Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Davis & Knowles’s (1999) disrupt-then-reframe technique (DTR) of increasing compliance gaining success increases the likelihood compliance by using a confusing phrase (the disruption) and following it with a reason to comply with the request (the reframe). Two experiments were conducted to contrast a Spinozan model of processing (Gilbert, 1991) explanation of the technique’s effectiveness with an action identification theory (Vallacher & Wegner, 1985) explanation. Study one used the DTR to collect money for charity (80 women, 80 men). The DTR failed to increase rates of compliance but it did increase the average donation in a pattern consistent with the Spinozan predictions. Study two asked Ss to fill out a 20-minute survey (85 women, 139 men). The DTR only increased compliance for only one of the three experimenters but the pattern of results for that experimenter was again consistent with the Spinozan processing predictions.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This pilot study explores the compliance-gaining techniques students use in e-mail messages to their instructors. The results show that students used more antisocial compliance-gaining strategies than prosocial or neutral strategies via this medium. The data also shows that students are using more compliance-gaining strategies in general with GTAs than full faculty. This result may support findings from other studies that students feel they have more power over GTAs than full faculty.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Two field experiments were performed to assess the effectiveness of the dump-and-chase (DAC), a compliance-gaining technique that introduces a particular method of employing persistence to influence others. The outcomes of these two experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the DAC relative to other compliance-gaining techniques known to be effective. In Experiment 1 the DAC was found to be more effective than the pooled data from the door-in-the-face (DITF) technique and the placebic information (PI) technique. In Experiment 2 the DAC was found to be more effective than the DITF, PI, and foot-in-the-door (FITD) techniques. The effect of the DAC was consistent across experiments, as well as producing relatively higher compliance-gaining rates. Moreover, because the contextual features of two experiments differed substantially, the effect occurred under heterogeneous conditions. Directions for subsequent tests of the DAC are discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The structure of universities lends itself to communicative interactions between institutional group members. This study explores the compliance-gaining strategies utilized by student activists in their work with administrators in affecting campus change. The topic is studied through the frame of superior-subordinate communication in the organizational context of the university. Twenty-four interviews were conducted with student activists through a collaborative effort between scholars in the departments of communication studies and higher education. A qualitative analytical approach to the data yielded four compliance-gaining strategies of student activists: upward influence, persistence, peer networking, and mass media. The analysis serves as an initial step in developing more satisfactory communicative experiences as between student activists and administrators. The limitations of the study and implications for future research are discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Continuum of distraction (Vohs & Garret, 1968) and expectancy violation theory explanations (EVT; Burgoon, Stacks, & Burch, 1982) were offered and tested to explain the DTR effect. Participants viewed a video of a speaker online making a request using zero, one, or two disfluencies whose reward level was high or low. The participants filled out measures of counterarguing, message acceptance, and expectancy violation. An EVT explanation was consistent with the obtained data.