A total of 154 randomly chosen faculty members at a large public university served as subjects in a study of compliance by professors to students' request for help. The door-in-the-face technique (large initial request, followed by a moderate request) elicited significantly more compliance than the foot-in-the-door technique (small initial request, followed by a moderate request) and the control technique (moderate request only). The foot-in-the-door technique was significantly less effective than the control technique. The results were viewed conceptually and pragmatically.
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