An examination of self-perception mediation of the foot-in-the-door effect.

In 1966, Freedman and Fraser demonstrated that an individual is more likely to comply with a large request for help if that person has previously agreed to an initial small request—a phenomenon they called the foot-in-the-door ef-fect. In the present survey, studies that have sought to replicate the foot-in-the-door effect are reviewed. The adequacy of a self-perception explanation for the foot-in-the-door effect is assessed by examining (a) the importance of the size of the initial request; (b) the effect of noncompliance with the initial re-quest; (c) the impact of salient external justifications for the initial act of compliance; (d) the impact of social labels on subsequent levels of compliance; and (e) attempts at actually measuring changes in self-perception. Alternative explanations of the foot-in-the-door effect are considered and rejected, and di-rections for future research are outlined. In 1966 Freedman and Fraser tested the notion that once an individual has complied with a small, sometimes trivial request, that person will be more likely to comply with a larger and more substantial demand made in the future—an effect they christened the foot-in-the-door phenomenon. During the last 12 years, social psychologists have con-tinued to be fascinated by those results. How is it that the simple act of assenting to a small request for help can dramatically increase, even double, the probability of a persons agreeing to give help in the future? Because the foot-in-the-door paradigm has become an important vehicle by which to study the link between self-concept and be-havior, it is important to take a step back and ask some basic questions about the progress of this research: (a) Is the foot-in-the-door Preparation of this article was supported in part