Say "Buy this BECAUSE..." and you will sell

Thrilling research presented in Robert Cialdini´s book Influence:

We are more likely to get our way if we present a reason. Social psychologist at Harvard, Ellen Langer asked a small favor of people waiting in line to use a library copying machine. “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use he Xerox machine because I´m in a rush?” The effectiveness of this request-plus-reason was nearly total. 94% of those asked let her skip ahead of them in line.

Compare this success rate to the results when she made the request only: Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine”. Under those circumstances, only 60% of those asked complied.

Her third type of request used the word “because” and then adding nothing new, merely restated the obvious. “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies.” 93% agreed to this - even if she actually didn´t state any reason.

Sometimes marketing is as simple as saying "Buy this, because you should buy it"...