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Ego Traps

Researchers found a new persuasion tactic called egotistic traps. People are more likely to comply if their behavior validates a positive trait.

Nick Kolenda

Sent on May 19, 2023

Researchers found a new persuasion tactic: egotistic traps.

College students asked ~1,000 people at a train station for help:

I'm a student, and I need to conduct a study to get credit for one of my courses. Could you please help me? I need this questionnaire filled out: it contains 142 questions.

Roughly 30% agreed.

But a new approach — one more sentence — increased compliance to 50 percent.

Here's the sentence:

...I need this questionnaire filled out: it contains 142 questions. We need to elicit answers from intelligent persons, and you appear to be one of them.

This framing created an ego trap: Compliance validated their intelligence, while a refusal diminished it (Dolinski, Grzyb, & Kulesza, 2023).

In a follow-up study, customers were more likely to schedule car maintenance when they learned that "sensible" car owners made these appointments.

Want people to comply with your request? Try enforcing a desirable qualification.

Though you probably deduced that conclusion yourself, considering that only super smart people subscribe to this newsletter.

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