Applying full-cycle social psychology to consumer marketing: The defusing objections technique

The development of a new compliance technique is described. Labeled defusing objections, this technique seeks to remove an individual's excuse for not complying with a request. Two common excuses for not responding to a request were manipulated. Removing only one excuse was not sufficient to induce many individuals to respond. However, removing both led over half of the homeowners to respond positively. In fact, the level of responding when both excuses were eliminated was significantly greater than it was in all other conditions combined. The impact of the defusing objections technique is viewed as a successful application of ‘full-cycle social psychology’ and the overall value of this approach is illustrated by tracing the development of other compliance techniques.