Effects of Interest Arousal on Compliance With a Request for Help

Isen (1984) and Berkowitz (1987) noted the strong link between positive moods and positive thinking. Isen proposed that the well-established relation between positive moods and increased helping or compliance is attributable to the mediating effects of positive thinking. In the current study, the effect of interest—^a type of positive thinking—on compliance was examined. Because ofthe strong link between positive moods and positive thinking, it was expected that inducing interest would increase compliance. College students sitting alone in a university library were approached and asked to complete an interesting task, an uninteresting task, or were not asked to do an initial task. All students were then asked to answer questions from a sociology survey. Students in the interesting task condition were willing to answer more questions than students in the other two conditions, in which compliance rates were equal. A second experiment was conducted to determine whether the task used in Experiment 1 increased compliance because it increased interest or because it induced guilt or lowered self-esteem (the task was a perceptual trick that most students got wrong even though it appeared very easy). Results showed that the interesting task created not only more interest, but also more guilt than the uninteresting task. Both interest and guilt contributed independently to compliance. Together, the two experiments showed that interest, like positive affect, can increase compliance.