Nicolas Guéguen

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at University of Southern Brittany

Research has shown that people like more those who have something in common with them and are more likely to comply with a request addressed by similar individuals. We hypothesized that such similarity could also influence people’s preferences. First, 8-9-year- old children were led to believe that they shared the same birthday with an instructor....

This study examined the effect of the pique technique preceded by a disrupting process. Passersby in the street were asked for money, either for a common amount of change (control) or 37 cents (pique technique). In half of the cases, the requester added a disrupting sentence at the beginning of the request. Results showed that the pique technique a...

Some studies have shown that incidental cues, present in the immediate environment of an individual, affect an individual's behaviour and judgment. However, the effect of such incidental cues on food judgment has never been examined. In this study, participants were asked to taste a clementine juice contained in a bottle and to rate it on several f...

Background This study took place at the height of the fifth wave of COVID-19 in France, coinciding with stigmatizing communication toward the unvaccinated. We hypothesized that adherence to this communication would facilitate or inhibit the effects of priming on vaccination intention, depending on whether the priming included a dimension of connect...

Introduction In France, despite fear-based communication by the authorities and the media, vaccination against COVID-19 has received little support from the population. For a young population often convinced that severe forms of the disease affect older people, we hypothesized that communication based on the idea of love would be more effective tha...

The purpose of these three experiments was to determine whether the visibility of previous donations to a humanitarian cause influences people’s donation to the same cause. In Study 1, conducted in bakeries, a donation box was placed near the cash register with a message soliciting donations for a humanitarian project. The moneybox was transparent...

It has been reported that familiarity or incidental similarities with a stranger influenced an individual’s behavior. However, the effect of the sense of geographical proximity believing that someone comes from the same area that somebody has never been examined. Three field experiments examined this effect on donations to humanitarian organization...

This study provides an empirical demonstration that people’s reaction to youth drinking are influenced by the alleged motive for drinking and that regulations can easily be violated as soon as the perceived motive for underage liquor drinking is a positive emotion. The study solicited 432 passersby (50% men) to buy hard liquor for a female confeder...

Social identity framing communication strategy (Seyranian, 2013) augments the persuasive power of speeches by employing language that highlights a common identity between the source and the message recipient. Research shows that inclusive language (we, us, together…) is especially effective in increasing the confidence about a change initiative and...

A great deal of research has been conducted in order to know what drive groups and individuals’ behaviours efficiently in a given direction.Thus, research questions (e.g. what techniques are useful to drive commitment) prolifically produced a large number of works and many useful techniques are now identified (e.g. Cialdini, 2007; Dolinski, 2016; P...

Several studies have shown that people photographed wearing eyeglasses were perceived more positively as to intelligence and honesty. However, the effect of wearing glasses on behavior and in real face-to-face relationships has never been examined. In two studies, interviewers wearing or not wearing eyeglasses were instructed to ask people in the s...

The evoking freedom technique is a verbal compliance technique that consists of soliciting someone to comply with a request by simply saying that the solicitee is free to accept or refuse the request. The effect of this technique on customer behavior has never been tested, however. When presenting the menu to a patron, a waitress was instructed to...

Research has shown that exposure to the national flag alters people's behavior and political and intergroup judgments. In several field studies conducted in an area of France with a strong regional identity, we examined the effect of the presence of the regional flag versus the national flag versus no flag on behaviors. Various situations (e.g., mo...

Much energy and money is dedicated to increasing climate change awareness and pro-environmental behaviors. Mere communication campaigns, which are often alarmist, are widely used despite their uncertain effectiveness. We suggest that using binding communication strategies would prove more adequate. Binding communication consists in combining a pers...

The purpose of this study is to propose an extended model of planned behaviour (TPB) to understand better the link between motorcyclists' type of vehicle and their intention to exceed the speed limit on a 90 km/h road. 257 riders of sport and touring vehicles answered a questionnaire put on line on the web site of a national organization. In line w...

The norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960) has only been considered and experimentally demonstrated between two individuals. However, comments from several authors invite the consideration of an expanded form of this norm. 120 passersby, randomly assigned to 3 conditions, were asked to watch a confederate’s belongings. Depending on the condition, the...

The number of websites containing persuasive serious games and advergames has increased over the past several years, but their immediate and delayed effects on behavior are still not well understood. The present field experiment (n D 388, varied socio-professional groups) demonstrates that interactivity linked to this type of website provokes posit...

Introduction The low-ball (Cialdini et al., 1978) is a compliance gaining technique consisting of making an attractive initial offer to get a person to agree to the request and then making the terms less favorable (target request). Objective and methods The effectiveness of this technique was evaluated in a meta-analysis using 17 references, 23 st...

