Does Self-Perception Change Explain the Foot-in-the-Door Effect?

Consent to perform a small favor increases a respondent's susceptibility to perform a relatively large favor. This phenomenon, known as the foot-in-the-door effect, is considered to result from induced self-perception changes: the respondent comes to feel helpful for doing the small favor and complies again later out of a desire to maintain the instilled self-view. This study did not find a link between self-perception changes and large-request compliance in 2 experiments, although manipulations successfully altered self-rated helpfulness. Specifically, self-rated helpfulness increased (in Experiments 1 & 2) if participants' consent to a small favor brought social approval, and the ratings decreased (in Experiment 2) when social feedback for the small favor contained consensus information (i.e., indicated everyone else was also doing the favor). However, the ratings failed to predict either footin-the-door effects actually observed or compliance generally. Preexperimental gender differences in self-perceived helpfulness, in which women construed themselves to be more helpful than men, did successfully predict compliance with the large request. Implications for a theory of foot-in-the-door are discussed.