Weekly Social Experience Paper

The Foot in the Door Phenomenon

The "Foot in the Door" phenomenon is defined as the tendency for people who have first degreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request. This means that people ask someone to do a small favor to basically get their foot in the door for a later, larger request or favor. You ask someone to do a small favor for you knowing that you are going to ask him or her for a larger favor down the line.

An example of this phenomenon happens to me quite often at work. One of my bosses is always asking me to do favors for her. The favors started out small and continually grew into larger ones. At first the favors were just simple tasks around the facility then it grew into babysitting for her one night over the summer. With her being my boss I couldn't really say no. About a month ago she asked me to start picking up girls for her Girl Guard program. This program is essentially the same as Girl Scouts but a little more religious and run by The Salvation Army. I agreed because I don't really mind driving the van nor do I want to say no to my boss. She is very good at manipulating people into getting them to do favors for her and like the "Foot in the Door" phenomena says, little favors eventually turn into larger ones.

The "Foot in the Door" phenomenon basically says that people are manipulative to get their way. They ask people to do small favors for them while well aware that they are going to ask for a larger favor later. If you continually ask someone to do small favors for you and they never say no, it is almost a given that they will do just about anything you ask of them. I believe that at some point everyone is a victim and user of this phenomena and most times they use more than just a few times.