Consistency Take That One Step

7/27/2019 Consistency Take That One Step

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Nick Michelioudakis (B. Econ., Dip. RSA, MSc [TEFL]) is an Academic Consultant with LEH (the representatives of

the Pearson PTE G Exams in Greece). In his years of active involvement in the field of ELT he has worked as a teacher,

examiner and trainer for both teachers and Oral Examiners. His love of comedy led him to start the ‘Comedy for ELT’ project

on YouTube. He has written numerous articles on Methodology, while others from the ‘Psychology and ELT’ series have

appeared in many countries. He likes to think of himself as a ‘front - line teacher’ and is interested in one -to-one teaching and

student motivation as well as Social and Evolutionary Psychology. When he is not struggling with students, he likes to spend

his time in a swimming pool or playing chess. For articles or handouts of his, you can visit his site at www.michelioudakis.org .

Psychology and ELT: Consistency

‘The Chinese know – just take that one step’

True magic!: Forget David Copperfield (the conjuror not the book!) Magic tricks may be impressive,

but once you realise how it is all done, the magic wears off. But what about ‘magic’ like that in the

following study: Gueguen & Jacob (2001) sent an e-mail to about 1,000 people asking them on behalf of a charity to visit a particular site. When they did, half of them were asked to click on a link if they wanted

to make a financial donation to a charity – about 3% of them did so. With the other half however, an

intermediary stage was added; they were asked to sign a petition against landmines. Having done that,

they were then asked to click on the link for the donation – this time the figure rose to 14%!! Even

Gandalf could not have done better! And this was just an example of ‘instant persuasion’; if you have the

luxury of an ‘incubation’ period, the results can be even more spectacular! Read on…

To see what one can achieve by following the ‘graduated commitment’ principle, go to

YouTube and type ‘Psychology and ELT – Consistency’ or just click here. *

How to get people to ruin their lawn: Here is how it all works: If you want somebody to grant you a

large request, do not ask him/her immediately; first start with a smaller one and then move on to what

you really want.

In another amazing experiment, some people were asked to allow a huge, ugly sign which said ‘Drive

Carefully’ to be placed on their lawn. Worthy as the cause was (predictably) only 17% of the people

asked agreed. Some other people however

were first approached and asked to sign a

petition in favour of the introduction of new

laws aimed at preventing traffic accidents.

Many weeks later, they too were asked for

permission to have the sign erected on their

lawn. This time, 76% complied! (Freedman &

Fraser 1966)

Why is this technique so effective? Well, it is

easy to see why people are quite prepared to

do such a small thing as sign a petition. What they do not know however, is that by doing so they ‘bind’

themselves somehow. Subconsciously, they start feeling ‘committed’ in some way – in this case to the

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujc08H5g9lM&feature=youtu.be







P s y c h o l o g y a n d E L T : C o n s i s t e n c y - P a g e | 2

NICK

cause of reducing accidents. They give themselves a new identity! So, when the larger request comes, they

find it harder to resist.

Now here is a funny detail; in a variation of the study mentioned above, the sticker bore the message

‘Keep California Beautiful’. When home-owners were later approached with the large ‘Drive Carefully’

request, more than 50% agreed!! (ibid) Why? Well, it seems that apart from the ‘I care about theenvironment’ label that the home owner awards him/herself, they also add another one – ‘Concerned

Citizen’!

So here is the moral: The Chinese say ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’. This is

true. But here we have another, even bigger truth: ‘Take a single step and it may lead you to a journey of a

thousand miles!!’ (Or could it be that the Chinese meant that all along??!?)

Applications in the field of ELT: The principle of Consistency is perhaps the easiest one to apply in

ELT. The idea is simplicity itself: people want their actions to be consistent. Therefore if you want to

change them, get them to take a small step in the desirable direction. Taking the next, bigger step will then

be much easier.

Homework: Start small. Give your

students little things to do at first, such as

learning a few words. The next step could

be to get them to tell you what they think

would be good for them to study; in this

way you ensure that they do it ‘of their

own free will’. Here is another detail: get

them to write it down themselves (ratherthan you sending it to them by e-mail for

instance). And it is better if they formulate

it themselves – rather than copying it (Goldstein, Martin & Cialdini 2007). Later on, you can move on to

‘bigger’ things safe in the knowledge that they are already on the right track.

Learner autonomy: Similarly, to help students become more independent it again makes sense to ‘start

small’; we can ask them to write down 3 little things they would like to do in order to improve their

language skills – and say by when they hope to have completed them (for ideas on goal setting, see Ellis

& Sinclair 1989). These can be as simple as listening to the BBC World News Bulletin (5 min) or listening

to one of their favourite songs and singing along to it. It is vital that they choose their favourite

techniques and that the establish routines (cf Baumeister & Tierney 2012). Once they do such things as a

matter of course, we can perhaps get them to engage in some more committal project work (e.g. preparing

a short presentation about their holidays by using ‘Prezi’).

