How to Coach Yourself and Others Beware of Manipulation | Page 163

53. But You Are Free
Make the basic request to the target person. Then tell
them they are free to accept or reject the request. This
leads to increased acceptance and compliance with the
request.
Let them know they have a free choice, even though it
may be obvious that they can choose as they wish.
Other variants of language you can use include "it is up
to you to see," "up to you to choose," and "but you are
free of."
Example
An activist seeking petition signatures gets more on
their list by saying people are free to add their names
or not.
A sales person sells more by saying that customers are free to come back later if they are not ready to
buy now.
Why it works
In the original study, Guéguen and Pascual (2000) found that when subjects were asked in a street to
give money to a cause, only 10.0% complied. However, when the phrase "...but you are free to accept
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