How to Coach Yourself and Others Beware of Manipulation | Page 179

66. Pique Technique

Rather than make a standard request for something, make an unusual request that leads people to
wonder why you are making that particular request (and hence pay attention to you).
If they ask you why you are asking for something novel, then you can engage them in other methods of
persuasion.
Example
Santos, Leve and Pratkanis (1994) got a 'panhandler' beggar to ask passersby for money. In the control
conditions, when they asked "Can you spare any change?" 44 percent of passersby complied. When
they asked "Can you spare a quarter?" the compliance rate increased to 64 percent. When they asked
"Can you spare 17 cents?" or "Can you spare 37 cents?" about 75 percent of people made a
contribution.
Ask to meet people at seven minutes past the hour, rather than on the hour.
Why it works
Making a novel request creates surprise, breaking the person out of their schema and forces them pay
attention, thinking further about your request in a central processing fashion. The novelty in the request
piques their interest (hence the name of the technique).
Effect.
Note that you do not always want people to think too hard about what they are being asked for. In such
cases, the reverse process should be used, asking for a common thing and not something that will pique
interest.
One reason why Santos et all's panhandler experiment worked was that when walking past a beggar,
people try to be 'unthinking', not noticing them, as they remind people of unpleasant possibilities that
'could happen to anyone'. The Pique Technique forces them to think and hence act.

178