EFFECTS ON THE PERSUADER OF EMPLOYING A COERCIVE INFLUENCE TECHNIQUE

We tested the notion that persuaders employing a coercive technique wo uld think less favorably of their complying target and enjoy the proce ss less, than would persuaders using a rational influence technique. I ntroductory psychology students were randomly assigned to the six cell s of a 3 (Influence Technique: Foot-in-the-Door, Door-in-the-Face, or Rational) x 2 (Told the Technique Would be Automatically Effective, or Depend on Skill) factorial design. Subjects used one of the three tec hniques in convincing a confederate to attend a campus meeting dealing with the undergraduate foreign-language requirement and were led to b elieve that the confederate complied with the influence attempt. Subje cts in the two coercive technique groups (foot-in-the-door and door-in -the-face) did not differ between each other on any dependent variable but were more negative in their evaluation of the target's ability to think and enjoyed the influence process less, compared to subjects em ploying the rational technique. The results are discussed in terms of the metaphoric effects of power.