Chapter 3 3. Commitment and Consistency

"Encyclopedia Britannica" is a set of encyclopedias of tool nature consisting of 25 books. It generally adopts the form of direct sales, and the customer has a 15-day repentance period after signing the contract.That is to say, after the customer purchases the books, if he thinks that the set of books does not meet his requirements, he has the right to demand a full refund.In the case that the quality of the book is guaranteed to be intact, the sales company will give a refund.About 95% of salespeople have a return rate of 70% during this customer cooling off period.However, there are some salespeople whose refund rate is only 25%.Why?

"After the customer decides to buy, and before they sign the contract and finally decide to pay, I usually ask two additional questions. The first one is, 'From what I just said, do you really think this set of Encyclopaedia Britannica? Is it helpful for your child's education?' Since the customer expressed his understanding and said that it is indeed useful during the introduction just now, so at this time the customer will say, 'Yes, it is very useful.' At this time, I will ask the second Two questions: 'In the next two months, will you insist on finding an item based on your child's interests and explaining it to him every day?' Due to the formation of habits explained earlier and the benefits of using Encyclopedia Britannica consistently, I also explained how to improve children's intelligence, knowledge, and vision during use. Therefore, at this time, customers expressed their willingness to continue using it until their children develop their own habits. Among the number of customers who asked these two questions, 15 days calm down The return rate during the period is below 25%.” Why is this?

Several Canadian psychologists conducted an experiment and found an interesting phenomenon among horse gamblers, that is, once the horse gamblers placed a bet, they immediately had great confidence in the horse they bought. increase.In fact, the probability of winning for these horses has not changed at all. The horses are still the same horses, the track is the same track, and the field is the same.But in the eyes of these horse gamblers, once the bet is placed, the hope of winning these horses is greatly improved.Puzzling as it may seem at first glance, this shift has a lot to do with a common weapon of social influence.Like other weapons of influence, this one lies deep within us, quietly guiding our behavior.Simply put, the weapon is a desire to be consistent with what we have done in the past.Once we have made a decision, or taken a stand, we face personal and external pressure to behave in accordance with it.Under this pressure, we take certain actions to justify our previous decisions.

Let us look again at the experiment with bettors.Half a minute before they place their bets, they are hesitant, not at all sure whether their sycophants will win; but immediately after placing their bets, they become optimistic and confident in the horses they bet on.A key factor in the fundamental shift in attitude is the final decision they make (in this case, the bet).Once a position is chosen, the pressure to be consistent forces these individuals to think in line with what they have done in the past.They can only convince themselves that the choice they made was the right one, and no doubt they feel pretty good about it.

Racetrack bettors aren't the only ones who fool themselves. My neighbor Sarah is one of them.Let's take a look at her and her boyfriend - Tim's story.They met at a hospital where Tim was an X-ray technician and Sarah was a nutritionist.They dated for a long time, even after Tim lost his job.Finally, they finally moved in together.For Sarah, the relationship was never perfect.She wants to marry Tim, and wants Tim to stop drinking, but Tim refuses, and they fight about it.Eventually Sarah made up her mind and ended the relationship, and Tim moved out.Just then, Sarah's former boyfriend comes back into town and calls her.Then they started dating, and soon they were talking about marriage.They fixed a date and sent out invitations to friends and family.However, at this moment, Tim called.He said he regretted breaking up with Sarah and hoped the two could get back together.When Sarah told him that he was going to get married, he begged her to change her mind because he wanted to live with her as before.But Sarah refused his request, saying she never wanted to live the way she did before.Tim said again that he would like to marry Sarah, but Sarah said she preferred her current boyfriend.In the end, Tim said he would never drink again if only Sarah would forgive him.Sarah felt that if Tim could do that, he still had his advantage, so she decided to break off the engagement, call off the wedding, withdraw the invitations, and let Tim move back.

Within a month, Tim told Sarah that he didn't feel the need to stop drinking.A month later, he decided they should "wait and see for a while" before considering marriage.Two years later, Tim and Sarah are still living together as before.Tim is still drinking and still has no plans to marry, but Sarah is more faithful than ever.She said that because she had to choose between Tim and another boyfriend, she realized that Tim's place in her heart was irreplaceable.So Sarah was happier after choosing Tim over another boyfriend, even though none of the conditions that made her choose Tim materialized.Apparently, those punters aren't the only ones who believe in the tough choices they're making.In fact, each of us deceives ourselves from time to time so that our thoughts and beliefs are consistent with decisions we have made or actions we have taken.

Psychologists have long recognized the powerful influence of the consistency principle on human behavior.Many famous psychologists, such as Leon, have regarded this desire to be consistent as a major driving force that governs our behavior.But is this tendency to be consistent sometimes really strong enough to cause us to do things we don't want to do?Undoubtedly the answer is yes.This drive to be consistent continues to translate into a deadly weapon of social influence.Under its influence, we often do things against our will. To prove this, let us look at an experiment on stealing behavior conducted by psychologist Thomas on the beach in New York.The purpose of this experiment was to see whether bystanders would stop a crime at the expense of their personal safety.In this experiment, a colleague of the researcher will choose a random person on the beach as a test subject.The co-worker would place the towel about 5 feet away from him and lie comfortably on the towel, listening to music on the portable radio.After a few minutes, he'd get out of the towel and head for the beach.After a while, a second colleague came, pretending to be a thief.He would sneak up, pick up the radio, and hurry off.As you can probably guess, normally, the subjects would not take the risk of trying to stop the thief.In 20 experiments, only 4 people came forward.Then they slightly modified the procedure of this experiment and did it another 20 times, but the results were completely different.This time, he would simply ask the subject to look after his belongings before the first colleague got up to leave.Every subject agreed.Now, under the influence of the principle of consistency, 19 out of 20 test subjects have become lone heroes who stand up and stop crime.They chased the thief, told him to stop, demanded an explanation for his actions, and most of them rushed to grab him, or simply snatched the radio from him.

Why do people have such a strong drive to be consistent?To understand this, we must recognize that in most situations, being consistent is the most adaptive and respectful behavior.Inconsistency is generally considered a bad character.A person who is inconsistent in his beliefs, words, and actions is likely to be seen as indecisive, right and wrong, duplicitous, or even mentally ill.And a high degree of consistency is associated with a strong personality and extraordinary intelligence, representing strong logic, rationality, firmness and honesty.The great British chemist Michael Faraday once said that the degree of agreement to be consistent is sometimes greater than the degree of agreement to do it right.When Faraday was asked after a lecture if he was implying that his opponent's views were always wrong, Faraday replied dismissively, "He's not that consistent!"

