How a Run for Ice Cream Taught Me a Profound Lesson in the Science of Compliance
At some point every December I get a serious hankering for ice cream. Unfortunately, all the good ice cream shops are seasonal here. Open in spring & summer only. That means I have to suffer the crappy store-bought stuff until my beloved Heladería Ibense opens its doors again in March. At this very moment, I’m jonesing for some Chocolate Bonbón.
One summer, not long after moving here, I made way downtown to get my fix. And not just mine. I carried a handwritten list of the favorite flavors of everyone in my family. I was probably going to blow 30€ on creamy handmade ice cream that day.
On my way in, practically blocking the door, was a beggar woman asking for spare change. Encountering those who beg for money is no rare occurrence here in Huelva. A large Gypsy population, accompanied by a sizable number of Senegalese and other Africans who successfully make the dangerous raft trip across the Straights of Gibraltar, flood the streets hawking pirated DVDs and ashtrays fashioned out of aluminum cans. I get approached for cash all the time.
I blew right past her in my rush to grab one of those take-a-number slips from the dispenser. When the temperatures go triple-digits in the hot Spanish sun, the crowds can be unbelievable. At any rate, they finally gotten around to my turn when I saw the woman out of the corner of my eye. She was sitting now, sweating under the glare of the Andalusian sun and rubbing her aching calves.
I felt like a schmuck. Here I was dropping significant dinero on a fleeting luxury, when here’s someone who could probably get a week’s worth of meals out of that same money. I completed my purchase, and on my way out, handed the lady a few coins.
I was recounting the tale to a marketer friend of mine some time later, and what he told me afterward would completely rock my world.
He said, “Daniel, why do you think the woman was standing there specifically?”
“Hmm… I dunno. I remember thinking it strange that she would be standing in a shade-free spot at 3pm on a hot July afternoon.”
He clarified, “I can tell you right now. It’s because she discovered, whether through explicit experimentation or by accident, that she made more money there. It’s profitable on that spot precisely because of schlubs like you who walk by to enjoy a small luxury, and then feel guilty about it. It’s a COMPLIANCE TACTIC.”
EDIT: For what it’s worth, I completely disagree with my friend that giving to the less fortunate makes one a naive schlub. A few comments (both private and publicly posted below) expressed concern that recognizing compliance tactics and not allowing yourself to be taken advantage of could be used to justify a lack of charity. That’s not my aim.
He later introduced me to an amazing book on the topic by a guy named Robert Cialdini. It’s called
Influence: Science and Practice
In it, Cialdini talks about the subtle (and often, not-so-subtle) manipulations that can trip the psychological triggers in nearly all of us.
As fan of social psychology, and as a lifelong patsy, it was fascinating to read about all the techniques that part fools like me from their money. To this day, it remains one of the top 5 marketing books I’ve ever read, as it IS possible to leverage a number of these techniques in an ethical, “white hat” way, if your aim to sell via screencast (or via any other means, for that matter. But regardless of whether you sell things for a living or not, it’s all compelling stuff, way more interesting than a book on the science of persuasion has any right to be.
And trust me, as soon as you become able to recognize the compliance techniques, you’ll see them everywhere. And once you start spotting them out in the wild, you’ll find that they very quickly lose their power. Hucksters and snake oil salesmen, beware.
December 4, 2013 @ 12:49 pm
Daniel, I just got this email not more than 10 minutes ago and when I went out to check out the webinar on 8.2, it said that the Webinar is over. Did you already have it? How come I missed getting email sooner. Thought I’d ask.
David f
December 4, 2013 @ 1:15 pm
Hi David:
That was a previous post; the webinar actually happened a couple of weeks ago. I did send at least a couple of messages to the list alerting everyone. But no worries. I’ll edit the post to include a link to the replay.
cheers, d.
December 4, 2013 @ 1:51 pm
Hi Daniel,
You are not a patsy. You are an empathetic individual who is doubtless better off than the woman standing in the sun. You are not a fool parted from your money, and your observation that your ice cream purchase was for a luxury that was well beyond her means is certainly accurate.
How much better a post this would have been if you had simply said that “even beggars on the street choose their location to maximize the possibility of income”. Why wouldn’t they?
