How Commitment And Consistency Is Used Against You

         Human brains are wired to follow certain sets of pattern. One of the ways we do this is by maintaining consistency with our behaviors with respect to certain decisions that we make. That is, we have a particular action for that particular event. Its like a mental shortcut that we use to simplify our life. One of the ways which we subconsciously do this is when we make a decision. Once we decide on something, we tend to find reasons as to why that decision is better than rest of the options, despite the negatives that we come across. The chances of blind faith in our beliefs increase with the publicity it gets. The more the number of people know of your decision (commitment), the more you are likely to stick to it (consistency). Despite how difficult manipulating people using their commitments may look like, we all fall prey to these manipulators pretty easily. 

        Take an example I had mentioned in the previous post regarding use of reciprocation, where a salesperson uses free samples to get you buy their new products. The usually make you fill a form taking down your feedback along with your details. You would also have noticed numerous entries of other people who have also given a feedback. And thus your feedback becomes a public commitment. And of course, consistency follows commitment, which in this case, is buying the product. Writing something good about the product, makes you think that you  actually like it. Commitment is writing feedback and Consistency is buying the product.

        Gamblers are more confidant after placing bets rather than before. Once money is placed, even if they get logical reasons on why the bet is faulty, they will still be confidant in their bets because it becomes difficult the accept that they will lose their money. Once they place their money they start looking for reasons why the bet is good. Betting will be the commitment and it becomes necessary to believe that their decision is right for consistency. This is also true for many of the big decisions made in life. Once a life changing choice is made, despite coming across multiple reasons on why it could be disastrous, we still look only towards the ones that support the decision.

        Chinese communist parties would force their war captives to write essays and make speeches that support the communist parties in return for small rewards. This is a method of brainwashing the captives, whose effects remain even when they are released as prisoners of war. The best ones are made to be read out through speakers in the prisons for everyone to listen to. Since the essays are made public, it becomes a commitment and everyone has heard it. They slowly start believing in whatever they have written in order to maintain consistency. Another factor that helped indoctrinating the pro communist ideologies was the rewards. 

        The rewards given to the prisoners were very small, like fruits, milk, etc. rather than something more helpful like blankets, sweaters, etc. This is so, so that it did not look like that the reward was the motivating factor, and they would actually start believing in what they had written. This is why in the long run, large rewards are ineffective as a motivating factor for kids. We tend to accept something as our responsibility when it has been willingly performed without large outside pressure.

        Many organizations use the Chinese indoctrination techniques to promote their work. I have seen many companies and banks conducting competitions in my college, like essay writing, drawing, extempore, etc. with the topics related to the work they do. The rewards were not something big like a job offer or cash prizes, but were certificates and a medals. Yet the participants were very competitive. They get an audience to advertise their schemes, and most of the brain washing gets done by the participants it self. Similar to the prisoners of war, the commitment is participation in competitions with small rewards, and consistency occurs when the participants feel that the things they have written down is what they really believe in.

        Another hugely effective technique used by salesmen is the one called lowballing. Some car salesmen would tell a price which is much lower than the prices advertised in other dealerships .They get the customers to "test ride" the car before making the purchase. The salesmen know that the customers usually do their research on what they are looking for and makes sure that the customer really falls in love with the particular car. Once the test drives and decision to buy the car are made, the customers are made to fill out the documents required for the purchase. Towards the end of the purchasing process ,the salesman makes a call  and tells the customers that the sale can't be made due to an error that the salesman made in the quoted price. But since the customer has put in the commitment with the particular car, they usually don't wont the "small" bump in the price. 

        As an apology, the salesman usually offers a decrease in the price hike if the customer had spare car parts that they may wish to exchange. This exchange usually looks like a really good deal as the customers are made to feel they are getting a steal at the expense of the salesman. But the salesman usually gets his commission on the sale of the car and thus is not actually affected of the "deal" that the customer gets.

        An experiment was conducted where a group of people were given tips on energy conservation. They were also promised that their names would be published in the newspaper if they did save energy after the session. It wasn't very astonishing to find that the people actually made savings in their energy bills. They were then informed that due to unfortunate circumstances, their names couldn't be published in the newspapers. The shocking part of the experiment was that instead of reverting back to their old habits, it was seen that the group actually saved more than the previous month. This happened because a commitment was made to save energy. Once they got to know that their names would not be published, they started convincing themselves that they were not doing it for publicity, but rather as a good cause. And as consistency they continued to save energy.

        You do have to realize that following a pattern is something that humans really need in order to survive. But this does not mean we should fall prey to manipulative tactics that makes us spend money on stuff we may not even need. First you need to realize that such tactics may be used on you so that next time you may not fall into such traps. If needed, call the trick out so that the manipulator knows that you are aware of their ways.

        Do check the book "Influence the psychology of persuasion" by Robert Cialdini since most of my references were from this.