So in our culture, we place a high value on the good quality of consistency, and rightly so.Because it makes our world more reasonable and brings more benefits to our world.In most cases, we get better results if we do things consistently.Otherwise, our lives would be difficult, irregular, and sometimes completely chaotic. But just as being consistent is often so good for me, it is so easy to get into the habit of being indiscriminately consistent, even when it is irrational.Being consistent without thinking can sometimes lead to disastrous results.Even so, blind consistency has its appeal. First, like most other forms of rote response, being consistent is a shortcut to our busy modern lives.Once we have made a decision about something, it becomes a very attractive thing to stick to it stubbornly, because we really don't need to think about it anymore.We don't have to sort out the relevant facts from the deluge of information we get every day, we don't have to use our brains to weigh the pros and cons, let alone make any difficult decisions.When we encounter the same problem again, all we have to do is activate the consistent tape, and with a "wow", we immediately know what we are going to believe, say or do.All we need to do is to make what we believe, say or do consistent with our previous decisions.

We cannot underestimate the temptation that this attraction has for us.It provides us with a quick and easy way to deal with complex everyday situations that seriously challenge our intelligence and abilities.So it's not hard to see why unconscious consistency is an unruly response that gives us a way to escape rumination.As Joshua said, "There is no way people can avoid really thinking." So when the consistency tape is turned, we are freed from painful thinking and can happily do our own thing. something happened. There is a second, more deadly temptation to mechanical consistency.Sometimes, what makes us avoid thinking is not the hardship of the thinking process, but the serious consequences of thinking.That is to say, it is the clear and unpopular conclusions of deep thought that make us bother to think about it.For some annoying things, we prefer to turn a blind eye.Because mechanical consistency is a programmed, knee-jerk reaction, it can provide us with a bulwark from our annoyance.When we hide behind the thick walls of this fortress, the onslaught of reason is powerless against us.

One night, while giving a lecture on transcendental meditation, I saw firsthand how people retreat into the fortress of consistency to escape the troubling consequences of thinking.The lecture was given by two very earnest young men to recruit new members for the Transcendental Meditation Society.The duo say they can teach people a magical meditation technique that allows them to get everything they want, from peace of mind to more advanced (and more expensive) things like flying or wearing Special functions such as passing through walls. I decided to attend this lecture in order to observe the submissive tactics used in such recruitment lectures.I also brought a friend with me.My friend is a college professor who works in statistics and symbolic logic, and he's also interested in things like transcendental meditation.As the host began to explain the theoretical rationale for transcendental meditation, I noticed my logician friend getting restless.He looked in pain, writhing in the seat.At last, he could bear it no longer.When the host asked everyone to ask questions after the lecture, he raised his hand.He overturned the entire lecture we had just heard in a very gentle but firm tone.In less than two minutes, he pointed out with great precision the contradictions, illogicalities, and lack of arguments in the lecture, and said why.His speech was a big blow to the host. The two hosts were at a loss. After a moment of silence, everyone tried to refute him.But their defenses seemed weak, and they had to stop and discuss with their companions halfway through their speeches.In the end, they had to admit that my friend's opinion was good enough to warrant further study. But what intrigued me even more was the impact that statement had on the rest of the audience.Once the question-and-answer period was over, the two hosts were surrounded by an audience, each vying to pay the $75 entry fee.When two people collect money, they touch each other from time to time, shrug their shoulders, or smile at each other.Apparently, they were also mystified by the audience's reaction.The embarrassing scene that happened just now clearly made their lecture a complete failure, but for some reason, this lecture has now achieved a great success, and the audience's response