Great people who are successful are people who are able to influence people, this one secret that is untold, ever successful person know this. This one of the greatest power you can ever have you just imagine when you walk to people and ask for what you want you get it been it business, relationship,sponsorship and the good thing about it is can be learnt.
One of the reasons reciprocation can be used so effectively as a device
for gaining another’s compliance is its power. The rule possesses awe-
some strength, often producing a “yes” response to a request that, except
for an existing feeling of indebtedness, would have surely been refused.
Some evidence of how the rule’s force can overpower the influence of
other factors that normally determine whether a request will be com-
plied with can be seen in a second result of the Regan study. Besides
his interest in the impact of the reciprocity rule on compliance, Regan
was also interested in how liking for a person affects the tendency to
comply with that person’s request. To measure how liking toward Joe
affected the subjects’ decisions to buy his raffle tickets, Regan had them
fill out several rating scales indicating how much they liked Joe. He
then compared their liking responses with the number of tickets they
had purchased from Joe. There was a significant tendency for subjects
to buy more raffle tickets from Joe the more they liked him. But this
alone is hardly a startling finding. Most of us would have guessed that
people are more willing to do a favor for someone they like.
The interesting thing about the Regan experiment, however, is that
the relationship between liking and compliance was completely wiped
out in the condition under which subjects had been given a Coke by
Joe. For those who owed him a favor, it made no difference whether
they liked him or not; they felt a sense of obligation to repay him, and
they did. The subjects in that condition who indicated that they disliked
Joe bought just as many of his tickets as did those who indicated that
they liked him. The rule for reciprocity was so strong that it simply
overwhelmed the influence of a factor—liking for the requester—that
normally affects the decision to comply.
Think of the implications. People we might ordinarily dislike—unsa-
vory or unwelcome sales operators, disagreeable acquaintances, repres-
entatives of strange or unpopular organizations—can greatly increase
the chance that we will do what they wish merely by providing us with
a small favor prior to their requests. Let’s take an example that by now
many of us have encountered. The Hare Krishna Society is an Eastern
religious sect with centuries-old roots traceable to the Indian city of
Calcutta. But its spectacular modern-day story occurred in the 1970s,
when it experienced a remarkable growth not only in followers but also
in wealth and property. The economic growth was funded through a
variety of activities, the principal and still most visible of which is the
request for donations by Society members from passersby in public
places. During the early history of the group in this country, the solicit-
ation for contributions was attempted in a fashion memorable for anyone
who saw it. Groups of Krishna devotees—often with shaved heads,
and wearing ill-fitting robes, leg wrappings, beads, and bells—would
canvass a city street, chanting and bobbing in unison while begging for
funds.
Although highly effective as a technique for gaining attention, this
form of fund-raising did not work especially well. The average Amer-
ican considered the Krishnas weird, to say the least, and was reluctant
to provide money to support them. It quickly became clear to the Society
that it had a considerable public-relations problem. The people being
asked for contributions did not like the way the members looked,
dressed, or acted. Had the Society been an ordinary commercial organ-
ization, the solution would have been simple—change the things the
public does not like. But the Krishna are a religious organization; and
the way members look, dress, and act is partially tied to religious factors.
Because, in any denomination, religious factors are typically resistant
to change because of worldly considerations, the Krishna leadership
was faced with a real dilemma. On the one hand were beliefs, modes
of dress, and hairstyles that had religious significance. On the other
hand, threatening the organization’s financial welfare, were the less-
than- positive feelings of the American public toward these things.
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