Another group, consisting of Kate McAuliff, A&S '10, Rene Lento, A&S '10, and Brianna Cheney, A&S '10, contrasted the foot-in-the-door and legitimizing small favors methods with a direct request for donations. McAuliff and her partners solicited freshmen students in Fitzpatrick and Gonzaga Hall, dividing the residence hall into three groups of 25 rooms and found that the percentage of students that donated money after receiving a direct request was much lower than the percentages donating in the other techniques, probably because it is easiest to decline. However, the amount of money collected using a direct request ($62.09) was almost as high as that of the legitimizing small favors technique ($66.34). McAuliffe also found that although the foot-in-the-door method was the most successful in terms of student response (88 percent of those asked donated), this technique produced the lowest amount of money ($29.14). She also observed that indirect peer pressure was a form of persuasion, as multiple students in the room often agreed to donate after the one answering the door gave money. In total, McAuliff and her partners raised about $160 for the Food Bank.
Although both Hartman and McAuliff are majoring in psychology, this is the first time that they have applied any techniques learned in the classroom directly in their lives.
"This helped me become more aware of the things that we have studied," McAuliff said. She also noted that her study of psychology has given her a greater insight into many persuasion techniques not implemented by the group, such as the "that's not all" method used by many early-morning infomercials and the "door-in-the-face" technique used by students in the Boston College Phone Center, who ask alumni and parents of students for monetary donations to the University.
These techniques that Dr. McIntyre teaches and that students use are well accepted by psychologists, yet in the end, the time period in which the collection took place could have provided the greatest persuasion of all.
"I think that the Thanksgiving and Christmas season could have impacted the desire to give," McIntyre said. Despite the "giving season's" possible distortion of the data, he was very pleased with the monetary return and plans to administer the same final project option at the end of the spring semester.
Spring Break
