Forced Compliance Technique

Definition

The forced compliance technique is an experimental procedure whereby people are induced to behave in a way that is inconsistent with their attitudes, beliefs, values, or other thoughts about an issue. The procedure was initially developed for studying how inconsistency between behavior and attitudes can motivate people to change their position on a topic. According to psychological theory, when people behave in a way that is inconsistent with other important cognitions, they experience a state of discomfort similar to hunger or thirst. To reduce the discomfort, they are motivated to restore consistency by changing some of the relevant cognitions. The intriguing aspect of the forced compliance paradigm is that because the inconsistent behavior is often impossible to take back, the path of least resistance for restoring consistency is to change preexisting attitudes or beliefs so that they are consistent with the behavior. Thus, being forced to comply with a request to commit a discrepant act can cause people to justify or rationalize the inconsistent behavior.

The Technique

The forced compliance technique basically requires that people do or say something that is against importantly held attitudes or beliefs. For example, in the original version of the forced compliance technique, participants first worked for an hour on a very boring task (e.g., turning spools on a board). They were then asked if they would help the experimenter by telling the next participant that the task was very interesting and enjoyable. To control the level of discomfort, participants were offered either $1 or $20 for telling the next participant that the boring task was fun. Thus, participants were induced or forced to comply with a request to mislead a stranger about the nature of the experimental task.

After delivering the misleading information to the waiting student (who was actually a confederate), participants completed a survey for the psychology department about their experience in the study. As predicted, participants who were paid only $1 for lying about the task rated the task as more enjoyable than did participants who were paid $20 for telling the same fabrication. That is, participants were feeling discomfort from the inconsistency between the thoughts “The task was boring” and “I told someone the task was enjoyable.” However, the discomfort for the participants in the $20 condition was reduced because they had an additional thought that was consistent with their behavior: They were paid a large sum of money to mislead the waiting person. In contrast, the discomfort for the participants in the $1 condition remained high because, though sufficient to force the participants to comply with the request, the small $1 payment was insufficient to provide a clear justification (i.e., a consonant cognition) for their dishonesty. Participants in the $1 condition had to find another way to reduce their discomfort, and since it was impossible to take back the lie, changing their behavior was not an option. Instead, participants altered their view of what they had done by changing their attitude toward the boring task. Thus, participants in the $1 condition reduced their discomfort by coming to believe that the task was actually not boring after all—it was enjoyable!

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