Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion · chapter 3 · id influence-c3-08-the-foot-in-the-door-technique

“The foot-in-the-door technique works because agreeing to a small request changes a person's self-image -- they begin to see themselves as the kind of person who does that sort of thing.”

needs contextconfidence: medium⚠ extracted by pipeline, re-audit pending

Receipts

Freedman & Fraser (1966), Compliance Without Pressure, JPSP 4(2)DOI registry: valid

76% of homeowners who first agreed to display a small sign later agreed to have a large ugly billboard, compared to only 17% who received only the large request.

Gamian-Wilk & Dolinski (2020), The FITD 40 and 50 Years Later, Psychological Reportspaywalled — manual check queued

In 2003 the foot-in-the-door strategy was effective in Ukraine but ineffective in Poland. In 2013, the effect was insignificant in both countries.

This claim is a stable, citable object. If you can falsify a verdict, tell us — corrections are loud here.