is beyond their expectations.Although I was a little puzzled myself, I concluded that the audience reacted this way because they did not understand my colleague's argument.However, when we learned the truth, we found out that the fact was exactly the opposite of what I had guessed. After the meeting was over, outside the lecture hall, three audience members came over to strike up a conversation with us.They all paid the registration fee immediately after the lecture.They wanted to know why we came to this lecture.We explained why and asked them the same questions.It turned out that one of them was an actor, and he was very ambitious and eager to succeed in the acting career, so it was time to see if transcendental meditation could give him the self-control he needed to be a proficient actor.The recruiter assured him that transcendental meditation would help him do just that.The second said she suffered from severe insomnia herself.She hopes that transcendental meditation will help her relax so that it will be easier to fall asleep at night.A third person, an unofficial spokesperson, also had problems related to sleep.He managed to pass his exams in college because he didn't have enough time to study.He came to this lecture to see if transcendental meditation would allow him to sleep less each day so that he could spend more time studying.Interestingly, even though he had the exact opposite of the insomniac's problem, the recruiter assured both of them that transcendental meditation would solve their problems.I also thought that these three people joined the Transcendental Meditation Society because they didn't understand the arguments of my logician friend, so I started questioning them about the arguments my friend made.To my amazement, they took his advice completely.In fact, they hear it all too well.It was because his argument was so convincing that they made the decision to join the association on the spot.The speaker said it well, "I didn't intend to hand in the money tonight because I'm in a tight spot right now and I wanted to wait until the next lecture. But as soon as your friend asked, I knew I'd better hand it in now." The money has been paid, because if I don't pay now, I will slowly ponder what he said when I go home. In that way, I am afraid I will never join this association." At this moment, I suddenly realized.These people are really facing some kind of problem, and they are desperately trying to find a solution to these problems.They searched and searched, and finally found that the solution to the problem lay in transcendental meditation.They desperately want the speaker's pitch to be real and believable, because then their problem can be solved. But at this moment, the rational voice of my colleague rang in their ears, pointing out that their newfound answers were not tenable at all.They panicked all at once.Do something before you become rational and lose hope again!Quick, quick, immediately build a high wall to attack rationally, even if it is a stupid wall, it doesn't matter. "Quick, find a place to hide from thinking. Come on! Take this money away. Ah, it's safe now, and you don't have to think about these issues anymore. The decision has been made, from now on, when you need it Just play consistent tapes.' Transcendental meditation? Of course I think it's going to help me, of course I'm going to keep practicing, of course I believe in it. I paid for it, didn't I? 'Oh, what a comfort it is to be consistent without thinking about it! I'm going to rest here for a while. It's better than worrying about finding it." If mechanical consistency does, as we have seen, lower rational thinking, it is not surprising that it is exploited by those who would most like to see us grant their requests without thinking.To those who profit from it, we make it profitable by granting their demands without a second thought; Inexhaustible gold mine.They activate our internal consistency tapes so subtly that we don't know when they're making a fortune.When dealing with us, they exercised the mastery of a jujitsu master, so that our need to be consistent became their profit. This is the approach used by some of the largest toy manufacturers in the face of seasonal fluctuations in toy sales.The hottest time for the toy business is of course during the Christmas season.It's that time of year when toymakers make a lot of money.But toy sales tend to plummet in the months that follow.Because the grown-ups have just spent their entire budget on toys, they will resolutely refuse the children's requests to buy more toys.Even children who have birthdays just after Christmas get few toys because parents run out of money on toys during the