Did you ever wonder about this?
Do you recall any phone calls, in-person surveys/polls or petitions that were carried out by a “volunteer” in your neighbourhood to ask what’s your opinion on healthy eating or sign a petition to go completely organic?
I’ll feign a few of us answered that question with a statement that supports healthy eating and staying fit. Weeks later a local organic store sends you an email for a subscription to purchase assorted food packages promoting “healthy eating” or calls you to promote a trial based one-time organic basket purchase. If you belonged to the group that supported healthy eating in the survey, chances are, you’d end up as a customer of the organic store.
The initial survey you filled in or the petition you signed might sound like the most trivial act. But it influences a person to act! Ever wondered why?
Freedman and Fraser call this Foot-in-the-door (FITD) technique of persuasion. Social psychologists state, it all starts with a small favour or a small act and eventually a person complies with a large request! It’s called the Commitment and Consistency principle. First, you commit to healthy eating and then when a store asks you to buy organic stuff, you’d want to stay consistent with your words and act on buying it even though you loath kale and broccoli! It’s true and one cannot blame anyone here but themselves for making that purchase.
