Asking for donations is hard work, and one gets used to refusals. A clever technique developed by Cialdini and Shroeder (1976) found a way to make it harder for people to say no. In their study, some confederates simply asked for a donation to the American Cancer Society, while others added the phrase “Even a penny will help.” Adding the latter phrase nearly doubled the rate at which people said yes and gave a donation.
Of course, getting donations of only a penny would not be really of much help to the American Cancer Society! But the researchers found that the average size of the donations did not change. Thus, the even-a-penny method produced many more donations of the same approximate size, resulting in a big increase in total amount.
Why? Most reasons people give for refusing resemble “I do not have enough money to donate,” but such reasons do not work with the even-a-penny method. Everyone can aff ord to give a penny! To refuse a request when even a penny would be acceptable might make the refuser feel cheap and petty. Apparently, though, once people decide to go ahead and donate, they donate the amount they would normally give (rather than just giving a penny).