Christmas period. In this way, toy manufacturers have encountered a dilemma: how to maintain high sales volume during the peak sales season, while maintaining normal demand for toys in the next few months?It's not hard to convince our already insatiable next generation to keep asking for new toys.No matter what time of year it is, a series of flashy commercials on a Saturday morning animated show can have little ones crying, coaxing and cajoling their parents into asking for the toy .No, the problem isn't at all about prodding kids to ask for more toys after Christmas. The problem is getting parents who just spent a lot of money at the holidays to be willing to buy another toy for their little one who already has too many.What can a toy company do to accomplish this nearly impossible task?Some companies chose to advertise more, while others lowered prices.But both of these standard promotions have had little effect.These two methods not only cost too much, but also failed to achieve the expected level of sales.Parents just don't want to buy toys for their kids, and neither advertising nor price cuts can change these determined parents' minds. However, some big toy manufacturers have found a good way.It's a pretty neat idea, just spend normal advertising dollars and understand that people want to be consistent.I first became aware of this ploy of the toy companies after I fell into their trap, and then foolishly fell into their trap again. It was a rough day in January, and I was visiting one of the biggest toy stores in town.After buying too many toys for my son in the last month, I once swore I wouldn't be in this place again for a long time.But now, not only did I come to this damn place again, but I also had to buy another expensive toy for my son—a large electric racing car.In front of the race car display case, I ran into a former neighbor who also came to buy this electric race car for his son.Oddly enough, we almost never run into each other, and it's been a year since we last saw each other.In fact, the two of us also met in this toy store that time.It was just after Christmas, and we were all buying our son an expensive gift, a walking, talking, and pooping robot.We both amused the pattern of our meeting once a year, at the same time, in the same place, doing the same thing.When I got back, I mentioned this chance encounter to a friend.Coincidentally, this friend of mine just used to work in the toy industry. "It's no coincidence," he said affirmatively. "It's not a coincidence? What do you mean by that?" "Okay," he said, "let me ask you a few questions about the race car you bought this year. The first question is, did you promise your son you would buy him one for Christmas?" "Yeah, my son saw a lot of commercials for this car on the Saturday morning animation show, and he said it was what he wanted for Christmas. I've seen the commercials myself a few times and thought it was funny, so I Promise to buy him one." "Okay, I got a point," he yelled. "The second question is, when you went to buy the toy, did every store sell out?" "Yeah. These stores say they have an order, but they don't know when it will arrive. So I had to buy some quilt toys for my son as compensation. How do you know?" "Another point," he said. "Let me ask you another question. Did the same thing happen to you a year ago when you bought your robot toy?" "Wait a minute... You're right, that's exactly what happened. It's unbelievable, how do you know?" "I don't have any special abilities, but I just happen to know some tricks that a few toy companies use to increase sales in January and February. They start doing some very attractive advertisements for some special toys before Christmas. Children. , naturally wanting what they see, so naturally begging their parents to buy these toys for Christmas. Well, now these companies are about to execute their genius plan: they are deliberately undersupplying these toys. Some parents will find that these toys have been sold out, so they have to buy a toy with a similar price instead. Of course, the toy dealers are in sufficient supply of these replacement toys. Special toys were advertised. This time, the little ones wanted them even more, and they would run to their parents, crying, 'You promised me, you promised.' No promise, so I had to go to the toy store to buy it.” "It's in these toy stores," I said, beginning to get a little excited, "that they run into some other parents of kids who fall into the same trap, don't they?" "Yes, hey, where are you going?" "I'm going to return this racing car!" I yelled angrily. "Wait. First think about why you bought this toy?" "Because I don't want to disappoint my son, because