Bart complied with his friends' request to join them in smashing decorative pumpkins early one Halloween evening. Later that nig
ht he was surprised by his own failure to resist their pressures to throw eggs at passing police cars. Bart's experience best illustrates (A) Bystander effect
(B) Foot-in-the-door phenomenon
(C) Fundamental attribution errors
(D) Frustration-aggression principle
Answer: the correct answer is B Foot-in-the-door phenomenon
Explanation:
Foot-in-the-door (FITD) phenomenon is a compliance tactic that aims at getting a person to agree to a large request by having them agree to a modest request first.
The principle involved is that a small agreement creates a bond between the requester and the requestee. Even though the requestee may only have agreed to a trivial request out of politeness, this forms a relationship which – when the requestee attempts to justify the decision to themselves – may be mistaken for a real affinity with the requester, or an interest in the subject of the request. When a future request is made, the requestee might feel obliged to act concurrently with the earlier one.
