making a saving.
In a Simpsons episode where Lisa wants to go to the museum she first asks Homer if she can take a limo but then resorts to the bus (her original idea) which she explains would be much cheaper.
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发表于 2007-5-14 21:54:00
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