KQ Article

Many of us are familiar with the plight of Dorothy and her friends the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Lion as they make their perilous journey along the Yellow Brick Road. Clearly, the Wizard of Oz had succeeded in persuading them that he was both benevolent and powerful. After all, along the way, the four travelers say that they were off to see him “because because because because because of the wonderful things  he does.” Whatcan their song tell us about how we can successfully persuade others to follow the paths we lay down for them?

Let’s think about waiting in line. Whether you’re at a bank, supermarket or amusement park, waiting in line is probably not your idea of fun. Considering the almost universal motivation to get through the line as quickly as possible, under what circumstances would you be willing to let another person cut in front of you? Is it possible that just a single word from a requester could drastically increase the likelihood that you’d say, “Yes, go ahead”?

Yes — and the single word is because. Behavioral scientist Ellen Langer and her colleagues decided to put the persuasive power of this word to the test. In one study, Langer arranged for a stranger to approach someone waiting in line to use a photocopier and simply ask, “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?” Faced with this direct request to cut ahead in the line, 60 percent of the people were willing to agree to allow the stranger to go ahead of them. However, when the stranger made the   request with a reason (“May I use the Xerox machine, because I’m in a rush?”), almost everyone (94 percent) complied. This kind of boost may not seem very surprising. After all, providing a solid reason for the request justifies asking to jump ahead.

Here’s where the study gets really interesting: Langer tested one more version of the request. This time, the stranger also used the word because but followed it with a completely meaningless reason. Specifically, the stranger said, “May I use the Xerox machine, because I have to make copies?” Because you have to make copies? Who doesn’t? You’re certainly not going to use it to sharpen your pencils, are you? Despite the hollowness of the “reason” the stranger provided, it generated nearly the same elevated levels of compliance as when the reason was wholly legitimate (93 percent).

The Xerox study demonstrates the unique motivational influence of the word because.

The word gets its persuasive power from the continually reinforced association over the course of our lives between because and the good rationales that typically follow it (e.g., “…because it would help me get that promotion,” “…because I’m running out of time,” “…because we have the best sports team money can buy”).

Of course, like most things, the power of because has its limits. In the Xerox study, compliance was equally high no matter how poor the rationale was that followed because. But in those cases, the request was small — the requester only asked to make five copies. To see what would happen with a larger favor, Langer introduced another set of experimental conditions. The requester told a group of participants that she needed to make twenty copies. Besides the longer wait time, anyone who has ever used a copy machine knows the likelihood that the machine will jam seems to rise exponentially with each added page. In other words, participants’ compliance with this larger request might have a substantially greater impact on them than compliance with a less involving request.

This time, when the stranger simply made her request without providing a reason or using the word because, only 24 percent complied. And for those who gave a bad reason (“…because I need to make copies”), there was no increase in compliance at all. However, when the larger  request was made with a goodreason (“…because I’m in a hurry”), the response rate doubled. Taken together, the results of this study suggest that when the stakes are low, people are more likely to take mental shortcuts. On the other hand, when the stakes are high, people really do take the strength of the requester’s reasoning into consideration when deciding how to respond to the request.

These findings serve as a reminder to always be sure to accompany your requests with a strong rationale, even when you think the reasons might be fairly clear. For example, when booking a meeting with a customer or when asking a coworker to cooperate on a new project, be sure to state the reasoning behind your request. That may sound obvious, but too often we mistakenly assume that other people understand the reasons behind our requests.