When trying to persuade people to do a particular behaviour or action, the principles of influence can provide ethical and genuine motivators. The giving of something, can be a motivator to persuade into a behaviour or action but how it is given matters a lot. Is it better to give a gift before the behaviour is done, or is it better to promise a reward once the behaviour or action has been done? The answer may surprise you.
Persuasion with a gift or a reward?
The difference between giving a gift and giving a reward, is psychologically rather big. From a finance perspective, it seems safer to offer a reward when the other party has performed the action or behaviour you wanted them to do. Let’s say, filling in a survey.
You would be forgiven for thinking that ‘by making a reward available, at least you are ensured that you only have an expense when the result has been reached’. Behavioural science and persuasion has something else to say about that.
When we are promised a reward for our action, it is experienced as a payment (not a gift). There is no sense of obligation and depending on how much money someone makes at their job, the offered reward may not seem like enough compensation for their time.
A GIFT is something that the person received, regardless if they perform the action or behaviour. The receiving of a gift brings forth a feeling of obligation. This is why there is such a big difference between giving a gift or offering a reward.
Gift giving and the principles of reciprocity
In persuasion we often speak about one of the principles of influence; the principles of reciprocity. It states that ‘You are obligated to give back to me the same type of behaviour that I first give to you’. The interesting thing is, that reciprocity works in ALL cultures, because every culture trains is members to not take without giving in return.
It is like have an emotional bank account and when someone does something for us or give us something, we feel a debt is in place and we’ll go to great lengths to clear that debt.
When it comes to rewards vs gifts, you will find that a much smaller gift can be more effective than a larger reward.
RESEARCH: What is better to persuade someone? A Gift or a Reward?
Research was done where they investigate the effectiveness of gifts vs rewards, during an approach to get people to fill in a 1 hour survey.
- Some people were approached and offered a $50 reward, if they submitted the completed survey.
- Other people were approach and given a $5 cheque. They were then asked if they could kindly fill out the 1 hour survey.
To be frank and fair, a $50 reward is a nice amount of money but many people earn more than $50 an hour doing their work or operating their business. Whilst a decent reward, it didn’t prove to be as successful as thought.
A $5 cheque is a lot less compensation for an hour of time, but because it was given without expectation of having the survey filled out, it was a lot more persuasive (and cheaper).
- 23% of people offered the ‘$50 reward’, submitted the 1 hour survey
- 52% of people given the $5 cheque, submitted the 1 hour survey
A surprising outcome to many, but not to those trained in ethical persuasion.
Is offering gifts or rewards for behaviour cheaper?
When we do the sums based on the research shown above, it becomes clear that there would be cost difference in providing a gift to anyone you approach, in comparison to only rewarding those that performed the action you wanted.
- For 100 submitted surveys using the REWARD approach, is would cost $5000
- To gift enough people so that with a 52% success rate, you receive 100 submitted surveys, you would have to only invest about $1000
Giving a gift to anyone seems counter intuitive as it may feel you’re giving money away. With some testing, you would find out that a much smaller gift still has an amazing and surprising success rate.
Use of gift giving in business
There are many more ethical ways to move someone to agreeing with your requests, then just gift giving. This is taught in our course and mastermind programs which you should consider doing sooner rather than later. When it comes to ways to ‘gift’ something, there are many possibilities depending on your industry.
- Free samples: Given at a store entrance, to passers by, in mailings to clients
- Giving of free information: Like we are doing right now to you with this article
- Doing someone a favour
- Giving someone an extra service or more of your time
The giving of a gift therefore doesn’t always need to come with a cost. When it is a seemingly ‘costless’ gift, it is important to tactfully make it clear to the receiver that what they have received, was a gift to them.
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