I want to tell him to keep his promises." "Well, what good will you do? You see, if you take his toys away, he doesn't know why. All he knows is that his father didn't keep his word. You want that?" "No," I said with a sigh, "I guess I don't want that. I'd still be in the dark if you hadn't told me they'd doubled their profits on me for the past two years .Now that I know what's going on, there's nothing I can do. Because I said yes to my son. So, what you're trying to say now is, 'I got another point.'" He nodded and said, "Yes. And you're out." The reason why such a good book has been recommended by me to clients and those engaged in marketing and sales for 5 consecutive years is because of its internal laws and the effective effect of these laws on scientific marketing planning and scientific marketing steps. Once we realize the great influence of the principle of consistency on human behavior, we will naturally think of such a very important and practical question: "How to use this power? That is, let the powerful consistency tape" How on earth does the "click" sound come from when it turns "wow"? Social psychologists think they have found the answer, and it is commitment. If I can make you commit (that is, choose a position), I will do it for Your next mechanical, unconscious act of being consistent sets the stage. Once a stance has been chosen, it is a natural tendency to tenaciously cling to it. We've seen that social psychologists aren't the only ones who know about the relationship between "commitment and consistency."Almost every compliance maven employs a commitment tactic against us.Every commitment tactic induces us to take a certain action or make a certain statement, and then uses our pressure to conform to what we have said or done in the past to force us into conformity.There are many ways to get us committed, some straightforward and others quite subtle. For example, let's say you want to add some people to your community and have them come to your door to raise money for your favorite charity.It will help a lot if you learn the methods that social psychologist Steven uses.He called random residents of Bloomington, Indiana, and asked them what they would say if someone asked them to spend three hours raising money for the American Cancer Society.Most of the people certainly didn't want to appear unloving in front of the investigators, so they said they were very happy to be volunteers.A few days later, when the American Cancer Society actually called to recruit volunteers, the effect of this carefully crafted commitment method was revealed: the number of volunteers increased sevenfold.A team led by Anthony took the same approach, but this time asking residents of Columbus, Ohio, to predict whether they would vote on Election Day.As a result, those who had been surveyed by telephone turned up to vote for President of the United States at a significantly higher rate. A technique for soliciting pledges that some phone fundraisers have recently developed is even more subtle.Have you ever noticed that the people who come in and call you to donate seem to ask about your health or current state before asking for a donation.They say, "Hello, sir and madam, how are you tonight?" Want to get your response.Because normally, to this kind of polite, superficial greeting, you would also respond with polite, superficial words — “It’s okay,” “That’s great,” or “That’s great, thank you.” .Once you publicly state that all is well, it becomes much easier for this fundraiser to urge you to help the less fortunate: "I'm glad to hear that. Because I'm calling to ask Would you like to donate some money to help those unfortunate victims..." The theory behind this technique is that people who have just indicated that everything is fine (even if it is only for social reasons) will embarrass themselves if they then appear to be mean.If this explanation seems far-fetched to you, let's take a look at the research market research expert Daniel did to test this theory.In his experiment, some residents of Dallas, Texas received a call from the Hunger Relief Committee asking if they would like someone from the Committee to come to their home to sell a kind of cookie, Proceeds from the bread will be used to feed those in need.When the request was made alone (a method known as the "standard request method"), 18 percent said yes to the request.However, if the caller first asks, "How are you feeling tonight?" and waits for an answer before using the standard solicitation method, something worth noting happens.First, of the 120 people who answered the phone, the majority (108) gave an idiomatic response ("very good," "nice," "very good," etc.).Second, 