What Is The Active Ingredient In Lasting Commitments?
by Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, and Robert B. Cialdini

The Amway Corporation, one of America's most profitable direct-selling companies, encourages its sales personnel by providing the following advice:

One final tip before you get started: Set a goal and write it down. Whatever the goal, the important thing is that you set it, so you’ve got something for which to aim—and that you write it down. There is something magical about writing things down. So set a goal and write it down. When you reach that goal, set another and write that down. You'll be off and running.

Why might writing down our goals be so effective at strengthening our commitments?

Put simply, commitments that are made actively have more staying power than those that are made passively. In a recent demonstration of both the power and subtlety of active commitments, social scientists Delia Cioffi and Randy Garner solicited college student volunteers for an AIDS education project to be carried out at local schools. The researchers set up the study so that the students were given one of two different sets of instructions. Those who received the active instructions were told that if they wanted to volunteer, they should fill out a form stating that they were willing to participate. In contrast, those who received the passive instructions were told that if they wanted to volunteer, they should leave blank the form stating that they were not willing to participate.

The researchers found that the percentage of people who agreed to volunteer didn't differ as a function of whether the instructions invited active or passive responding. Yet there was quite an astonishing difference in the percentage of people who actually showed up to participate in the project several days later. Of those who agreed to participate passively, only 17 percent actually appeared as promised. What about those who agreed to participate through active means? Of those, 49 percent kept their promises. In all, the clear majority of those who appeared as scheduled (74 percent) were those who had actively agreed to volunteer for the program.

Why are commitments that are written (and therefore active) so much more successful at eliciting participation? People make judgments about themselves based on observations of their own behavior, and they infer more about themselves based on their actions than on their nonactions. In support of this explanation, Cioffi and Garner found that those who volunteered actively were more likely to attribute their decisions to their own personality traits, preferences, and ideals than were those who volunteered passively.

What can active commitments do for you? Let's say that it is the time of year when many of us traditionally make a very specific commitment—the "New Year's Resolution." Writing down and describing in detail the resolution you have committed to, rather than just thinking about it, and also describing what steps you will take to achieve your chosen commitment, could be helpful to you, especially if you then go on to show your friends and family those written commitments.

If you're a sales manager, asking members of your sales team to write down their goals will help strengthen their commitment to those goals and ultimately boost everyone's bottom line. It would also be wise to ensure that, during a meeting, participants write down and publicly share the actions that they have agreed to take.

A similar example in the retail environment also provides a telling illustration of the power of actively writing things down. Many stores offer their customers the opportunity to spread the cost of purchasing products over a number of months or even years by signing up for a store credit card or some other finance product. Retailers find that customers are less likely to cancel the agreement if the customers themselves, rather than the salesperson, fill out the application form. These data show that to maximize commitments to the initiatives you undertake jointly with clients and business associates, you should arrange for all parties involved to take an active role filling out any relevant business agreements.

Active commitments also have the potential to be used with great benefit throughout the health care industry. In recent years, health care providers have reported that more patients than ever have been failing to show up for their appointments at the scheduled time. One study, for example, indicated that seven million medical appointments were missed by patients in one year alone, a staggering figure with serious financial and health consequences. In what way might active commitments be harnessed to help alleviate the problem? When we make appointments for our next visit—whether it's for a routine checkup or important surgery—it's standard practice that the receptionist or administrator of the unit writes down the date and time of that next appointment on a little reminder card. With such a routine, however, the patient's role is passive rather than active. Asking patients to fill out the card themselves is not only more effective, but saves staff time as well.

Finally, as with many other approaches described in this book, active commitments can be useful to generate compliance in our personal lives, too. A small but psychologically significant action such as securing an active, written commitment from our children, neighbors, friends, partners, or even ourselves can often mean the difference between being able to influence others effectively versus soliciting commitments that others have all the intention in the world of fulfilling, but somehow never get around to.

Here's to YES!,

The Authors

P.S. Whether you are in Network Marketing or just curious about how to be more influential in everyday life, Yes! shows how making small, scientifically proven changes to your approach can have a dramatic effect on your persuasive powers. The bottom line: Get (and read) this book!

© 2008 by Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, and Robert B. Cialdini. Reprinted by permission of Free Press, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc, NY.

From YES! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be More Persuasive by Noah J. Goldstein, PhD, Steve J. Martin, and Robert B. Cialdini, PhD.