This is a good article, but it fails to explain the general principle. This is, if I remember correctly, that if it's harder to ask the question than it is to say yes, people tend to say yes. And if asking the question is easier than saying yes, people tend to say no. This has some cool implications for dating. For example, if you ask out a girl she is more likely to say yes if you do it in public, because the risk for the guy of being shot down in front of all his friends makes asking the question more difficult than saying yes for the girl.
I had actually read about this shortly before asking out my ex-gf, so I actually asked her out by posting on her Facebook wall. I think the exact message was "Hey, will you be my hot date to the farmer's market tomorrow???" As dumb as that sounds, we ended up dating for almost a year. Proving once again that the social sciences are more useful than most hackers give them credit for.
A classic experiment. Another interesting study involved giving people random and horrible excuses to cut into various lines. If you just asked to go ahead of someone most people would say no, but if you provide any sort of excuse people are quite willing.
I tried this a few times, and it works like a charm.
I think it is even more interesting from the point of view of the person asking. It explains why most people are not that good at negotiating. It is just hard to ask for what you want and yet remarkably effective.
I remember reading that it doesn't even has to be an excuse that gives any more information. You can use, "Excuse me, may I cut in front of you, because I need to make copies" and people will tend to let you cut.
What about asking somebody who is being impolite on the sub (playing loud music, shouting or even smoking) to stop?
Sometimes I feel really annoyed by some behaviors and given that I'm a bit introvert, polite and coward I find it's easier trying to tolerate it than asking them to stop.
I've seen people do that to subway preachers, but it doesn't really work: it just gives them someone to talk to (in addition to their invisible friends).
I had actually read about this shortly before asking out my ex-gf, so I actually asked her out by posting on her Facebook wall. I think the exact message was "Hey, will you be my hot date to the farmer's market tomorrow???" As dumb as that sounds, we ended up dating for almost a year. Proving once again that the social sciences are more useful than most hackers give them credit for.