32 percent of those who were asked the question "How are you feeling tonight?" agreed to have someone from the Hunger Relief Committee come to their home to sell cookies, almost twice as many as the standard request. times.Third, as the consistency principle would predict, nearly everyone who agreed that they would sell cookies at their door did, in fact, buy cookies at home (89%). Howard did another experiment to show that the technique only works, not because fundraisers who use it seem more caring and polite than those who don't.This time, the caller started with "how are you feeling tonight?"While fundraisers tend to be very warm and friendly when using any of these openers, using "How are you feeling tonight?" is significantly more effective than the other (33% of people agree vs. 15%), because such claims can elicit public promises from respondents that can be exploited by fundraisers.Remarkably, this commitment doubled the rate at which respondents agreed to the fundraiser's request, even though the question asked was a completely frivolous one and their answers were of little substance. .Here's another example of how this social jiu jitsu works. Why does promise have such a significant effect?There is more than one answer to this question, because the binding force of a promise on our future behavior can be affected by many factors.There is an example that perfectly illustrates this point.It was a massive, elaborate plan to get them to comply.One of the most striking things about the program is that it has systematically used these factors for decades.At that time, psychologists had not discovered these factors at all. That was during the war between AB and AB.At that time, many captured soldiers of country A found that they had been locked up in a prisoner-of-war camp managed by people of country C.They soon discovered that the people of Country C treated prisoners of war in a completely different way than their ally, Country B. The people of country B are more willing to use brutal behavior and cruel punishment to make the prisoners of war obey; while the people of country C deliberately avoid the appearance of barbaric acts. They adopt the so-called "leniency policy", which is essentially a well-designed psychological warfare.After the war, in order to find out what happened in the prisoner-of-war camp, the psychologists of country A carefully questioned these returning prisoners of war.This intensive psychological investigation was undertaken in part because the success of some of the prisoner-of-war policies of Country C was very disturbing to the people of Country A.For example, the people of country C managed to make the prisoners of war denounce each other, which is in stark contrast to the situation in the prisoner of war camps of country A during World War II.For this reason, and a number of other factors, escape plans by prisoners of war were often uncovered, and escapes were almost never successful. "When the prisoners of war were about to escape," wrote Dr. Edgar, the Chief Investigator of Country A, who was in charge of investigating the prisoner transformation plan of Chinese C in the war between AB and AB, "by giving the high-density people a bag of rice, the people of C It is easy to capture those who have escaped.” In fact, it is said that almost all the prisoners of war in country A who have stayed in the prisoner-of-war camps of country C have cooperated with people of country C in one way or another. A survey of the POW rehabilitation program in Country C revealed that the camp administrators mainly relied on the pressure of "commitment and agreement" on the prisoners to obtain their obedience.Of course, the first problem faced by people from country C is how to get these people from country A to cooperate with them.这些人都是受过严格训练的军人，除了姓名、军衔和编号之外，他们是不会提供其他任何信息的。如果不对他们进行严刑拷打，这些管理人员怎样才能让他们提供军事情报、告发自己的同伴或者公开诋毁自己的国家呢？ C国人的答案很简单：从小事做起，循序渐进，慢慢积累。 比如说，他们经常要战俘们发表一些很温和的反对A国或者返回战争的言论（比如“A国并不完美”，“和平是美好的”等等）。然而，一旦战俘们答应了这些小小的要求，他们就会发现，自己要被迫面对更多的与此有关的要求。如果一个战俘同意了C国审讯官认为“A国并不完美”的观点，那么这个审讯官就会要他举出一些不完美的例子。一旦他举出了例子，审讯官又会要求他将这些“A国存在的问题”列在一张纸上，并在上面签上自己的名字。稍后，在与其他战俘进行小组讨论时，审讯官可能会要求他宣读自己所写的这个清单，并问他，“你真的相信你所写的一切，是不是？”再后来，他们又会要求他以这个清单为基础写一篇文章来更详细地讨论这些问题。 随后，C国人可能会自爱一个反对A国的广播中提到这个战俘的名字并宣读他所写的文章。不但整个战俘营的人能听到广播，就连B国的其他战俘营和A国军队也能听到。突然之间，战俘发现自己成了一名给敌人帮忙的“合作者”。由于意识到自己写的那篇文章并不是出于胁迫，于是他会开始改变自己的形象，以便使自己的形象与他的所作所为以及新贴上的“合作者”的标签相一致，这样一来又导致了更多更广泛的合作。因此，薛恩博士说，“只有极少数人能够完全避免合作，绝大部分的人都曾做过一些看起来无关紧要的事情，但这些事情却被C国人转化为对自己有利的因素……这种方法在让战俘们坦白交待、做自我批评以及提供情报时特别有效。” 许多商业机构经常会用到这种方法。对于销售人员来说，这个策略就是放长线、钓大鱼。第一笔生意再小也要做，因为我们的目的不是为赚钱，而是为了获得对方的承诺。一旦获得了对方的承诺，那更多的生意，甚至是更大的生意，自然会从这个承诺中源源而来。贸易杂志《美国销售员》上的一篇文章对此做了简要的描述：一般的做法是通过获得小笔的订单为以后的全面销售铺路……不妨这样来看——当一个人和你签订购买合同时，即使利润少到几乎不足以弥补你在他身上所花费的时间和精力，他也不再是一个潜在顾客了，而已经成为你的客户。 