Introduction: The low-ball (Cialdini et al., 1978) is a compliance gaining technique consisting of making an attractive initial offer to get a person to agree to the request and then making the terms less favorable (target request). Objective and methods: The effectiveness of this technique was evaluated in a meta-analysis using 17 references, 23 s...

Research has reported that reciprocity is an important social norm in relationships. In previous studies on reciprocity, participants' behavior was examined after receiving a favor from someone. In a series of field studies, we examined the effect of a statement that proved that a solicitor was someone who respected this principle. Confederates sol...

Introduction: The low-ball (Cialdini et al., 1978) is a compliance-gaining technique consisting of making an attractive initial offer to get a person to agree to the request and then making the terms less favorable (target request). Objective and methods: The effectiveness of this technique was evaluated in a meta-analysis using 17 references, 23 s...

According to Howard’s proposal of chaining compliance techniques and based on the proximity of interpretation of their effects, this study aimed to test a combination of two paradigms: a door-in-the-face request that makes a high-cost request before the target request and the but-you-are-free request that adds an evocation of freedom to the request...

Studies investigating compliance-gaining procedures have shown that the feeling that someone is free to comply or not with a request is a requirement to obtain compliance. In this study, participants were asked for money for a charitable organization. In the experimental condition, people first heard a sentence saying that they would probably refus...

Studies have shown that information about a food product (e.g., the method of cultivation, the country of origin, the name of the product) influences how the product is perceived. However, the effect of information regarding the ingredients composing the product has never been examined. An experimental study was conducted in a restaurant where we e...

It has been reported that information about the country of origin or the method of cultivating a food product influences individuals’ judgment. However, the effect of informing people that a product is produced locally has never been examined. A taste study was conducted in Brittany on the West Atlantic coast in France, a part of the country with a...

An experiment with 212 students (100 men, 112 women; M age = 18.3 years, SD = 0.9) was carried out to compare the effect of four techniques used by mediators on the number of agreements contracted by negotiators. Under experimental conditions, mediators were asked either to rephrase (reformulate) negotiators’ words or to imitate them or to show act...

In a field study for a French public organization, 3 strategies designed to enhance attendance at meetings were compared. Recipients of a minimum income allowance receive invitation letters to orientation meetings; these letters usually emphasize coercion and threaten to withdraw their allowance. This approach has limitations: the participation rat...

Early works on mimicry in social psychology analyse its effects through simple observation without addressing its underlying mechanisms or evaluating its social impact. More recently, researchers have experimented with mimicry, giving us a better understanding of its processes and effects. Much of the experimental research focuses on the effects of...

The "Foot-in-the-door" (FITD) is a well-known compliance technique that increases compliance with a request. Many investigations on this paradigm have generally used pro-social requests to test the effect of the technique. A new evaluation of the effect of the foot-in-the-door technique was carried out on tobacco deprivation. A two feet-in-the-door...

A bystander’s reaction to a theft following a foot-in-the door (FITD) technique was observed in a field setting. An experiment was conducted in the pavement area of a bar where a first male confederate was seated alone with his suitcase on the ground. In the FITD condition, the confederate asked a participant for the time, thanked him/her, and left...

Résumé L’application de techniques incitatives « comportementales » peut s’avérer parfois contraignante, notamment dans une organisation (Joule & Beauvois, 1998). Notre recherche s’appuie sur la technique du « Pied-dans-la-porte » (Freedman & Fraser, 1966) mise en œuvre par e-mail auprès de salariés d’une grande entreprise. Nous manipulons égalemen...

Introduction: Research has reported that smiles facilitate social relationships. However, the effect of a smile on driving behavior has received less interest. Method: This study attempts to evaluate how a pedestrian's smile influences an oncoming driver's behavior. In the first part of our study, male and female research assistants waiting at s...

A field experiment was conducted (N = 216) to test the sequential priming of love as a compliance-gaining technique. Employees of the Parisian metro were asked for an undue late note by a female confederate. A sequential design was used. First, the request for a late note was made together with an implicit priming of love, i.e., stating that the re...

Empirical observation led us to identify a particular and widespread form of solicitation involving requesting a service before making the target request. Relating this form of solicitation to compliance paradigms based on consistency, we hypothesized that the technique would increase the compliance rates of individuals. 167 passersby were approach...

Research has reported the positive effect of verbal encouragement/reinforcement on participants' performance. However, most of the time, verbal encouragement/reinforcement was given several times during the task, and the encouragement used was often a personal trait ("You're good, "you're clever", etc.). In the first study, 3-5 year-old children we...

