Request Compliance Research Articles

The persuasion of performative technologies: constructing calculating selves in universities

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the process by which performative technologies (PTs), in this case accreditation work in a business school, take form and how humans engage in making up such practices. It studies how academics come to accept and even identify with the quantitative representations of themselves in a translation process.Design/methodology/approachThe research involved a longitudinal, self-ethnographic case study that followed the accreditation process of one Nordic business school from 2015 to 2021.FindingsThe findings show how the PT pushed for different engagements in various phases of the translation process. Early in the translation process, the PT promoted engagement because of self-realization and the ability for academics to proactively influence the prospective competitive milieu. However, as academic qualities became fabricated into numbers, the PT was able to request compliance, but also to induce self-reflection and self-discipline by forcing academics to compare themselves to set qualities and measures.Originality/valueThe paper advances the field by linking five phases of the translation process, problematization, fabrication, materialization, commensuration and stabilization, to a discussion of why academics come to accept and identify with the quantitative representations of themselves. The results highlight that the materialization phase appears to be the critical point at which calculative practices become persuasive and start influencing academics’ thoughts and actions.

Improving Request Compliance through Robot Affect

This paper describes design and results of a human-robot interaction study aimed at determining the extent to which affective robotic behavior can influence participants' compliance with a humanoid robot’s request in the context of a mock-up search-and-rescue setting. The results of the study argue for inclusion of affect into robotic systems, showing that nonverbal expressions of negative mood (nervousness) and fear by the robot improved the participants' compliance with its request to evacuate, causing them to respond earlier and faster.

Using Persuasion science to improve COVID-19 contact tracing

Using Persuasion science to improve COVID-19 contact tracing

AI-based chatbots in customer service and their effects on user compliance

Communicating with customers through live chat interfaces has become an increasingly popular means to provide real-time customer service in many e-commerce settings. Today, human chat service agents are frequently replaced by conversational software agents or chatbots, which are systems designed to communicate with human users by means of natural language often based on artificial intelligence (AI). Though cost- and time-saving opportunities triggered a widespread implementation of AI-based chatbots, they still frequently fail to meet customer expectations, potentially resulting in users being less inclined to comply with requests made by the chatbot. Drawing on social response and commitment-consistency theory, we empirically examine through a randomized online experiment how verbal anthropomorphic design cues and the foot-in-the-door technique affect user request compliance. Our results demonstrate that both anthropomorphism as well as the need to stay consistent significantly increase the likelihood that users comply with a chatbot’s request for service feedback. Moreover, the results show that social presence mediates the effect of anthropomorphic design cues on user compliance.

Combining observational and survey methods to investigate coalitional psychology: Request compliance and team loyalty

Combining observational and survey methods to investigate coalitional psychology: Request compliance and team loyalty

A cross-cultural pragmatic study of rapport-management strategies in Chinese and English academic upward request emails

ABSTRACTThis article discusses and compares how Chinese and English postgraduate students manage a harmonious relationship with university instructors by managing rapport and doing relational work in their academic request emails. The rapport-management strategies were explored and then further evaluated in relation to the taxonomies of relational work within the discourse, illocutionary and stylistic domains. It found that Chinese and British students belong to distinct discourse communities shaped by different and similar discursive practices and norms, which are conditioned not only by different national cultures, but also by a similar community culture. The findings should be able to (1) develop the existing research alike and show how the email behaviour reflects the intricate and dynamic factors of rapport management; (2) support integrating the theories of rapport management and relational work into methodologically sound cross-cultural/intercultural pragmatic studies; (3) enable email writers to maintain or enhance harmonious relationships with recipients so as to obtain request compliance smoothly and to uphold their membership within the discourse community and (4) help readers to learn the pragmatic aspects of native and foreign languages in workplaces.

