Althouse: If you make a highly unusual request...

July 25, 2012

If you make a highly unusual request...

... it increases the likelihood that someone will do the next thing you ask for.

16 comments:

john said...: Like .....

"Please consider my fellow Texan and good friend Ms. Miers here for this court vacancy" means ... wink wink nod nod "hang in there Sam, I'm gonna get you right in."; 7/25/12, 6:44 PM
bagoh20 said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/25/12, 6:44 PM
bagoh20 said...: I have tried this, but I never get a chance to ask for the second thing.; 7/25/12, 6:45 PM
edutcher said...: Is this a sex question?; 7/25/12, 6:48 PM
jungatheart said...: Food for thought....; 7/25/12, 6:59 PM
ndspinelli said...: I can think of several sexual scenarios, but it wouldn't be pc.; 7/25/12, 7:14 PM
Palladian said...: Will someone shave off your eyebrows, strip naked, spread peanut butter all over your body, penetrate your anus with an eggplant, and then run down the middle of a busy downtown street singing the "Battle Hymn of the Republic"?; 7/25/12, 7:43 PM
Palladian said...: Will someone PayPal 2000 dollars to me?; 7/25/12, 7:43 PM
wyo sis said...: Palladian
Oddly, it's not working for me.; 7/25/12, 7:47 PM
bagoh20 said...: Palladian,

Does it have to be downtown Madison, cause I don't have both eggplant and gas money.; 7/25/12, 7:59 PM
ndspinelli said...: Eggplant provides ample gas.; 7/25/12, 8:02 PM
crosspatch said...: Stanford University recently had a webinar that also describes framing in decision making. For example. If you tell one group "the tallest redwood tree is 1500 feet tall" and tell another group that "the tallest redwood tree is 280 feet tall" then ask "what is the height of the average redwood tree", the answers will vary according to which group they are in. The group "anchored" with the higher number will give a higher average and the opposite for the other group.

The webinar is on YouTube here and is probably worth watching if that sort of thing interests you:

How Hidden Biases Sabotage Your Decisions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhSP8PBGKpo; 7/25/12, 8:59 PM
A. Shmendrik said...: Would you please blow me and then watch my shopping cart?; 7/25/12, 9:13 PM
Lance said...: Calvin figured this out years ago.; 7/25/12, 10:59 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: It works in reverse when making offers rather than requests.

Would you care for a refreshing beverage?

No thank you.

Would you care for an even more refreshing ice cold beverage enhanced with exotic and dangerous ingredients mixed specifically to break through your defenses and erode your resistance?

Okay, do you have rum?; 7/25/12, 11:12 PM
Indigo Red said...: Hmm, I'm a natural when it comes such request. Even as a little boy, my response was "No. What do you really want?"; 7/25/12, 11:21 PM