Member-only story
More To That
The Small Things Are Big Windows Into Who You Are
It’s the tiny actions in life that ultimately matter
In 1966, psychologists Jonathan Freedman and Scott Fraser published a bewildering study.
They reported the results of an experiment they conducted in a California neighborhood, where a researcher, posing as a volunteer worker, went door-to-door to make a ridiculous request of homeowners.
The researcher asked each homeowner if a sign could be installed on their precious front lawn. Its purpose was a noble one: It would remind people in the area to drive carefully.
To give homeowners an idea of how the sign would look, the researcher showed them a photograph of it. But the photo quickly revealed two things:
- The sign was fucking huge, and
- It was absolutely hideous.
When this experiment was run in other neighborhoods, they got the results you would expect. The vast majority of residents (83%) declined the request.
But in one neighborhood, the results were stunning. The great majority of residents (76%) accepted the offer to have the hideous sign placed on their front lawns.
What accounted for this dramatic change in results? Why on earth would those homeowners willingly put that shitty thing on their lawns?
Well, as it turns out, one small act is all it took.
Two weeks earlier, a different volunteer worker came to the same neighborhood with a much smaller request. The worker asked each resident to display a small three-inch, square sign that read, “Be a safe driver.”
The request was so small that nearly every resident accepted it. However, this tiny act of compliance had a remarkable effect — it made them much more willing to comply with an enormous request that would come just two weeks later.
