The answer to the above question may be within arm's reach. What will it be? Paper clips? Pens? The pencils? Blotting paper? Protractor? Diaries? Paperweight? Printer? Your office drawers are full of different items. So which ones will solidify your influence?
Sociologist Randy Garner wondered if handwritten request stickers - the most famous of which are POST IT stickers - could have the ability to increase another person's compliance. Conducting his curious research, he sent people a questionnaire asking them to fill it out.
The questionnaire was accompanied by a sticker attached to the cover letter with a handwritten request to complete, or a similar, also handwritten request on the cover letter, or a cover letter without a handwritten request.
The small yellow square gave a pretty convincing impetus: among those who received a questionnaire with a sticker and a handwritten request, more than 75 percent completed and returned the questionnaire, 48 percent did so in the second group, and 36 percent in the third. But why did it work? Maybe the stickers just grab attention with their bright colors?
Garner asked himself the same question. To check, he sent in a new batch of questionnaires. This time, a third of the questionnaires were sent with a POST IT sticker with a handwritten note, a third with a blank sticker, and another third without a sticker at all. If the effect of using a sticker is due to the neon yellow color that attracts the eye to the paper, then the frequency of responses in the two groups using the sticker should be equally high. But it turned out not to be so. Handwritten Stickers outperformed the competition, with a 69 percent response rate for this group, compared with 43 percent for the blank sticker group and 34 percent for the non-sticker group.
How can this be explained? Since no one usually bothers to find a sticker, stick it on a cover letter and write a note on it, Garner suggested that people, seeing the extra effort and personal connotation of the request, feel the need to reciprocate and agree to fulfill the request.
After all, reciprocity is a social glue that helps bring people together in a collaborative relationship. You can bet that the glue is more durable than the one with which the sticker was glued.
In fact, the evidence is even more telling. Garner found that adding personalized stickers to the questionnaire did more than convince more people to respond. Those who received the questionnaires with handwritten sticky notes returned the task more quickly and gave more detailed and accurate answers. And when the researcher made the message even more personal by adding his initials and “Thank you!” To the handwritten note, the response rate increased even more.
Generally speaking, this research provides valuable insights into human behavior: the more personalized your request, the more likely you are to find someone willing to comply.
More specifically, this study shows that in the office, community, and even at home, a personalized note sticker can highlight the importance of your message or information. It won't become the proverbial needle in a pile of other requests, reports, letters and emails that struggle for attention. Moreover, the timeliness and quality of execution are likely to improve at the same time.
requests.
What is the bottom line? If you use personalized messages for persuasion, the sticker corporation isn't the only one to benefit.
For even more persuasion strategies, see The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini.
