What is the consistency principle and why do individuals follow this principle? Describe and provide an example of the foot-in-the-door and the low balling techniques to gain compliance

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The consistency principle is the idea that individuals like to appear that they make the same decisions over time and are reliable. As such, consistency is a socially desirable quality; others usually perceive people who behave consistently more favorably because their behavior is dependable (not a "flip-flopper" who can't be counted on). Furthermore, individuals use consistency as a shortcut to decision making. For example, I order the same dish at a restaurant because I know I will like it.
Two ways individuals might manipulate the consistency principle are by using foot-in-the-door or low balling techniques. The foot-in-the-door technique manipulates individuals who want to appear consistent by making a small request, followed by a larger request; this makes the individual feel that in order to be consistent, they need to honor the second request because they honored the first. For example, if Tony asks his neighbor to watch his dog for two days when he is going on a business trip and the neighbor agrees. Then a week later, Tony asks his neighbor to watch his dog for 10 days, the neighbor is likely to agree because he/she has already watched the dog and should say yes to be consistent.

Low balling is a manipulation technique where an individual makes a small request, obtains agreement, and then shares unfavorable terms of the request after the agreement has been made. For example, Roberta asked her co-worker to fill in at a client meeting for her. Then Roberta waits for her co-worker to agree before explaining the details of the meeting, including that it starts at 7am, involves designing a marketing presentation, and then entertaining the clients for the rest of the day. Since the co-worker agreed initially to take care of the meeting, to be consistent the co-worker is likely to honor the agreement even though the terms are not what he/she expected.