The effect of justifying a request for money combined with the pique technique was examined in three studies. Passersby in the street were asked for money, either for some small change (control condition) or for exactly 42 cents (pique technique condition). Results reported that use of the pique technique increased compliance (Study 1), particularl...

Pictures and images are important aspects in fundraising advertising and could generate more donations. In two experimental studies, we examined the effect of various pictures of hearts on compliance with a request for organ donations. The solicitor wore a white tee shirt where various forms of hearts were printed: symbolic versus realistic (first...

Several studies have shown the psychological benefits of plants on people's health, emotions, and well-being. However, the effect of flowers on social relations, and particularly helping behavior, has never been tested. In three field studies, confederates held a bunch of flowers or a T-shirt, or they had nothing in their hands while walking in a s...

It has previously been reported that an interviewer's dress style influences compliance with a face-to-face survey request. However, dress style has been examined in global terms, with the interviewer wearing conventional clothes versus smart clothes. In this study, we tested the effect of the presence or absence of a single cue of dress style. A m...

Research has consistently shown that the appearance of women’s apparel influences men’s behavior and judgment. However, the effect of women’s shoe heels has received little interest. Female confederates wearing black shoes with 0-, 5-, or 9-cm heels walked on the street. In a first experiment, we examined the number of men in the street who smiled...

Nearly 25% of the pedestrians who died in Europe were hit by a car while at a pedestrian crossing. In this study, we tried to evaluate how a pedestrian’s stare influenced an oncoming driver’s stopping behavior at a pedestrian crossing. Male and female confederates waiting at several pedestrian crossings were asked to either stare at oncoming driver...

-The "evoking freedom" technique consists in soliciting someone to comply with a request by simply saying that she is free to accept or to refuse the request. However, previous studies used low cost requests. The present study examined the magnitude of this technique associated with a more disturbing and costly request. Sixty men and 60 women aged...

Beaucoup de travaux notamment en économie (Ayres et Sigelman, 1995 ; Badcock et Laschever, 2003) ont montré que les femmes étaient moins susceptibles que les hommes d’engager une négociation concernant leur salaire ou la valeur de leur performance au travail. La psychologie sociale, après avoir analysé la question du genre en négociation sous l’ang...

Identifying low-cost, effective methods to influence behavior is of keen interest to social marketers and others striving to bring about social change. Research on material primes (an object or a word present in the individual’s environment) has received little interest from scientists. This field study conducted in France examined whether the pres...

Cette revue de questions regroupant 60 articles, dresse un bilan de l’influence des plantes sur la santé du point de vue de la psychologie. Nous avons présenté les résultats de ces recherches en quatre grandes catégories, suivant un niveau d’exposition passant de l’immersion complète à la médiatisation des plantes. Les résultats montrent que la pré...

The “but you are free” (BYAF) technique is a verbal compliance procedure which solicits people to comply with a request by telling them that they are free to accept or to refuse the request. This technique is based on the semantic evocation of freedom. In two studies, we explored another operationalization of this paradigm: the word “liberty” or a...

This study proposes a simple methodology to improve the quality of life of residents in nursing homes. In the experimental condition, an intervention based on the feeling of control, the technique of touching and “you are free to…” was implemented. Assessment of the residents’ appropriation of their personal space and their morale was made one mont...

A recent study (Pascual, Guéguen, Pujos, & Felonneau, 2013) reported that the foot-in-the-door technique (FITD) remained effective in gaining compliance when the request was deviant in nature. However, that study used face-to-face verbal requests, which may have resulted in the participant feeling obliged to comply. In our study, a confederate was...

This study examined the pique technique associated with a reframing sentence. Passersby in the street were asked for money, either for a common amount of change (control) or 37 cents (pique technique). In half of the cases, the requester added a direct reframing sentence at the end of the request. Results showed that the pique technique increased c...

Earlier research reported that using pictures in a fundraising request increases donations by legitimizing the solicitation. The present study tested the effectiveness of a solicitation for money made in the street when an object that legitimated the request was present or not. Male confederates asked passersby for money to buy a stamp while holdin...

Introduction The lure technique, first studied by Joule, Gouilloux and Weber (1989), involves three stages: (1) an individual is led to make a rewarding decision to realize a given behavior; (2) he is informed of the impossibility of realizing this behavior; (3) we propose making a new less rewarding decision based on another behavior (target-reque...

For more than fifty years, research in psychology has demonstrated that our evaluation of others may be influenced by their surname or first name. In this study, we evaluated the impact of the attractiveness and frequency of names in situations of recruitment for low qualification level jobs. Using data from a recruitment agency, we tested (binomia...

