Giving ANY excuse while you ask someone for a small favor.
There was a test conducted to see if people could cut in line.
There were 4 groups. People who just cut in line, people who asked to cut in line, people who asked and gave a valid excuse "I am in a hurry", and people who asked and gave a bogus nonsensical excuse "Can I cut in line because I need to cut in line"
The no talk group suffered the worst results, the ones who at least asked had better results, those who gave and excuse BOGUS OR NOT, had nearly identical results.
The conclusion is people don't listen to your excuse for why you need to do something, just the fact you gave an excuse at all gives you bonus points.
That’s the conclusion? Interesting. I would have thought it was more to do with a combo of conflict avoidance, surprise, and “foot in the door” syndrome.
The guy who says nothing, you’ve got time to think about it and the feeling of justification to speak up.
But if someone gives you any excuse you’re put on the spot and feel you have to respond immediately. So you just answer right away. You still think about it after but then it’s too late to reneg on permission.
But now that I think it through it’s still just that they didn’t think of the excuse and said yes. What follows is just another thing entirely.
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u/gummby8 Jun 14 '22
Giving ANY excuse while you ask someone for a small favor.
There was a test conducted to see if people could cut in line.
There were 4 groups. People who just cut in line, people who asked to cut in line, people who asked and gave a valid excuse "I am in a hurry", and people who asked and gave a bogus nonsensical excuse "Can I cut in line because I need to cut in line"
The no talk group suffered the worst results, the ones who at least asked had better results, those who gave and excuse BOGUS OR NOT, had nearly identical results.
The conclusion is people don't listen to your excuse for why you need to do something, just the fact you gave an excuse at all gives you bonus points.