How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | Page 251

resolve anything that creates that feeling. It is due to reactance that we act,
and that we want it now.
A study involving a group of male toddlers illustrates just how powerful
the Rule of Scarcity is, even in very small children. In the study, the
toddlers were brought into a room that held two equally exciting and
appealing toys. A Plexiglas barrier was set up so that one of the toys sat
next to it, while the other sat behind. The barrier wasn't very tall, so some
of the toddlers could simply reach over the top and grab for the toy. For
others, though, the barrier was still too high to reach over, so they could
only reach that particular toy if they went around and behind the
Plexiglas. The researchers wanted to see if the obstructed toy, being more
"scarce," would draw more attention and be more desirable. The boys who
could easily reach over the top showed no preference toward the
obstructed or the unobstructed toy; the unobstructed toy was approached
just as frequently and just as quickly. For the boys who could not reach
over the top, however, the obstructed toy was clearly the more desirable
of the two — in fact, the boys made contact with it three times faster than
with the unobstructed toy![5] Even in toddlers, there was an urge to defy
restriction of choice!
You Can't Have It
In another study involving children, researchers told the children they
could select from a wide array of candy bars. They then pointed out a
particular candy bar and told them they should not choose that one, but
any of the others would be fine. The children reacted to the threat to their
freedom of choice by choosing the bar they'd been told not to select. In
doing so, they felt they had preserved their freedom to select whatever bar
they wanted.[6] It makes you wonder if that is also why Adam and Eve,
who had the entire Garden of Eden to play in, couldn't stay away from the
forbidden fruit.
The Rule of Scarcity works because it makes people feel like they will
lose their opportunity to act and choose if they don't do so immediately.
The threat of such loss creates urgency in our decision making. Have you
ever noticed how people tend to be more motivated when faced with
potentially losing something than when they might take steps of their own
accord and gain something of equal value? Studies have verified that this
is a common and consistent phenomenon.[7] For example, do you think
homeowners would feel more urgency to act if they were told how much
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