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1. The "foot-in-the-door" and the "door in the face" compliance techniques sound similar, but they can be better understood by comparing and contrasting them. What psychological processes are responsible for each? What conditions need to be met (that is, who must make the request, what must the nature of the request be) for each to be effective?

2. Your mother (bless her heart) does not believe that you would flip the higher voltage switches if you participated in one of Milgram's experiments and were commanded to do so. What could you tell your mother about the Milgram situation that could get her to believe—really, truly believe—that maybe her child would act like the other participants after all?

3. It has been reported that Milgram became interested in studying the power of various politeness norms after witnessing the extent to which participants in his obedience experiments went along with the experimenter's commands out of a sense of propriety. This led Milgram to instruct his graduate students to, for example, get on an uncrowded bus and ask someone, with plenty of empty seats for all to see, to give up his or her seat. Everyone given this task reported that it was difficult to do; some simply couldn't do it. To get a firsthand look at how powerfully such norms affect our behavior, try doing what Milgram asked his graduate students to do. Can you?

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