Pretty Please!

I often don’t like having to ask people to do things for me because I don’t like bothering them. I’m also not a very persuasive person, and I don’t have Puss-in-Boots’ hard-to-say-no-to eyes. So I want and need to learn to improve my persuading skills. Good thing I found an article that could help to do just that!

A study in France by Nicolas Guéguen (2002) found that touching increases compliance to a request. Previous studies had found evidence for this, and the present study wanted to find out whether awareness of the touch had an effect on compliance. Participants of the study were female passersby 18 to 50 years old. The experimenter held a bracelet in front of the women while asking them if they would answer a survey for a marketing class about the piece of jewelry. Those who consented answered the survey, and when they were finished, the experimenter asked another question: “When I came up to ask you to answer the questionnaire, I touched your forearm. Did you notice it?” Those who refused to answer the initial survey were also asked this question. Their answers were noted. 155 of the 227 participants were touched on the forearm. The results were consistent with previous studies showing that touching has a significant positive effect on compliance to a request. It was also found that awareness of the touch had no effect on compliance. Moreover, the research noted that previous studies found that touch can influence people to have a more positive evaluation of the toucher, and positive evaluation of the person making the request increases helping behavior.

Knowing this is very useful information. I now know that a simple touch in making requests could make people more likely to comply. However, I recognize that it is important to consider other factors involved in making requests such as the task difficulty, the gender of the person, the closeness of my relationship with the person, and the mood of the person. Further studies are needed to take these factors into account. Moreover, the context is also important. In our culture, touching may or may not have a positive effect. It would be interesting to study more about this.

Reference:

Gueguen, N. (2002). Touch, awareness of touch, and compliance with a request. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 95(2), 355. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.