Siddhi Chandak

Prof. Swerdlow
PSYCH 2
Reading Response 1

While reading the chapter titled Persuasion, I came across the door in the face

technique of persuasion- I was particularly fascinated by it. The door in the face technique

refers to a method of persuasion which extensively relies on the escalation sequence. In this

tactic, the persuader asks the customer for a request that they know will be rejected. They then

follow this request with a smaller request, which they know the customer will most likely agree

to due to the guilt the customer feels while rejecting the persuader’s larger request. However,

little does the customer know that the persuader’s small request was their main target all

along- the goal they initially set out to accomplish. The persuader simply uses the larger request

in this technique to inculcate a feeling of remorse in the customer. The rejection of the larger

request makes the customer more likely to accept the target request compared to the case if

the target request had been presented on its own. The name of the technique came about

because the larger request is similar to a door being slammed in the persuader’s face.

This reading has greatly increased my understanding of a common mechanism that is

adopted by people trying to raise money for charity. A lot of the times when I am walking to

school, I am stopped by people fundraising for charity. These people ask me if I am willing to

donate 50 dollars for a particular cause. I usually say no. This is because as a student, 50 dollars

, seems like a considerable amount of money. After I refuse, they ask me if I will be willing to

donate even a small amount like 5 dollars since every penny counts towards making a

difference. I am usually persuaded by this and tend to donate around 5 dollars every time I am

asked. By employing the door in the face technique, the persuader usually accomplishes its goal

of getting five dollars from every customer. This is because they know that when customers

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Siddhi Chandak
Prof. Swerdlow
PSYCH 2
reject donating 50 dollars for a good cause, they feel guilty, causing them to readily contribute

5 dollars. Hence, they are able to fundraise a considerable amount of money.

This reading has many other applications as well. After reading about this technique, I

decided to test its practicability by practicing it on my parents. I told them that my friend was

celebrating her birthday on a Saturday night and that I would love to attend it. Although, my

aim was to reach home at midnight, I asked my parents if I could come home around 3 am. As

expected, they refused this request but when I asked them if I could come home by midnight,

they readily agreed. Thus, we can see that by employing the door in the face technique, my

parents felt guilty rejecting the request of me coming back home at 3 am, thereby causing them

to readily agree to my request of coming home at midnight.

Through the course of this response, we understand the meaning of the door in the face

technique of persuasion and observe its practical implications by applying the technique to real-

world situations.