A compliance technique where a small initial request is made first, and once agreed to, a larger request follows. People are more likely to comply with the bigger request because they want to appear consistent with their previous agreement.
The phrase comes from door-to-door salespeople literally placing their foot in the doorway to prevent it from closing. Psychologists Freedman and Fraser formalized this as a compliance technique in 1966, demonstrating how small commitments lead to larger ones.
Your brain hates being inconsistent so much that it will trick you into bigger commitments just to match smaller ones! Once you say 'yes' to putting up a small sign, you're psychologically primed to say 'yes' to hosting a giant billboard in your yard.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.