Hey what’s up Thinkers! Kathy Gibbens here…
Today’s episode is sponsored by my e-book! That’s right, I’ve compiled an e-book of fallacies. One of the questions I get most often is whether I have a printable resource that people can access to help them learn or review the fallacies covered in the podcast. I’m happy to tell you that now I do! When you purchase the Logical Fallacies e-book, you’ll get immediate access to print it off and begin using it right away, and you’ll also get all future updates for FREE. I’ll eventually be including all the fallacies that I cover on the podcast, and I’m not done yet. So, when you buy the e-book, you’ll get all the updates as I continue to add fallacies as I continue working through them here on Season 1. I’ve already heard from several families who are printing off the book to use in their homeschool to reference & review the fallacies they learned in the podcast. And I’ll tell you this - I even use the e-book to help ME remember & review! There’s a lot of fallacies, and when I come across memes & headlines & bad arguments online, I don’t always remember all the names of the fallacies. Well, I’m easily able to flip through the book and find the fallacy, the definition, a quick example and the question to ask. It helps even me! I don’t even have a special page for it on my website yet, I’m working on it, but I’ll put a link in the show notes where you can go and buy the e-book and have access right away.
So, we just wrapped up a specific miniseries and I thought I jump into a few more techniques that aren’t exactly fallacies, but they’re so close that they definitely fit in the scope of what I like to teach here on the podcast. They would fall under the banner of propaganda, which I’ve definitely covered before, so let’s dive into a few more propaganda techniques.
Today we’re talking about the Door in the Face Technique. Door in the Face happens when someone tries to get you to comply with a request by first making an almost too-big request that you’re most likely going to turn down, then they follow it up with a smaller request, the thing they really wanted to ask you to do in the first place, because they know you’re not likely to turn them down twice in a row. The name actually comes from door-to-door sales people where they would literally go up to someone’s house, try to sell them something outrageous that they knew would likely get the door slammed in their face, then they’d offer something much more reasonable, which was the thing they’re really trying to sell in the first place. Sneaky, huh?
Here’s a simple example: Let’s say your goal is to get ice cream after dinner, but you’re not sure your Mom will say yes. So, you go to her and ask if you can eat an ice cream sunday instead of dinner. Of course she says no to that request! So then you follow it up by asking, ‘well then, can I just have a bowl of ice cream after I eat my dinner?” The chance of her saying yes to that smaller request is much higher, especially after she said no to the ice cream sundae.
Door In The Face is often taught to salespeople as a sales technique to make more sales. I kid you not…this is TAUGHT for the express purpose of manipulating people to buy something they may not otherwise decide to buy! Of course, they don’t call it manipulation, they call it “sales techniques” but potato, potahto, right? An example of this at a car lot would look like the sales person purposely showing you a beautiful vehicle that they know is out of your price range. Of course, you have to say no to it, so then they show you the original car that they wanted to sell you…a car that you can afford b/c they know you’re going to feel some relief that you can actually buy this car and you’ll feel more inclined to purchase it.
The Door In the Face technique is what’s called a sequential request strategy. It’s where questions are asked in a very specific order to get you to do a very specific thing. It’s used purposefully by people who understand the psychology behind it. What is the psychology behind it? Why does it work on people? There’s a few reasons this technique works: It could trigger the feeling of reciprocity in people, which we covered back in episode 54, where the feeling of wanting to do something nice for someone else is purposefully evoked. It could be guilt…some people feel guilty saying no to multiple requests in a row, especially when the requests keep getting easier. It could be that the person wants to maintain a positive social image of themselves - they don’t want people to think they’re a terrible person for saying no to something small that they could easily say yes to. Whatever the reason, this technique works and there’s no shortage of people who are very happy to take advantage of it. What kind of makes me sick to my stomach about this technique is the manipulation behind it. In fact, this type of technique is often called a Compliance Strategy. It’s used to try to get you to comply with whatever it is the other person is wanting you to do. Gross. I have a pretty strong visceral dislike for that sort of manipulative propaganda.
The problem behind this technique, if you’re on the receiving end of it, is that you have to stop and ask yourself if you really want to buy or do the thing they ask AFTER the big, unreasonable ask. Just b/c you feel relief or guilt doesn’t actually mean that you should say yes, buy the thing or do what they’re asking you to do.
Have you ever had to barter or haggle with someone to make a purchase? If so, you’ve very likely encountered this technique. Often, when you’re bartering to buy something, the seller will start off at a very high price, to which you’ll say ‘no way’ or start to walk away. They’ll come back and say, “Ok, Ok, for YOU, I’ll give you 30% off, but just b/c I like you.” And maybe you think that’s a good deal and you pay them the money. But who really won here? What you don’t know is that the seller was willing to go all the way down to 50% off if you’d kept on haggling with them. But b/c they started at such a high price, the 30% off deal sounded so much better that you took it.
Question to ask yourself when you’re faced with the Door In the Face Technique is this: “Do I really want to do or buy that or do I feel guilted into it?” *repeat* Ok, that’ it for today.
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: “Is that really true?”
