Test your understanding of social influence processes by identifying each of these scenarios as an example of one of the following techniques of social influence: door-in-the-face, foot-in-the-door and low-balling.

(a) John was keen to buy a new car, and reached an agreement with the car salesperson on the price of one particular car. However, just before John signed the paperwork, the salesperson reminded him that floor mats were not included in the price of the car and would cost another $100.

(b) A researcher approached university students and asked if they would chaperone a group of

primary-school-aged children to the zoo for a day. Eighty-five percent of the students refused the

request. When the researcher approached a second group of students, the researcher first asked

if they would be willing to spend two hours a week for the next two years working as mentors

for primary-school-aged children. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of participants refused this

large request. Subsequently, the researcher asked this group of participants if they would be willing to chaperone a group of primary-school-aged children on a day trip to the zoo. Compared

to the first group of students, four times more participants indicated that they would be willing to comply with this request.

(c) Dr Coorey asked a mental health colleague if she would be willing to help her work on a research project that involved interviewing 100 nursing students about their attitudes to various mental health issues. Although the colleague was reluctant to help because the interviews would be a very time-consuming process, she agreed to interview 10 students. Six months later, after the research data had been collected and collated, this same colleague agreed to help analyse the

data.