University of Twente PhD student investigates street sellers’ success

“Make sure your mental batteries are charged when you make a decision”

12 March 2010 

People often agree to requests from fundraisers and street sellers without properly thinking them through. Loes Janssen of the University of Twente investigated why people are so easily persuaded in this way. Her research shows that people find it difficult to refuse the requests because they are presented with a number of questions that require a mental effort. Their attention is weakened, and they become more easily influenced. Janssen obtained her doctorate from the Faculty of Behavioural Sciences on 12 March.

We all know them; the fundraisers or street sellers who approach you while you're out shopping. With the right choice of words they often manage to persuade you to make a donation, or for example become a member of a book club. After all, you buy a book or a DVD every month, so why not?

Loes Janssen of the University of Twente carried out research into why street sellers and fundraisers are so often successful. They employ a range of strategies: for example the 'foot-in-the-door' and the 'door-in-the-face'. When using the first strategy the recruiters ask a number of short questions, making it more difficult to say no to a following offer. With the second strategy they first make a very big request, which they know you will refuse. Then they make a smaller offer, and it seems like you can no longer refuse.

Janssen's research explains how an inability to refuse an offer is brought about by posing a series of questions or requests. Dealing with a question or request requires a mental effort, and afterwards people are temporarily less able to make another mental effort. Their mental batteries are emptier, making people more vulnerable to sales tricks. So her advice is: "Don't be taken in by fundraisers or street sellers! And if you do get drawn into a conversation with them, keep your wits about you and give yourself the thinking time you need to recharge your mental batteries."

Forewarned is forearmed
In her research Loes Janssen also looked at people who were warned in advance that they would be receiving a certain request. In this experiment, students were asked if they would be prepared to clean lecture theatres. Some of them were warned in advance that someone would be coming to persuade them, while another group did not receive this warning. Before the experiment all the students were given a puzzle to solve. It turned out that the group who had been warned did not try as hard when they had to make a mental effort at the beginning of the experiment by solving the puzzle. They 'saved' energy in order to be able to resist the coming attempt to influence them. This was effective too: the group who had been warned were only prepared to do around 20 minutes of cleaning, while the group who received no warning agreed to do almost 80 minutes.

 

Note to editors
Loes Janssen obtained her doctorate from the Faculty of Behavioural Sciences on 12 March. She carried out her research in the Marketing, Communication and Consumer Psychology department and the Institute for Behavioral Research. Her tutors were Prof. Ad Pruyn of the University of Twente and Dr Bob Fennis of Utrecht University. Her doctoral thesis 'Self-Regulation and Social Influence: A Limited-Resource Account of Resisting and Yielding to Persuasion' is available in digital form on request. Loes Janssen is currently working as an assistant professor at the Department of Social Psychology of Tilburg University.
Contact person for the press: Rianne Wanders (053-4892721) or Joost Bruysters (053 489 2773).