Describe the foot-in-the-door, door-in-the-face, and low ball techniques of compliance, and apply each of them to a situation of wanting to get $20 from your parents.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The foot-in-the-door technique operates by getting someone to agree to an initial small request that then makes them more likely to agree to a later, larger request. The comparison here is that presenting the large request all by itself would produce much less compliance. The door-in-the-face technique involves someone refusing an initial large request, but this refusal makes it more likely that they’ll later agree to a (seemingly) smaller request. The comparison here is that presenting the smaller request by itself would produce much less compliance. The low ball technique happens when an initially favorable offer is agreed to, something happens to change the deal for the worse, but the recipient agrees to the new deal anyway. The comparison here is that if the lousy deal were initially presented, it would produce much less compliance. In the case of getting $20 from one’s parents, the foot-in-the-door technique could be used by first securing compliance with a request for $10, then working up. The door-in-the-face technique might involve initially asking for $100, then coming down to “only” $20. The low ball technique could be used by citing a need for $12 in gas money, then noting that the price of gas has gone up recently, and $20 would be a more realistic figure.