Commitments, Towels, and “Two for One” Influence - Inside Influence Report

Thursday, 23 August, 2012
by Steve Martin, August 2012

Excerpts:

Guests who made a specific commitment at check-in were more likely to reuse their towels than the guests who made a general commitment (66% v 61%). Perhaps more interesting was the finding that guests who did make specific commitments to reuse their towels were also more likely to adopt other environmentally protective behaviors that were consistent with that initial commitment. For example they were more likely to turn off the lights, turn down the air conditioner unit and switch off the TV when leaving their room.


This latter finding might be an especially important insight to those of us who have the challenge of influencing multiple related behavior changes in others, highlighting a potential two-step approach. Step one will be to ensure that the initial commitment you seek is a specific one. Step two will be to arrange for the environment where that commitment will be enacted to include cues that could trigger other related and desirable behaviors consistent with that initial specific commitment.

This is consistent with Cialdini’s research showing in order for commitments to stand the best chance of being lived up to they need to be owned by the person making them, as well as being action-orientated and public. Accordingly, when persuading others to live up to their commitments a detective of influence will make arrangements for those commitments to be volunteered as well as stated specifically before providing ways for their target to publicly signal them too.


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