December 4, 2013 @ 1:55 pm
Thank you, Andrew. Very insightful. It’s certainly not my aim to imply that charity is a waste. That’s the polar opposite of what I believe. I do believe it should come from the heart and not a knee-jerk psychological trigger.
December 4, 2013 @ 2:00 pm
I do think your post was interesting and I understand your focus is marketing advice, but I hate to read something that (whether intentionally or not) discourages people from feeling compassion for people who are less fortunate. Of course they’re trying to get the most money to feed their children or buy their 40 oz malt liquor or whatever. I do think your ice cream lady is very different than people who are making millions selling you junk you don’t need. I had an experience many years ago where a guy was asking for money outside of a store and feeling guilty, I went in, bought him a sandwich and then, very proud of myself, chased him down in the parking lot to give him the sandwich I had so generously bought for him. He practically knocked the sandwich out of my hand and said to me, “I don’t want your stupid sandwich, I want some money so I can go in to Burger King or somewhere and sit down!” I was really pretty angry as I went back to my office and recounted the tale to my co-workers. My boss just laughed at me and called me a sucker and ate the sandwich. I didn’t give out money to people begging after that for a long time.
Just this past year however, I had the wonderful opportunity to be in community with some amazing homeless women during my studies at Antioch University. They have a Women’s Education Program where they offer a warm breakfast and university classes to homeless women in Seattle. Getting to know these women, really sitting and talking with them changed the way I felt about the incident with the man at the store several years before.
I began to understand in a way I never had before that human dignity and kindness come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. That homeless people (and beggars) enjoy and need comforts just as much as anyone else and that the most freeing thing you can do is give from your heart without caring what the recipient will be spending your money on and how much money they “make” begging each day (and don’t kid yourself – if you hear a story about people getting rich that way, 99% of the time it is fiction). I give because I feel I can spare it sometimes and I give because I know someone else needs comfort whatever their circumstances are and it’s not up to me to judge whether they really need it or decide how they have to use my gift. I also still give to organizations that I know help people in need with food & shelter and necessities. Maybe that makes me a patsy, but I hope we can all tolerate being a bit of a patsy in this way.
As it happens, I did a research project and presentation on that group for my senior project and as it happens, a portion of it was my first project in Camtasia which I posted on YouTube. As I said, it was my first, I struggled a lot with audio I’m sure you’ll recognize … lavalier mics that didn’t work, etc.( but learned a ton while I was doing it) and would like to think I can put out a more professional product today, but if anyone is interested in watching it for the content, here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3FYdxYnuvU
And that’s my two cents for the day 🙂
December 4, 2013 @ 2:14 pm
Thank you so much Darlesa. In retrospect, it’s clear the example I used wasn’t all that great, or perhaps I simply chose my words poorly. If I discouraged charity, it most definitely was not intentional.
As I said, I’m routinely approached. I also routinely give (I just didn’t see the need to broadcast that in the original post). I just found it interesting that even those with zero marketing education come to learn ways of maximizing their income, regardless of whether they explicitly know the reasons.
December 4, 2013 @ 5:04 pm
Didn’t mean to go on so Daniel! Funny I guess I wasn’t the only one who had that reaction. Glad you added clarification to your original post 🙂 From spending time with you at Bootcamp this past summer, I would already guess that you are an extremely kind person. There is just so much justification for greed in our world (certainly in the US with Black Friday just last week) that it is a topic close to my heart. Hope all is well with you.
December 30, 2013 @ 4:43 pm
Daniel:
First off, love the blog and your guide (I think this is the third version I’ve used). As for Cialdini’s material, the online marketing folks have made a living off this stuff for years. Another one in a similar vein (covering much of the same material) that’s pretty helpful is Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive (Cialdini was one of the authors).
June 19, 2014 @ 3:11 pm
Never a patsy, however, when I encounter a person truly in need, I feed them. Literally. I take them to a diner, restaurant, or someplace with food and let them eat until they have their fill and get a “go box.”
It reminds me of a story of an old world Italian man who own a restaurant in a little town in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania. He fed bums coming into his roadside restaurant daily, but if they asked for money he’d kick ’em out. I asked him about that one day. “Why would you feed all of these bums?” and he replied, “You never know if it’s Jesus testing you.”
Put the religious stuff aside; the sentiment is heart-warming.