Glossary · Commitment and Consistency
Foot-in-the-Door Technique
Want to know how the Foot-in-the-Door Technique works? Whether you want to use it in your own requests, or spot it when someone uses it on you, you're in the right place.
You'll find the definition, the published study behind it, and ideas for how to use it ethically.
Also called foot in the door, the small-request technique.
The definition
What is the Foot-in-the-Door Technique?
It is built on commitment and consistency, one of the seven principles of influence Dr. Robert Cialdini identified in more than 40 years of research.
Agreeing to a small request makes people more likely to agree to a larger, related one later.
People take the Influence Assessment to learn which principles they lean on, and where they lose people.
Here is how it works:
The foot-in-the-door technique starts with a request so small it is easy to accept, then follows with the larger request that was the real goal. Having said yes once, people come to see themselves as the kind of person who supports that cause, and they act to stay consistent with that view of themselves.
The study behind it
The safe-driving sign
Freedman and Fraser, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1966
Jonathan Freedman and Scott Fraser asked homeowners to put a large, poorly lettered 'Drive Carefully' sign on their front lawns. Most refused. But homeowners who had been approached two weeks earlier with a trivial request, to display a small sign or sign a petition, were far more likely to accept the big sign. That held even when the first request was about an unrelated cause. It did not matter for its own sake; it changed how the homeowners saw themselves.
Where you'll see it
How to recognize the Foot-in-the-Door Technique.
Spotting it, in your own requests and in other people's, starts with knowing where it tends to show up.
You'll see it in: A free trial before a subscription, a short survey before a donation request, a small pilot before an enterprise contract.
How to use it
How to use the Foot-in-the-Door Technique ethically.
Here is how to use it ethically:
The small request should be something the person genuinely values, and the larger one should follow from it honestly. Escalating to something unrelated exploits the commitment rather than honouring it.
Learn it in depth. The Cialdini Method gives commitment and consistency a full module, online and at your own pace.
Discover more
Find out where you stand on commitment and consistency.
How strongly do you use commitment and consistency?
Take the free Influence Assessment to see which of the seven you lean on and where you lose people. Your result is free; the full report is $49.