Compliance of Computed Tomography Scan Requests in Sub-Saharan Africa

>Objective: To investigate the compliance of computed tomography (CT) scan requests in the X-ray units of Sub-Saharan Africa. Methods: Multi-centric, exhaustive, descriptive and cross-sectional study (Burkina Faso and Benin) focused on CT scan requests implemented and interpreted from May 1 to July 31, 2014. Request compliance was assessed according to the criteria of the French High Authority for Health to which was added a criterion for fulfillment of description of patient clinical information. An exam was deemed compliant when all criteria were met. Ratios were compared by means of Chi2 test at 0.05% significance level. Results: Among the 426 colligated computed tomography prescriptions, the least filled fields were allergy concept (0%), creatinine-mia (0.3%), examination purpose (50.2%). The overall compliance rate was 35%. The requests made by medical specialists were more compliant than those made by general practitioners and students (p = 0.003). Fulfillment of clinical information description was also better among medical specialists compared to the other prescribers (p = 0.002). Conclusion: It is important to improve the quality of computed tomography (CT) scan requests in the hospitals of Bobo-Dioulasso (Bur-kina Faso) and Parakou (Benin).

The effect of using mitigation devices on request compliance in Persian and American English

Strategies used in requestive speech act and their effects on compliance have been the focus of a number of studies. Previous research, however, has dealt mainly with perceptive data elicited from one of the interlocutors involved in the use of mitigation. A sociolinguistic study could explore the perception of both the requestor and the requestee with respect to using such strategies. This article aims to study the possible correlation between request compliance and the use of mitigation devices. The question is what observable effects using mitigators have both on the requestor’s judgment of compliance and on prohibiting the requestee from rejecting the request. Four role-play interactions followed by stimulated recall procedures were used to collect the required data. The results obtained from the analysis of data revealed that, in similar situations, American requestors are comparably more certain than Iranians that the addressee would comply with their requests using fewer mitigation devices; while, as far as the requestees are concerned, Americans are more influenced by the use of mitigation devices on the part of requestors than Iranians.

Reactions of Heterosexual African American Men to Women's Condom Negotiation Strategies

This study describes responses of 172 single heterosexual African American men, ages 18 to 35, to condom negotiation attempts. Strategies used included reward, coercive, legitimate, expert, referent, and informational strategies, based on Raven's (1992) influence model. The purpose was (a) to identify strategies influencing participant acquiescence to request and (b) to identify predictors of participant compliance/refusal to comply with negotiation attempts. Participants viewed six videotape segments showing an actress, portrayed in silhouette, speaking to the viewer as a “steady partner.” After each segment, participants completed measures of request compliance, positive and negative affect, and attributions concerning the model and themselves. No significant differences were found in men's ratings across all vignettes. However, differences in response existed across subgroups of individuals, suggesting that, although the strategy used had little impact on participant response, the act of suggesting condom use produced responses that differed across participant subgroups. Subgroups differed on levels of AIDS risk knowledge, sexually transmitted disease history, and experience with sexual coercion. Also, the “least willing to use” subgroup was highest in anger–rejection and least likely to make attributions of caring for partner. Effective negotiation of condom use with a male sexual partner may not be determined as much by specific strategy used as by partner characteristics.

Constructing identities through request e-mail discourse

This paper describes how the leaders of a group of English language teachers in a Hong Kong public education institute constructed various personal identities for themselves through the discourse of the request e-mails they sent to their subordinates. The request e-mails were analyzed at both clause and discourse levels to reveal the strategies the leaders employed for constructing desirable personal identities and ultimately achieving request compliance. At the clause level, first, the lexico-grammar was analyzed by drawing upon systemic functional grammar; and second the leaders’ management of the relationship with their subordinates was analyzed with reference to the constructs of rapport management and relational work. At the discourse level, the way the authors supported their request was analyzed by drawing upon the influence tactics framework. It is argued in the paper that the e-mail authors’ legitimate or position power intrinsically associated with their capacity as leaders was not sufficient in obtaining request compliance – additional elements like desirable personal identities were necessary in getting their subordinates to comply with the requests made via e-mails. The identities constructed included those of (1) an accountable leader, (2) a rational leader, (3) an authoritative leader, (4) an understanding, considerate and polite leader, and (5) a capable leader.