We examined the pique technique with a new form of solicitation. Passersby in the street were asked to participate in a short survey. Participants were asked if they had a little time to spare to answer a survey (control) or asked if they had 37 seconds to participate (pique). Results showed that the pique increased compliance. Participants who acc...

This experiment examines whether individuals return favors when they receive an initial favor in an interviewer-administrated street survey solicitation setting. In the favor condition, a confederate offers a piece of candy to the participants walking in the street and then asks them to participate in a survey. In the no-favor condition, participan...

-A field experiment was conducted to explore whether certain urban places have an influence on helpfulness. Places semantically associated with the idea of love may act as primes and trigger increased helpfulness. Passersby (96 men, 96 women) happened upon a female confederate with a "leg injury" who inadvertently dropped personal items. The experi...

Studies have shown that restaurant waitresses with hair ornamentation receive higher tips than waitresses without ornaments. However, the effect of such ornamentation on other behaviors has never been explored. In this study, the effect of a female interviewer’s hair ornamentation on compliance with a survey request was examined. Male and female pa...

Research has shown that eliciting commitment is a valuable way of inciting people to act, even in emergencies and dangerous situations. The purpose of the two studies presented here was to explore the relation between the form of commitment used to prevent a crime and the moderating effect exerted by the number of passive observers of this crime. A...

The application of incitative "behavioural" procedures may cost time and energy, particularly in an organizational context (Joule & Beauvois, 1998). Our research uses the "Foot-in-The-door" technique (Freedman & Fraser, 1966) applying by email with employees of a large company. We complete this technique by testing out a variable, not much yet test...

-Many techniques designed to gain compliance to a request are presented in the social psychological literature. However, the lure technique has received little attention from scientists. This technique, also called bait-and-switch, is used to influence people's choices and involves three stages: (1) individuals are led to make a rewarding decision...

Research has found that the appearance of women's apparel helps increase their attractiveness as rated by men and that men care more about physical features in potential opposite-sex mates. However, the effect of sartorial appearance has received little interest from scientists. In a series of studies, the length of women's shoe heels was examined....

The effect of employees’ physical appearance on tipping is well documented. The effect of clothing appearance, however, has not been examined. A pizza delivery man wearing a two-piece suit or casual clothes served as confederate. The tip size of 55 customers was measured. It was found that the well-dressed employee received higher tips. These resul...

Nelson and Morrison (2005, study 3) reported that men who feel hungry preferred heavier women. The present study replicates these results by using real photographs of women and examines the mediation effect of hunger scores. Men were solicited while entering or leaving a restaurant and asked to report their hunger on a 10-point scale. Afterwards, t...

The foot-in-the door technique is a compliance without pressure paradigm. Self-perception theory and commitment theory are generally proposed to interpret this paradigm. Considering that these theories are consecutive to social and cognitive learning, the aim of the present study is to test the foot-in-the-door technique with children to determine...

We tested the Door-in-the-Face technique (DITF) on blood donation with a delay between the acceptance of the request and the real possibility of complying with it. University students were solicited to give blood during a special one-day drive. After the refusal to participate in a long-term donor program, participants were asked for a one unit blo...

-Prior research on the effect of commitment on bystander intervention has focused on situations involving crime (e.g., robbery). However, the effect of commitment on less problematic situations has never been examined. In this field study, a female confederate asked (commitment condition) or did not ask (no-commitment condition) a customer to keep...

The positive effect of tactile contact on compliance has been widely reported in the literature. However, the effect of touch on willingness to disclose confidential information has never been studied. Two days after European Parliamentary elections, people who were walking by in the street were asked by an interviewer who was unknown to them, to r...

Low-balling is a technique designed to gain compliance by making a very attractive initial offer to induce a person to accept the offer and then making the terms less favorable. Studies have shown that this approach is more successful than when the less favorable request is made directly. However, the effect of this technique on more problematic an...

Research has shown that compliments addressed to customers by an employee have a positive influence on the customers’ tipping behavior. In this study, we examined whether compliments also enhanced patrons’ compliance with a food server's suggestion. First, a restaurant waitress took the customers’ order for the main course. Then, in the ingratiatio...

Binding communication applied at recycling : Foot-in-the-door and two-feet-in-the-door techniques The success of the policy of recycling of waste is based on the adoption by most people adapted domestic practices. The challenge for institutions is that many involved in the sorting device in place. By combining persuasion and commitment, binding com...

