1

Sales techniques and cognitive dissonance

four-walls techniquequestion customer in such a way that gets

answers consistent with the idea that they need to own object

feeling of cognitive dissonance results if person chooses not to buy this thing that they “need”

2

Sales Techniques and Cognitive Dissonance

Foot-in-the-door technique ask for something small at first, then hit

customer with larger request later small request has paved the way to

compliance with the larger request cognitive dissonance results if person has

already granted a request for one thing, then refuses to give the larger item

3

The Reciprocity Norm and Compliance

We feel obliged to return favors, even those we did not want in the first place opposite of foot-in-the-door “pregiving”

4

Combining Sales Techniques

What happens if you combine reciprocity norm with foot-in-the-door?

Hypothesis - the 2 techniques will cancel each other out

Bell, et. al. (1994) study

Evidence supports hypothesis

0

5

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15

20

25

Per

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tag

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on

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Type of solicitation

Neither Pregiving Foot-in-the-door

Both

5

Emotions as Foundations for Social BehaviorEmotions as social signals

facial expressions universalserve as signals to influence behavior

the happy smilesee often when socially engagednot as often when not socially engaged

Emotional contagion spread of mood from one person to another group laughter & group playfulness

6

Self-Conscious EmotionsEmotions linked to thoughts about the self

or one’s own actions pride, guilt, shame, embarrassment

7

Social Pressure

Set of psychological forces exerted on an individual by other people or by the individual’s beliefs about other people

8

Lewin’s Field Theory

Field of forces that push or pull us in certain directions

Some internalwishes/desires

Some external social pressure

Person

The life space

Force 3

Force 4

Force 1

Force 2

Goal 1 Goal 2

9

Latane’s Social Impact Theory

identify factors that increase/decrease social pressure

predict the impact of social pressure at any given timenumber of sourcesstrength of a sourceimmediacy of a sourcenumber of targets

10

Facilitating/Interfering Effects of an Audience

Do we do better in groups or alone?Social facilitation

enhancing effect of an audience on task performance

occurs with well-learned tasks

Social interference (social inhibition) decline in performance when observers are

present occurs with new or difficult tasks

11

Zajonc’s Theory

Linked social interference and facilitation to arousal level

High arousal improves simple or well-learned tasks

High arousal worsens complex or poorly-learned task

Worsened performanceof nondominant responses(social Interference)

Improved performanceof dominant responses(social facilitation)

Increased drive orarousal

Presence of others

12

You have agreed to volunteer time over Christmas break for an organization you believe in and are asked to sign up on the following signup sheet:

Volunteering

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Anna 6hrs Wed 1-7pmChris 5hrs Thur 7-noonFabio 7hrs Mon 1-3, Tue 1-6pmVal 6hrs Fri 8am-2pmYou

Volunteer Sign-up

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Anna 1hr Wed 1-2pmChris 2hrs Thur 7-9amFabio 1hr Mon 1-2Val 2hrs Fri 8am-9amYou

Volunteer Sign-up

15

Following Others’ Examples – Conformity

Adopting attitudes or behaviors of others because of pressure to do so the pressure can be real or imagined

2 general reasons for conformity informational influence

other people can provide useful and crucial information

normative influence desire to be accepted as part of a group leads to that

group having an influence

16

Asch’s Experiments on Conformity (1951)

Previous research had shown people will conform to others’ judgments more

often when the evidence is ambiguous set out to prove that people will not conform

when evidence is clear-cut or unambiguous his question - will people still conform when group

is clearly wrong?

17

Asch’s Experiments on Conformity

All but 1 in group was confederate

Seating was rigged Asked to rate which line

matched a “standard” line

Confederates were instructed to pick the wrong line 12/18 times

Comparison Standard 1 2 3

18

Asch’s Experiments on Conformity Results

75% participants conformed to at least one wrong choice

conformed on 37% of the critical trials

Why did they conform to clearly wrong choices? informational influence? subjects reported having doubted their own perceptual

abilities which led to their conformance – didn’t report seeing the lines the way the confederates had

19

Asch’s Experiments on conformity

Variations to test informational influence hypothesis had subject come late confederates voted out loud, but subjects wrote their

vote down

Results conformity dropped significantly

Suggests that the original subjects conformed due to normative influences, not informational

20

Effects of a Nonconformist

If everyone agrees, you are less likely to disagree If one person disagrees, even if they give the

wrong answer, you are more likely to express your nonconforming view

Asch tested this hypothesis one confederate gave different answer from others conformity dropped significantly

21

Why Don’t People Always Help Others in Need?

Diffusion of responsibilityInformative/ normative influence

22

Why Don’t People Always Help Others in Need?Latane studies

several scenarios designed to measure the help responsefound that if you think you’re the only one

that can hear or help, you are more likely to do so

if there are others around, you will diffuse the responsibility to others

23

Deindividuation

Social loafing when behavior is not monitored, performance

goes down e.g., group projects

Deindividuation sense of reduced accountability and shifted

attention away from the self that occurs in groups

responsible for riots, lynchings, gang rapes, and other group violence

24

Summary

Emotions & Social behavior emotions are social signals & regulators of

behavior self-conscious emotions

Social Pressure Lewin’s Field Theory Latane’s Social Impact Theory

25

Summary

Impression Management how we present ourselves to others self-monitoring

Audience Effects facilitating vs. inhibiting

Conformity Asch’s experiments effects of nonconformists