Alternative web caching design: a site-based approach

The existing designs and solutions for web caching systems commonly make caching decisions based on document or uniform resource locator (URL) information. While this conventional approach works, the authors deliver insights into the alternative approach using site information for web caching design. This site-based approach makes caching decisions based on the website that an object belongs to, rather than the object itself. The authors show that this new approach can benefit different scopes of cache design, ranging from internal operation of a single proxy (host level), mapping of proxy array in a local area network (LAN level), to load reduction in the global cache hierarchy (wireless area network (WAN) level). Since disks are usually the performance bottleneck in a proxy, to overcome this, the authors design a site-based cache architecture that tries to store web objects belonging to the same site in nearby disk blocks. The simulation results show that it reduces disk access time by 21–50%, compared to the conventional URL-based cache architecture. Besides, in the LAN-level design, a site-based mapping scheme can be used to map all requests targeting the same website to the same proxy, resulting in up to 50% reduction in the total transmission control protocol connection overhead. On the other hand, in the WAN-level, upper-level proxies are usually overloaded. To solve it, site information is used in lower-level proxies to decide which requests to forward to the origin servers directly (instead of upper-level proxy). As a result, proxy load is reduced by 46–59% and a reduction of 9–25% in request compliance delay can be achieved. With the merits of these three levels, it is believed that the site-based approach would contribute to the future caching designs.

Efficacy of request presentation on compliance

The present study was an exploration of the effects of request presentation on compliance with a sample of college students in a test cheating milieu. The effect of a request seemed to have a negative effect on compliance seeking, contrary to the hypothesis proposed. However, when a simple request was preceded by the word "please," the rate of compliance increased, whereas a simple request generated the lowest rate of compliance. An analysis of gender effects showed an overall significant relationship between request condition and compliance in females only. A detailed analysis of individual responses to each confederate response revealed no significant variation. In sum, females in our sample appeared to react strongly to simple (direct) requests. Potential explanations for the results are explored in the context of theoretical and empirical research found in the literature.

Recruiting Teen Smokers in Shopping Malls to a Smoking‐Cessation Program Using the Foot‐in‐the‐Door Technique

Persuading teen smokers to volunteer for smoking‐cessation programs is a challenging yet understudied problem. As a method of dealing with this problem, we used and tested a foot‐in‐the‐door (FITD) approach. Teen smokers were intercepted at malls and were assigned randomly to request compliance with a small behavior request of either (a) answering a few questions (light FITD) or (b) answering the same questions and a few additional ones, plus watching a short video about the effects of nicotine (heavy FITD). Participants were then called back by telephone several weeks later and asked to comply with a large behavior request of joining a cessation program that involved the use of self‐help materials and telephone counseling. Although no differences were found in responses from the light and heavy groups, consent to enter the program was obtained from 12% of the pooled qualified intercepts and their parents (for those under 18 years). This recruitment rate was considered good, given that this is one of the only reported studies that recruited teen smokers from the general population to cessation programs.

The Effects of Structured Free-Time on Request Compliance and On-Task Behavior of a Preadolescent with ADHD

ABSTRACT The purpose of this research was to determine the effectiveness of a structured free-time contingency for a 12 year old male with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). A multiple baseline design was employed to evaluate the impact of the free-time procedures on attention to task and compliance. The student earned five minutes of free-time for each third of the observations he was task compliant. The child also earned one minute of free-time for each observation during which he was on-task. Free-time consisted of completing jobs for the teacher such as cleaning the chalkboard, decorating the resource room, making signs, organizing tapes, or playing educational games on the computer. The overall outcome indicates increases in compliance and on-task behavior during the structured free-time condition. These procedures were effective and easy to implement in a special education resource room setting for 16 weeks.

