Foot-in-the-door
Say yes to something tiny and your own brain talks you into the big ask next.
Grounded in the research on Foot-in-the-door technique (Wikipedia)
What it is
Foot-in-the-door (FITD) is a compliance tactic: get someone to agree to a tiny request first, and they become way more likely to cave to a bigger one later. Sequence matters. Small ask, then the real ask. The first one isn't the point. It's the wedge that gets the door open.
The receipt: Freedman & Fraser, 1966
Jonathan Freedman and Scott Fraser ran the classic study. They asked California residents to put a small 'Be a Safe Driver' sign in their window. Days later they came back with the actual ask: stick a big, ugly 'Drive Carefully' billboard on the front lawn. 76% of people who'd done the small favor said yes to the eyesore. Of the people hit cold with just the big ask, only 17% agreed. Same request, more than 4x the compliance, purely because of one small earlier yes.