Abstract
A field experiment was conducted (N = 216) to test the sequential priming of love as a compliance-gaining technique. Employees of the Parisian metro were asked for an undue late note by a female confederate. A sequential design was used. First, the request for a late note was made together with an implicit priming of love, i.e., stating that the reason for being late was an encounter with a hospitalized grandmother, or a favorite star. When the target employee refused to comply with the request, the confederate was instructed to use an explicit priming of love, i.e., the sentence “It’s someone I love so much!” Results showed that this procedure, as compared to a control condition, led to increased compliance to the request. It was also found that participants were more compliant when explicitly primed with love, but not when implicitly primed with love. These results are explained in light of mindlessness behavior, likability of the requester, and reduced processing of information.