A Comparison of Response Styles in Singapore and Taiwan

This study compares the response styles of 2 groups of Chinese men and women who have been described as collectivists—Chinese in Singapore and Taiwan. Participants were presented with one of three request scenarios that controlled participant identity and manipulated the level of imposition of what was requested. Chinese in Singapore were found to prefer complying with the request of a friend compared to Chinese in Taiwan, who were more likely to refuse and who used significantly more tactics to decline a friend’s request. This suggests that although they indicated that they would be more likely to refuse the request, Taiwan Chinese compensated for this preference by embedding declinations in several tactics. There was more request compliance with low imposition and less request compliance with high imposition for all participants, regardless of national group or gender. Independent self-construal was related to direct refusal. Overall, men were more compliant than women.

What's in a Name? A Complimentary Means of Persuasion

Three experiments demonstrate that remembering someone's name facilitates their compliance with a purchase request made by the rememberer. Experiment 1 shows that name remembrance increases request compliance, but name forgetting does not cause a decrease in compliance. Experiments 2 and 3 show that name remembrance is perceived as a compliment by the person remembered, which mediates compliance with the purchase request. Experimental manipulations of the likelihood of name remembrance (experiment 2) and need for self-enhancement (experiment 3) provide results consistent with a complimentary explanation for the findings.

Prosocialness and sequential request compliance techniques: Limits to the foot‐in‐the door and the door‐in‐the‐face?

Although there is agreement that the prosocialness of the target request moderates the effectiveness of the foot‐in‐the‐door and the door‐in‐the‐face, there is controversy regarding the form of that effect. In this paper we report a test of competing explanations of the influence of prosocialness on the effects of the two sequential request techniques. The results indicated that prosocialness did influence compliance, but that it had no demonstrable impact on the operation of either of the sequential request techniques. Effects were also obtained for both of the sequential request techniques. Discussion focuses on reconciliation of these findings with previous summaries of the literature.

Concordance of Three Measures of Cocaine Use in an Arrestee Population: Hair, Urine, and Self-report

This article reports on the comparison of self-reported cocaine use with urinalysis outcomes and radioimmunoassay of hair samples for cocaine. The data is based on a voluntary sample of approximately 300 arrestees, tested and interviewed anonymously. The study reports high rates of request compliance for both urine and hair samples, and affirms a relatively high degree of underreporting of cocaine use. Radioimmunoassay of hair appears to detect considerably larger degrees of cocaine use than are detected by urinalysis. The differential rates of detection between hair and urine are less dramatic in subjects who appear to be high rate users.

Effects of Compliance Techniques on Spontaneous and Asked-For Helping

Abstract American college students (N = 90) were exposed to either a foot-in-the-door (small request followed by large request) or door-in-the-face (large request followed by small request) compliance manipulation, or to a control situation, prior to an opportunity to provide either spontaneous help or asked-for help. Results showed faster helping in the asked-for condition relative to the spontaneous condition. Moreover, in the spontaneous condition, the door-in-the-face technique produced faster helping than the foot-in-the-door or control manipulations. The findings support prior contentions of distinctions between the two types of helping and imply that they operate under different mechanisms.

Types of emotional disclosures and request compliance between spouses

The present study investigated variations in emotional disclosures when making requests of one's spouse. Unpleasant emotions are often thought of as “taboos,”; but this study demonstrated that, from the hearer's perspective, all unpleasant emotions are not equally negative. In fact, in comparison to messages that were devoid of emotions and other types of unpleasant emotions, disclosing vulnerabilities and hostilities toward persons other than the hearer often prompted hearers to respond with more positive messages and to report a more positive attitude toward request compliance, one's relationship with the requester, and oneself. Respondents, however, did not report any difference in the likelihood with which they would comply with requests on the basis of variations in emotional disclosures. The hypotheses and the results are discussed in terms of the face‐needs of communicators.