The Door-in-the-Face Technique in Practice at SING! Practice

The door-in-the-face technique is a compliance technique in which one presents a request larger than the actual request before presenting the real request (Cialdini et al., 1975). The first and much larger request is rejected, which then sets the stage for acceptance of the subsequent and smaller request, which is the actual request.

I decided to demonstrate this concept at SING! practice for my sorority. Most people are already stressed about SING!, so I thought it would be a fun idea to enlist the help of our SING! chair, and then watch the door-in-the-face technique come to life.

Here is the basic premise, which you will see in the video. After Tuesday night's practice, Hannah, our SING! chair, made two requests. The actual request she wanted to make was to have one practice on Thursday, so she prefaced it with a request to have two practices: one before dress rehearsal and one after. The first request (to have two rehearsals in addition to the dress rehearsal) was so large that it was greeted with disgust and suggestions for alternatives. The second request (to have just one rehearsal in addition to the dress rehearsal) was then met with more positive responses.

Here is the video. By the way, the real action ended about one minute in and then towards the end of the video, one of our sisters came in and announced that Obama won the election. That was something we were definitely excited about! (Oh and one more thing before you watch the video: shooting this was really fun because I got to hide behind a pillar...surprisingly, no one noticed!)

So there you have it: the door-in-the-face technique at play here on our very own campus. And because Hannah used the door-in-the-face technique, she was able to receive the compliance she wanted from our sorority as a result of perceptual contrast. The first request seemed so ridiculously large and time-consuming that when presented with the second request, which was smaller and more reasonable, our girls gladly agreed to comply. In addition, reciprocal concessions also gave way to the success of the door-in-the-face technique. Our girls felt the need to give in a little and to agree to the practice after dress rehearsal because they believed that Hannah had given in by getting rid of the second practice and making a second request that was much smaller. Little did they know, the second request was the real request all along!

Cialdini, R. B., Vincent, J. E., Lewis, S. K., Catalan, J., Wheeler, D., & Darby, B. L. (1975). Reciprocal concessions procedure for inducing compliance: The door-in-the-face technique. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 206-215.