Research has consistently found exposure to a natural environment to be associated with health and psychological well-being. However, the effect of such an environment on social behavior and relationships remains in question. In a field experiment, male and female confederates accidentally dropped a glove on the ground while walking in a natural en...

Managing and developing positive customer relationships is a critical factor in the success of a restaurant. In this study, waitresses either asked customers about their satisfaction with the food or service before proposing tea or coffee, or they directly proposed coffee or tea without asking about satisfaction. It was found that the number of cus...

This study compares the effectiveness of three sources of influence [conformity, obedience to authority, and the “but you are free to…” (BYAFT) technique] to induce smokers to put their cigarettes butts in an ashtray rather than dropping them on the ground. Conformity was operationalized with a sign placed above ashtrays. This sign mentioned that m...

Previous research has found that restaurant waitresses wearing flowers in their hair received higher tips. Here, the effect of hair ornamentation on responses to an explicit request for help was assessed. Two female confederates wearing a barrette with or without a flower asked 240 passersby (120 men, 120 women; apparently 30 to 40 years of age) in...

An experiment was carried out in which a male confederate, seated at a pavement area of a bar, happened to meet his “sister” (a female confederate) and her baby. In one case, the confederate interacted with the baby, whereas in the other case he paid no attention to him. A few minutes later, while the confederate was alone, he solicited a young wom...

We conducted 2 experiments (N = 180 participants in Study 1 and N = 102 in Study 2) to examine the effect of imitation shown by a mediator towards negotiators who were on opposing sides in regard to a financial decision being made by a fictitious company. Contrary to what was expected, data in the first study showed that, when the mediator imitated...

People interact more readily with someone who they think they have something in common with. We hypothesized that participants would become less reluctant to respond to intimate questions when these questions were administered by an interviewer who possessed an incidental similarity with the participant. Male and female confederates approached male...

Glass color may influence the evaluation of food and beverages as has been reported in a previous study where participants rated a cold beverage presented in a blue glass to be more thirst-quenching than the same beverage poured into a green, yellow, or red glass. Our experiment sought to test whether container color also can affect the perceived t...

Studies have shown that the high status of a car used as a frustrator acts as an inhibitor of drivers’ horn-honking responses at traffic lights. In this field study, we extended the role played by car status through examining its effect on another driver behavior. A confederate driving either a high-status or a low-status car was instructed to driv...

Introduction. - Growing concern for the environment gives rise to the development of projects aimed at changing attitudes and/or behaviors of individuals in a more ecological way. While the traditional levers of change (information/persuasion) have clear limitations (Perloff, 2003), the promising results of Binding Communication (Joule et al., 2004...

500 définitions pour se familiariser rapidement et facilement avec le langage et la terminologie propres à la psychologie. Chaque entrée comporte une définition simple suivie d'une explication et/ou d'un schéma pertinent.

Previous research found that the reminders about money increase social distance and solitary activity. In two studies conducted in field settings, the helping behavior of participants was observed. Passersby that just handled or not money at an automated teller machine were asked to participate in a short survey (Study 1) or have the opportunity to...

Previous studies have shown that pleasant weather conditions can improve people's mood and facilitate positive social relationships. The current study tested the effect of sunshine on drivers' willingness to give hitchhikers a ride. Four confederates (2 men, 2 women; M age = 20 yr.) acted as hitchhikers on the roadside in France, on sunny and cloud...

van Baaren et al. (2003) found that a waitress who mimicked their patrons by repeating their order received significantly larger tips. In this study, we tried to replicate these results by testing the effect of repetition after a delay between the customer's initial order and the repetition. A waitress was instructed to mimic or not half of their c...

Although different types of handshakes have been shown to be related to an individual's personality and social perception of the recipient, the effect of handshaking on compliance with a request remains in question. In a door-to-door setting, homeowners were asked for money for a humanitarian organization. Handshaking was performed or not by the so...

Earlier research on the legitimizing paltry contribution (LPC) technique has found that the statement “Even a penny will help …” added to a request for charity donation increases compliance to the request. This study tested the effectiveness of the LPC technique with different statements. In bakeries, an opaque moneybox was placed near the cash reg...

Studies have shown that pleasant weather conditions (namely sunshine) favor positive social relationships and improve moods. However, the effect of sunshine on romantic relationships has never been studied. In a field quasi-experiment 18–25-year-old women walking alone in the street were approached by an attractive 20-year-old male confederate who...

Les professionnels de la distribution et de la communication adoptent couramment les prix à terminaison 9, considérés comme étant attractifs en toutes circonstances. La recherche en marketing a approfondi les connaissances concernant les effets des prix à terminaison 9. L’article propose une synthèse des principales connaissances issues des pratiqu...