Classroom management: Here is something else I have discovered: if you can get students to help you

with little things that have to do with the lesson, they are more likely to become more conscientious

themselves! Such things as tidying up after the lesson, or helping you with handouts etc. can lead to

students starting to see themselves in a different light (‘I am a serious, conscientious student, otherwise I

would not be helping the teacher!’) Then they are less likely to turn up late or to play you up in class!

Remember how the ‘Keep California Beautiful’ led to agreement about the ‘Drive Carefully’ sign?

Although these things may appear unrelated, there is clearly a spill-over effect!




NICK

A tip for ‘jumbo - sized’ requests: What if you want your students to do something which requires a lot

of time and effort? You may then need to prepare it! Meireni & Gueguen (2008) did just such a thing.

They chose some people from among the residents of a small town and divided them into two groups.

They then called the members of one group and asked them to answer some questions for a survey about

energy conservation. Some days later, the member of both groups received a letter from the mayor of the

town asking them to participate in an energy conservation scheme. Only 20% of the people who had not

been contacted originally agreed to participate – but among the people who had answered the questions,

more than half did!

Helping TESOL: Not all EL teachers are TESOL members and not all association members are equally

active. To use Kellerman’s categories, most colleagues would be classed as ‘bystanders’ or ‘ordinary

participants’ with regard to TESOL (as opposed to

‘activists’ or ‘diehards’ (Kellerman 2008). It is the

role of the leader to help members move up in this

continuum. But how? Here is an interesting study:

Pliner et al (1974) sent volunteers to various housesasking people to make a contribution for the

Canadian Cancer Society. About 46% did so. But in

another condition, the volunteers asked people to

wear a little lapel pin to help advertise the society –

almost everyone agreed. Two weeks later, the same

people were asked to make a contribution; this time

about 90% did! So why not copy this idea? Why not get TESOL members to hand out pins to colleagues

at various exhibitions? They could also ask them for contact details and later ask them to join!

NB: For the principle to operate effectively, you need to bear in mind the following details: a) people

have to agree to the initial request freely (it is even better if they suggest it themselves!); b) public

commitments work a lot better than ones made to oneself or to only one other person c) it helps if you

allow some time for the idea, the new ‘identity’ to incubate – for people to start seeing themselves in a

new light.

Away from ELT – guys take heed!: Here is a personal confession: when I grow up I want to be like

the great French Psychologist Gueguen (his name is Nicolas by the way…a coincidence? ) The reason

is that he had a knack for researching interesting things! Here is an example of the principle of

consistency used in a different field: Gueguen et al (2008) had an attractive guy called Antoine approach

300 different women and ask them out for a drink. In some cases he just asked them point blank; in some

others however, he first asked for directions or for a light. The results speak for themselves: whereas only

20% of the women agreed in the former situation, the number rose to 60% in the latter!! If only I had

known that when I was younger… (Of course, some might point out that Antoine actually happened to

be handsome but it is the difference I am talking about; I could have raised my success rate to 0.6%!! )

* Freedman and Fraser called this method ‘ The foot-in-the-door technique’ but I believe this title is somewhatmisleading in that it places the emphasis on the one who makes the request. However, change ultimately comesfrom within; it was the need for internal consistency that led the people to comply. [Video clip taken from theexcellent series ‘Psychology of Belief ’ ( ‘ AnticitizenX ’ – YouTube)




NICK

References

1. ‘ AntiCitizenX ’ – “Psychology of Belief – Part 5: Compliance Techniques” YouTube 2010

2. Baumeister, R. & Tierney, J. “Willpower” Allen Lane 2012

3. Ellis, G.& Sinclair, B. “Learning to Learn English” Cambridge 1989 4. Freedman J. L. & Fraser S. C. (1966) ‘Compliance without pressure: the foot -in-the-door

technique’ Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 4, 195-203

5. Goldstein, N., Martin, S. & Cialdini, R. “Yes! 50 secrets from the science of persuasion” ProfileBooks 2007

6. Gueguen N. & Jacob C. (2001) ‘Fund-raising on the web: the effect of an electronic foot-in-the-door on donation’ CyberPsychology & Behaviour 4, 705-709

7. Gueguen N., Pascual A., Marchand M. & Lourel M. (2008) ‘Foot -in-the-Door Technique Using aCourtship Request: A Field Experiment’ Psychological Reports 103, 529-535

8. Kellerman, B. “Followership” Harvard Business Press 2008

9. Meineri S. & Gueguen N. (2008) ‘An Application of the foot-in-the-Door Strategy in theEnvironmental Field’ European Journal of Social Sciences 7, 71-74

10. Pliner P., Hart H. Kohl J. & Saari D. (1974) ‘Compliance without pressure: Some Further Dataon the Foot-in-the-Door Technique’ Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 10, 17-22

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Consistency Take That One Step