这种开始时提出很小的请求，为的是让对方最终答应那些更大的、与之相关的请求的策略叫做“先诱敌上钩法”。社会科学家们第一次认识到这种策略的威力是在20世纪60年代中期。当时心理学家乔纳森和斯科特公布了一组惊人的数据，他们将一项实验的研究结果公之于众。在这个研究中，研究人员假扮成义工，在加州的一个居民区内挨家挨户地向居民们提出一个荒唐的请求：希望这些居民允许他们将一块公共广告牌竖在他们门前的草地上。为了让这些居民了解广告牌竖起来之后会是什么样子，他们给居民们看了一张照片。在这张照片上，一栋漂亮的房子几乎被一块很大的广告牌遮得严严实实，广告牌歪歪扭扭地写着几个字：小心驾驶。同一地区的其他居民大多理所当然地拒绝了这个要求（83%），但有一组人却对此特别地赞同，他们当中有76%的人同意将他们门前的草坪贡献出来。 这些人之所以会如此地顺从，主要是与两周前发生的一件事有关。两周之前，另外一个义工登门拜访，请他们接受并设法展示一块3英寸见方的小牌子，上面写着“做安全司机”。这个请求实在不算什么，所以几乎所有的人都答应了。但这个请求所产生的效果却是惊人的。就因为几个星期之前他们不经意地答应了一个微不足道的安全驾驶的要求，致使几个星期后他们轻易地答应了竖起一块超大的广告牌的请求。 但是，弗雷德慢和弗雷泽的研究并没有就此结束。他们又在另一群居民身上做了一个大同小异的实验。他们首先请这些居民在一份名为“让加州保持它的美丽”的请愿书上签名。当然几乎每一个人都签了名，因为一个州的美丽，就像高效率的政府或健全的产前保健一样，几乎都是没有任何人会反对的问题。两个星期之后，弗雷德曼和弗雷泽又派了一个新的“义工”去这些居民家里要求把那块巨大的、“安全驾驶”的牌子竖到他们门前的草坪上。从某些方面来看，这一组人的反应是最令他们始料不及的，因为差不多有一半的人答应了这个请求。尽管两个星期之前他们做出的承诺并不是关于交通安全，而是关于另外一个公益事业主题——美化环境的。 刚开始的时候，就连弗雷德曼和弗雷泽也被自己的发现搞懵了。为什么一个签名支持美化环境的不起眼的行为会使人们答应另外一个完全不同而且分量也重得多的请求呢？在考虑并排除了其他很多原因之后，弗雷德曼和弗雷泽终于给这个难题找到了一个答案：这些人在美化环境的请愿书上签了名之后，就改变了对自己的看法，他们觉得自己成了按市民公约办事、充满公德心的人。两个星期之后，当有人要求他们为公益事业做另外一件事儿，也就是展示这块“安全驾驶”的大牌子时，为了使自己的行为和刚刚形成的自我形象相吻合，他们立刻答应了这个请求。按照弗雷德曼和弗雷泽的说法是： 这里，人们对参与的活动或采取的行动有了不同的感觉。一旦他同意了某个请求，他的态度就会发生改变，他会变成他心目中的那种人。他会答应陌生人的请求，会对自己所信奉的事情采取行动，会大力支持正当的事情。 因此，弗雷德曼和弗雷泽的发现给我们的启示就是：即使是对一些看起来微不足道的请求，我们也要保持警惕。答应这种小小的请求，不仅会使我们更容易答应相似的、更大的请求，而且也会使我们更愿意答应那些更大的、与之前小的请求无关的请求。而正是藏在这种小小承诺背后的、具有普遍性的影响力，让我觉得心惊胆战。 正是出于对这中威力的恐惧，我现在再也不愿意在请愿书上签名了，即使对我支持的立场也不例外。因为这种举动不仅可能会影响到我将来的行为，而且还会改变我的自我形象，而这种形象可能并不是我希望的。一旦一个人的自我形象发生了改变，就会给那些想要利用这种新形象的人带来可乘之机。 在弗雷德曼和弗雷泽调查的居民中，有谁会想到那个要他们在“让加州保持它的美丽”的请愿书上签名的“义工”其真正目的是两个星期之后要他们同意立一块“安全驾驶”的牌子呢？而他们当中又有谁会意识到他们之所以同意立这块牌子，主要是因为他们签署了那份请愿书呢？我猜恐怕没有一个人会想到这一点。如果牌子竖起来之后他们有些后悔的话，除了他们自己和他们那该死的、强烈的公民意识外，他们还能怪谁呢？可能他们永远也不会想到那个拿着“让加州保持它的美丽”的请愿书的人跟这一切有什么关系，当然就更不会想到柔术方面的知识了。 也许你已经注意到了，所有这些“先诱敌上钩”的专家们都对同一件事情感兴趣，那就是他可以利用一个小小的承诺来操作一个人的自我形象。用这种方法，你可以把普通公民变成“人民的公仆”，把潜在顾客变成“客户”，把囚犯变成“合作者”。一旦你把一个人的自我形象变成了你想要的样子，他一定会答应你所有的要求，只要这些请求与他的新形象相一致。 然而，并不是所有的承诺都能够影响人的自我形象。要想达到这样的效果，承诺必须要具备一定的条件。为找出这些条件是什么，让我们再来看看AB两国交战中A国战俘在C国战俘营里的经历吧。我们知道，C国人的主要目的并不是要从战俘那里获取情报，而是要给他们灌输一种信仰，让他们改变对自己、对自己国家的政治制度以及对自己国家在战争中扮演的角色的态度和看法。而结果表明，C国人的战俘改造计划取得了惊人的效果。 亨利博士是对战后归来的战俘进行心理评估的小组组长。据他报告，这些人关于战争的信念发生了根本的改变，他们大多数人相信是自己国家发动了这场战争，而且很多人觉得他们自己的军队才是发动这场战争的侵略者，而且这些人的政治态度也发生了改变。 看来C国人真正的目的是去改变战俘们的心灵和思想，哪怕是暂时的也好。如果我们从“变节、不忠、态度和信仰发生改变、军纪涣散、士气低落以及怀疑A国在战争中的角色”等方面来衡量C国人所取得的成绩的话，就像西格博士所得出的结论一样：“他们取得的成就就是巨大的。”因为承诺策略在C国人改造战俘的内心和思想的过程中卓有成效。 一个人的行为比言语更能暴露他的真实想法，因此人民经常通过观察一个人的行为来对这个人做出判断。我们也会用同样的依据来判断自己是什么样的人，我们的行为会告诉我们关于自己的一切。也就说，行为是人民用来判断自己的信仰、价值观和态度的最主要的依据。C国人在充分理解自我认识这一重要原理后，开始在战俘营中运用这个原理，以便能使战俘们按照他们的意愿采取一致性的行为。C国人知道，用不了多久，这些行为就会发生作用，它们会改变战俘们对自己的看法并使它们的行为与自己的看法保持一致。 写作是C国人经常采用的，用来坚定战俘信念的一种手段。对战俘来说，仅仅是静静地倾听或这是口头上赞同C国人的方针政策是不够的，他们还必须要时常将自己的想法写出来。C国人特别想得到战俘们的书面声明，以至于如果战俘不愿意将他们的想法写下来，他们就会劝他抄一篇别人写的感想。心理学家埃德加对改造策略做了如下描述： 他们采用的进一步措施就是要这些人把问题写出来，然后再给出答案。如果他不愿意写，那他可以从笔记本上抄一段。这看上去似乎不是什么大不了的让步。 好一个“不是什么大不了的让步”！我们已经看到过，即使是一些微不足道的承诺，也可以让我们采取进一步的行动。而且，作为一种获得承诺的手段，书面声明有着巨大的优势。首先，书面声明为此事的发生提供了一个物质证据。一旦战俘将C国人希望的东西写下来，那他就没有机会说自己记不清这件事获择干脆对此矢口否认，因为白纸黑字写得清清楚楚。上面是他自己的笔迹，那些被记载下来的无法抵赖的行为促使他令自己的信仰和自我形象与他的行为保持一致。 书面声明的第二个优势是，可以把它出示给其他人看。这就意味着可以用书面声明来说服他人，使他们改变自己的态度接受声明的主张。但更重要的是，它可以让读者相信声明说出了作者的心里话。人们往往本能地认为声明反映的是作者真实的态度，这并不奇怪。但出人意料的是，当他们知道作者写这份声明并非于自愿时，他们还是会坚持这样的看法。 心理学家爱德华和詹姆斯所做的一个实验就证明了这一点。在这个实验中，他们让实验对象看一篇称赞卡斯特罗的文章，并让他们猜测作者的真实意图。对其中的一些人，他们说作者写这篇文章完全是出于自愿；而对另外一些人，他们则说作者写这篇文章是身不由己。但令人奇怪的是，即使是后一种人也猜测作者是喜欢卡斯特罗的。由此看来，表达个人信仰的声明也会令看过声明的人产生“咔哒，哗”的反应。除非能够拿出强有力的反面证据，否则人们会自动认为一个人做出这样的声明一定是发自内心的。 因此，如果一个战俘写下了拥护C国或者是反对A国的声明，这份声明就会对他的自我形象产生双重作用。因为这份声明不仅会一致提醒他曾经做过这样的举动，而且还会让他周围的人相信这份声明表达了他的真实想法。在第4章中我们将会看到，旁人对我们的看法会极大地影响我们对自己的认识。比如说，有一个实验发现，康涅迪格州纽黑文市的一些家庭主妇在听说自己给人的印象是乐善好施后，当“多发性硬化症协会”来募捐时，她们表现得非常慷慨。很显然，仅仅因为知道自己在人家眼里显得有善心，就足以让这些妇女积极行善了。 由此看来，一旦人们主动做出了一个承诺，自我形象就会受到一致性原理的双重压力。一是来自内心的压力，它迫使我们的所作所为要与我们的形象保持一致；另一方面是来自外界的无形的压力，它要求我们要按照他人的看法来调整自己的形象。而且由于旁人对我们的看法是从我们所写的东西得来的（尽管在这件事情上我们完全是身不由己），因此我们会再一次感受到必须让自我形象与书面声明保持一致的这种压力。 在AB国两国交战中，C国人并没有通过高压手段迫使战俘们写下她们想要的东西，相反，她们采用的方法非常巧妙。例如，她们知道很多战俘都急于让家人知道自己还活者。同时，战俘们也知道他们的邮件会受到审查，只有很少的一部分能寄出去。为了保证自己的信能寄出去，有些俘虏开始在信中加入一些向往和平、说自己在战俘营中过得不错的内容。他们认为C国人希望看到这样的信，因而会把这些信寄出去。C国人当然愿意这么做，因为这些战俘的宣言不仅对他们在全世界范围的宣传很有帮助，而且也使得他们在改造战俘的过程中不费吹灰之力就得到了更多人的书面记录。 C国人还经常使用另外一个类似的技巧，就是定期在战俘营中举行政治征文比赛。获胜者的奖品其实很小——几根香烟或是一点点水果。但在那个物质匮乏的年代，即便是这些小东西也很难得到。因此还是能够引起战俘们的兴趣。获奖的文章通常都是坚定地站在C国的立场上的，但也并非总是如此。C国人非常聪明，他们知道，如果只有写称赞C国好的文章才能获胜，那么大多数战俘都不会参加比赛。而且他们也知道，如何才能让战俘对C国所做出的承诺这朵小花结出丰硕的果实，所以偶尔也会有一两篇基本上支持A国、但也有一两处赞同C国的观点的文章获奖。结果这个策略非常有效，战俘们仍旧愿意参加这个比赛，因为他们看到极力赞美自己国家的文章也能获奖。但他们可能没有意识到，为了提高获胜的几率，他们文章的调子已经稍微有些改变了，开始偏向C国的立场了。而C国人早已经做好了准备：只要看到战俘对此做出了一点点让步，他们就会趁热打铁，把保持一致的压力施加到他们身上。在这种情况下，战俘们自愿写的文章使C国人获得了完美的承诺，以此为基础，战俘们的合作和转变就可以开始了。 其他让人顺从的行家们也深知书面声明的威力。例如，获得了巨大成功的安利公司偶然发现了一个能刺激销售人员取得更大成就的方法，那就是要求每一位销售人员订下一个销售目标，并把这个目标写在一张纸上： 在你开始之前，给你最后一点忠告：制订一个目标并把它写下来。