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The favourable dictator
Social beings that we are, we regularly rely on favours from others, but bluntly asking is rather awkward. Are there better ways? Yes, there are!
It is hard to imagine our life without the small favours we grant to, or receive from other people. They oil the wheels of social interaction, from holding the door open for someone rushing to seek shelter from a sudden downpour, to bringing back the groceries your poorly neighbour needs when you do your weekly shop. But asking someone for a favour can feel uncomfortable. If we didn’t care what they think about us, we might come up with some Machiavellian approach that uses every behavioural trick in the book and all but eliminates their option to decline, but usually we want to maintain the relationship and not damage it with an ill-formulated request — and yet still get them to say yes.
This challenge is the subject of a paper, “ Getting a Yes. An Experiment on the Power of Asking” by Lisa Bruttel, an economist at the university of Potsdam, and two colleagues. It describes a laboratory experiment in which they investigate which arguments (in a written message) are most persuasive, and what other aspects of the communication increase or decrease the chance of success. As a basis for their experiment, they chose an old favourite in…
