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“If You Can't Dazzle Them with Brilliance, Baffle Them with Nonsense”: Extending the Impact of the Disrupt‐Then‐Reframe Technique of Social Influence
Author(s) -
Fennis Bob M.,
Das Enny H.H.J.,
Pruyn Ad Th.H.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of consumer psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.433
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1532-7663
pISSN - 1057-7408
DOI - 10.1207/s15327663jcp1403_9
Subject(s) - cognitive reframing , persuasion , congruence (geometry) , psychology , social psychology , social influence , argumentation theory , cognitive psychology , advertising , epistemology , business , philosophy
Three experiments extended earlier findings on the impact of the Disrupt‐Then‐Reframe (DTR) technique on compliance. This technique is comprised of a subtle, odd element in a typical scripted request, the “disruption,” followed by a persuasive phrase, the “reframing.” Based on the thought‐disruption hypothesis (Petty & Wegener, 1999), we argue that its impact is generalizable across situations and that disrupting a conventional sales script not only increases the impact of the new reframing, but also increases susceptibility to influence resulting from other (congruence‐based) persuasion techniques embedded in the influence setting. Three experiments provided support for our expectations. Specifically, the DTR technique reduced the extent of counter‐argumentation to a sales script and boosted the impact of two other persuasion techniques: the continued questions procedure and message‐goal congruence. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.