不管这个目标是什么，重要的是你要把它写下来，这样你就有了一个为之努力的方向。把东西写下来有一种神奇的力量，所以这样做是绝对必要的。当达到这个目标后，你要再定一个更高的目标而且还要把它写下来。这样你的进步一定很快。 如果说安利公司发现“把东西写下来有一种神奇的力量”，那其他商业机构在这方面也并不迟钝。一些上门推销的公司就是利用书面承诺的魔力来对付最近在很多州获得通过的“冷却期法”。所谓“冷却期法”，就是顾客在买下一件商品后，几天之内是可以退货的，并能拿回全部的货款。刚开始的时候，这条法律的实行严重打击了那些强行推销的公司。由于这些公司采用的都是高压的推销手段，顾客买下它们的商品并不是真心喜爱这件商品，而是因为受到了迷惑或威胁。当这条新法律生效后，很多顾客都退掉了它们购买的商品。 但这些公司很快就找到了一个解决办法，明显地降低了顾客退货的数量。它们的做法非常简单，就是将以前由销售人员填写销售合同改为让顾客自己填写。正如一家很有名的百科全书公司的销售人员培训大纲所指出的，“个人承诺已被证明是一种非常重要的、可以防止顾客变卦的心理工具。”就像安利公司一样，这些公司发现当人们把承诺写在纸上时，奇迹就发生了：它们都履行了自己写下的承诺。 很多公司常用的另外一个借助书面声明的影响力的方法是，使用一种看上去并没有什么恶意的促销手段。在我开始研究社会影响力的武器之前，我常常会觉得纳闷，为什么像宝洁和通用食品这样的大公司经常发起“少与25、50或100字”的征文比赛。这些比赛看上去大同小异，都是要求参赛者写一份简短的个人声明，以“为什么我喜欢……”开头，接着便极力吹捧该公司的某种商品，不管这种商品是蛋糕也好，还是地板腊也罢。这些公司会对参赛作品进行评选，获胜者可以得到丰厚的奖品。我以前一直想不明白，这些公司究竟能从这种活动中得到社名。通常，参赛者无需购买该公司的任何商品，任何人都可以参加比赛。然而，令人感到奇怪的是，很多公司却乐意支付巨额的费用，将这种比赛一届接一届地举办下去。 当然，我现在已经不再迷惑了。这种征文比赛的目的与C国战俘营中举办的政治征文比赛的目的同出一辙，就是让尽可能多的人把他们对某种商品的喜爱之情记录下来。在这里，是哪种商品并不重要，重要的是过程是相同的。为了赢取那些不易到手的、极具诱惑力的奖品，人们自愿参加征文比赛。而且他们知道，要想在比赛中胜出，就免不了对这种商品大肆吹捧一番。所以，他们会挖空心思地找出该商品某种值得称赞的特性，并在他们的文章中尽情赞美。这样做的结果就是，成千上万的人都用书面的形式为一种商品做了见证，紧接着，他们都感受到了一股奇妙的推动力，令他们不知不觉地就相信了自己所写的东西。 书面声明之所以能够有效地改变一个人，一个重要的原因就是它很容易被公之于众。A国战俘的经历表明，C国人已经清楚地认识到一则重要的心理学原理，那就是公开承诺往往会转变成一种长久的承诺。C国的战俘管理人员一直刻意地让战俘们看到其他战俘所写的亲C的声明。只要有人写了一篇受C国人欢迎的政治文章，他们就将它贴在战俘营的各个角落，或者要求作者在战俘们的讨论会上，甚至在战俘营的广播上宣读它。只要是C国人关注的问题，那当然是知道的人越多越好。但为什么会是这样呢？ 原来，当一个人公开选择了某种立场之后，马上就产生一种维持这个立场的压力，因为他想在别人眼里显得前后一致。在本章的前面我们已经将过，前后一致是一种十分令人向往的性格特征。不具备这种特征的人往往会被大家认为是变化无常、优柔寡断、圆滑世故、三心二意、举棋不定的，反之则会被认为是通情达理、信心十足、值得信赖、健全稳妥的。这样一来，当然谁都不想被归入自相矛盾的行列。所以，为了保住面子，知道你的立场的人越多，你就越不愿意去改变它。 杰出的社会心理学家莫顿和哈罗德做了一个很著名的实验，充分证明了一个公开做出的承诺更有可能导致以后固执地保持一致的行为。实验的主要内容是要大学生们在心里估计他们所看到的线条的长度。第一组学生必须把他们估计的数值公之于众，他们要把自己估计的数值写下来，签上自己的名字，然后交给主持实验的人。第二组学生也要发表自己的看法，但他们只是在私下里把自己估计的数值写在一个写字板上，而且在任何人看到之前可以将它擦掉。第三组学生根本不用公开表达他们的看法，只要把自己估计的数值记在脑子里就行了。 通过这种方法，多奇和杰勒德巧妙地让一些学生公开发表他们的看法，一些学生私下表达他们的看法，而另一些学生则根本不用表达他们的看法。多奇和杰勒德想要知道的是，在这三组学生中，哪一组学生在得知他们的估计不正确之后，会更加坚持他们最初的判断。因此，在学生们对线条的长度做出估计之后，研究人员给出新的证据并指出他们最初的判断是错误的，而这时候他们仍有机会改变自己最初的判断。 结果很清楚，那些从来没有把自己的估计写下来的学生是最不忠实于自己最初的判断的。当新的证据被提出来，对那个从来未离开过其脑海的判断提出疑问时，这些信息极大地影响了学生，使他们轻易地放弃了自己先前认为正确的决定。与那些没有公开表达自己意见的学生相比，可以明显地看出那些把自己的判断写在写字板上的学生不太愿意去改变自己的决定。虽然他们是在匿名的情形下表达了自己的意见，但写下他们的最初判断这一行为还是令他们对那些与最初判断相矛盾的新信息产生了抵触情绪。不过多奇和杰勒德发现，那些把他们的最初决定公之于众的学生，是最不愿意改变自己立场的。公开的表态已经把他们变成了最僵化、最固执的人。 这种固执甚至会在准确比一致更重要的情况下看到。在有一个实验中，6人或者12人的实验陪审团要判一个很难断定的案子。如果每位陪审员必须要公开发表自己的意见而不是采用不记名投票的方式的话，那不能定案的情况会大大地增加。因为一旦陪审员们公开发表了他们的看法，他们就不愿当众改变自己的立场了。所以，在这种情况下，如果你是陪审长，你就应该采用不记名投票而不是公开投票的方式得到陪审团的意见，这样可以大大降低不能达成一致意见的风险。 多奇和杰勒德发现，我们可以利用人们更加忠实于自己的公开决定这一特点。那些专门帮助他人摆脱不良习惯的组织就充分地利用了这一点。例如，很多减肥诊所就懂得，一个人私下做出的减肥决定通常都不够坚定，当他遇到烘烤店橱窗里的诱人食品，闻到空气中飘散的烹饪时的香气，或者看到深夜电视上莎拉的广告时，他的减肥行动就坚持不下去了。所以，必须用公开的承诺把他的决定加固一下。他们的做法是要求顾客写下一个近期的减肥目标，并把这个目标拿给尽可能多的朋友、亲戚和邻居看。据很多开办诊所的人说，当别的办法都不起作用时，这个简单的方法常常都会生效。 其实，无需给这种特别的诊所付钱就可以让公开承诺发挥出它的威力。一位圣迭哥的妇女就向我将过她是怎样公开承诺最终把烟戒掉的故事。 我记得那是在听了另一个关于吸烟会致癌的科学报告之后。每当我听完这种报告之后，我都会下决心戒烟，但从来没有做到过。但这一次，我决心一定要做出点样子来。我是一个自尊心很强的人，非常在意别人对我的看法。所以我想，“也许我可以利用我的自尊心来摆脱这个该死的习惯。”于是我列出了一张名单，将我希望能够尊重我的人的名字写在上面。然后我出去买了一些空白的卡片回来。我在每张卡片的背后写道：“我向你保证我以后再也不抽烟了。” 一周之后，我给名单上的每一个人都送了一张签了名的卡片，包括我爸爸、我住在东部的哥哥、我的老板、我最好的女朋友、我的前夫。只有一个人我没有给，那就是我正在约会的男朋友。我很爱我的男朋友，特别希望他能尊重我。相信我，有两次我都想给他一张卡片，但我知道如果不能对他信守诺言的话，我简直活不下去。但是有一天，在办公室（我们在同一栋大楼里上班），我径直走到他面前，递给他一张卡片，然后一言不发地走开了。 这样斩钉截铁地把烟戒掉，是我做过的最困难的一件事。有几千次我都觉得我一定得来一根。但每当这个时候，我就会想像在我名单上的那些人，尤其是我的男朋友，会因为我不能履行自己的诺言而轻视我。这样一想我就挺住了，我再也没有抽过一口烟。 你知道，最有趣的是，这家伙真是个傻瓜。那时候，我不知道他在背后默默地支持我。但在那个时候，他帮我度过我这辈子最为艰难的时刻。现在，我不再爱他了，但我仍然很感激他，因为他挽救了我的一生。 书面承诺之所以有效，另一个原因就是它比那些口头承诺需要更多的努力。有确凿的证据表明，履行一个承诺所要付出的努力越多，这个承诺对许诺者的影响就越大。近在我们身边，远至遥远的原始部落，都能找到证据。例如，在非洲南部有一个名为铜迦的部落。这个部落的男孩必须要经过一个复杂的成年仪式才能成为一个真正的男子汉。像很多其他的部落一样，铜迦部落的男孩也要在经历很多痛苦之后才能迈入成年人的行列。人类学家怀廷、克拉克洪和安东尼用简洁而生动的文字描绘了这场历时三个月的磨难：当一个男孩长到10-16岁之间时，会被父母送到“净化学校”去。这样的学校大概每隔四五年会办一次。在这里，他和其他年纪相仿的伙伴们要一起承受成年男子对他们的侮辱和折磨。当每个男孩奔跑着穿过两旁手执棍棒向他挥舞的人群时，成年仪式就开始了。接着他被剥光了衣服，头发也被剃了个精光。随后，他要坐在一块石头上，面对一个披着狮子皮的“狮人”，而且有人会从后面打他。当他回头去看打他的人时，“狮人”会趁机抓住他的包皮，三下五除二地把它割下来。之后，他要在“神秘院”隐居三个月。在这三个月里，只有通过了成年仪式的人才可以去看他。 在整个成年仪式中，一个男孩要经过6种主要考验：毒打、严寒、干渴、吃难以下咽的食物、惩罚以及死亡的威胁。随便找一个小小的借口，他就可以被部落里年长的男人派来的一个刚刚通过成年仪式的人痛打一顿；在寒冷的冬天，他不能盖被子睡觉；在整整三个月的时间里，他不能喝一滴水；食物也令人作呕，人们会将羚羊胃里消化了一半的草倒在他吃的食物上。如果他破坏了仪式中任何一条重要的规矩，马上会收到严厉的处罚。例如，有一种处罚是把小木棍放在违规者的手指之间，然后由一个力气大的人用手在他的手上使劲地捏，几乎要把他的手指折断。他对所有这一切都乖乖地顺从，因为人们告诉他，以前那些试图逃跑或者把这个秘密告诉给妇女或未成年男孩的人都被吊死了，尸体被烧成了灰。 从表面上看，这种成年仪式似乎很过分、很古怪。但仔细想想，不论是在细节上还是在原理上，它与学校兄弟会的入会仪式都没什么两样。在大学校园里每年举办的传统“地狱周”活动期间，申请加入兄弟会的人都要参加兄弟会的老成员设计的一系列旨在挑战他们的体力、心理压力以及羞耻感等方面的活动。当一周的时间结束时，只有那些成功地接受了所有这些考验的人才被接受为正式会员。虽然有时候这一番考验也会产生严重的负面后果，但大多数情况下只不过是把大家搞得精疲力竭而已。 有意思的是，“地狱周”活动的特点与原始部落成年仪式的特点极为相似。回忆一下人类学家之前总结的铜迦部落的年轻人在“神秘院”经历的6种主要考验。看一下报纸上的报道就可以发现，其中的每一种考验都可以在那些以希腊字母命名的兄弟会的故意折磨人的入会仪式中找到。 原始部落的成年仪式和兄弟会的入会仪式还有另外一点也及其相似，那就是它们都经过了漫长的岁月顽强地生存下来。虽然它们屡次遭取缔或禁止，但这些残忍的活动却有着极强的生命力。殖民地政府或是大学行政部门等权力机构都曾经使用过威胁、社会压力、诉诸法律、流放、行贿、禁止等各种手段，想让这些团体将其仪式中危险和羞辱他人的成分去掉。但所有这些努力都是白斐力气。虽