Consistency: if I make a prior commitment, to be coherent I have to follow it through

About commitment and consistency...

What exactly are they?

The principle defined by Robert B. Cialdini is based on the human need to be internally consistent. When a person makes a prior commitment to perform an action, he/she will then do everything in his/her power to follow it through.

How does it work?

Jonathan Freedman and Scott Fraser, social psychologists, tested people to see the power of commitment in the way users make decisions. To do so, they contacted different people in a residential neighbourhood in Califormia to ask them to place a small sign in their gardens which said “Drive carefully”. The neighbours did not receive any money for this, because it was a public service. Most of the neighbours (83%) refused. But in one small, selected sub-sample, the figures were inverted and 76% of them said yes. What was the difference between these neighbours? They had been contacted a couple of weeks earlier by the researchers to sign a petition about safe driving. The tiny commitment they had acquired here made them feel that they ought to take on a bigger commitment by allowing the signs to be placed in their gardens.

And not only that, perceiving that one is committed to a cause can at times be even less specific. Continuing with the tests on communities, Freedman and Fraser also managed to get 50% of another sub-sample to give their approval to the placement of “Drive safely” signs. This was due to the fact that these people had previously signed a petition to “keep California beautiful”. What did one thing have to do with the other? Probably nothing at all. But the neighbours who signed this petition changed the perception they had of themselves and then considered themselves to have civic-minded principles and to be the kind of people to take part in community issues. And, to be coherent with this, they ought to allow the signs to be put up in their gardens.

How can we apply this?

The approach to most online purchasing processes is strongly linked to this principle. Users are asked to take small decisions which make them commit to the purchasing process as far as sending their bank details.

The process is as follows:

· Check the products you want to buy

· Tell us where you want us to send them to you

· The kind of shipping method that you prefer

· Give us your bank details

Walmart’s purchasing process shows the logical steps to follow to make a commitment throughout the entire process.

Another way of applying it is by using check boxes. At one time, the trend was to present them already checked to make it easier for the user, but it was then discovered that it was better to leave them unchecked, so that the user could take small decisions each time he checked one and would thus make a commitment to the process. This increased the chances of the users going through the entire process.

14/1/2008