Influence by Robert B. Cialdini

Author:Robert B. Cialdini [Cialdini, Robert B.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

potency of the scarcity principle is

that, by following it, we are usually

and efficiently right.106

FIGURE 7-3

Don’t Wait!

Last chance to read this now

before you turn the page

( ROBERT B. CIALDINI)

In addition, there is a unique,

secondary source of power within

the scarcity principle: As

opportunities become less

available, we lose freedoms; and

we hate to lose the freedoms we

already have. This desire to

preserve our established

prerogatives is the centerpiece of

psychological reactance theory,

developed by psychologist Jack

Brehm to explain the human

response to diminishing personal

control. According to the theory,

whenever free choice is limited or

threatened, the need to retain our

freedoms makes us desire them (as

well as the goods and services

associated with them) significantly

more than previously. So when

increasing scarcity—or anything

else—interferes with our prior

access to some item, we will react

against the interference by wanting

and trying to possess the item more

than before. 107

As simple as the kernel of the

theory seems, its shoots and roots

curl extensively through much of the

social environment. From the

garden of young love to the jungle

of armed revolution to the fruits of

the marketplace, impressive

amounts of our behavior can be

explained by examining for the

tendrils of psychological reactance.

Before beginning such an

examination, though, it would be

helpful to know when people first

show the desire to fight against

restrictions of their freedoms.

Child psychologists have traced

the tendency back to the start of the

third year of life—a year

independently identified as a

problem by parents and widely

known to them as “the terrible

twos.” Most parents can attest to the

development of a decidedly more

contrary style in their children

around this period. Two-year-olds

seem masters of the art of resistance

to outside, especially parental,

pressure: Tell them one thing, they

do the opposite; give them one toy,

they want another; pick them up

against their will, they wriggle and

squirm to be put down; put them

down against their will, they claw

and struggle to be carried.

One Virginia-based study nicely

captured the terrible twos style

among boys who averaged twenty-

four months in age. The boys

accompanied their mothers into a

room containing two equally

attractive toys. The toys were

always arranged so that one stood

next to a transparent Plexiglas

barrier and the other stood behind

the barrier. For some of the boys,

the Plexiglas sheet was only a foot

tall—forming no real barrier to the

toy behind, since the boys could

easily reach over the top. For the

other boys, however, the Plexiglas

was two feet tall, effectively

blocking the boys’ access to one toy

unless they went around the barrier.

The researchers wanted to see how

quickly the toddlers would make

contact with the toys under these

conditions. Their findings were

clear. When the barrier was too

small to restrict access to the toy

behind it, the boys showed no

special preference for either of the

toys; on the average, the toy next to

the barrier was touched just as

quickly as the one behind. But when

the barrier was big enough to be a

true obstacle, the boys went directly

to the obstructed toy, making contact

with it three times faster than with

the unobstructed toy. In all, the boys

in this study demonstrated the

classic terrible twos’ response to a

limitation of their freedom: outright

defiance. 108

Why should psychological

reactance emerge at the age of two?

Perhaps the answer has to do with a

crucial change that most children go

through around this time. It is then

that they first come to a full

recognition of themselves as

individuals.

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