A practical application and methodological extension of Freedman and Fraser's foot-in-the-door technique

Abstract

During the 20th century, a significant portion of the field of public health has evolved to focus on the impact of lifestyle on health and chronic disease, and survey research is considered a staple to both public health practice and research. Because of the costs associated with non-response and nonparticipation, it is important to consider strategies and techniques that maximize participants. This dissertation examines this area of compliance by studying the impact of the foot-in-the-door technique (FITD) (Freedman & Fraser, 1966) in two studies utilizing health related survey measures. The FITD technique is tested in two applied settings to determine effectiveness. The project is unique in that the project uses test of multiple targets at once, and multiple critical requests. Independent variables include size of critical request, exposure to multiple critical requests over time, psychological reactance, preference for consistency, and demographic variables. Results show that the FITD is effective when used to recruit multiple individuals at once, and with multiple critical questionnaires. In addition, the size of critical questionnaire is inversely related to participation, for both treatment and control subjects. Finally, although the FITD was not supported as effective when compared with a control group over time, it was significantly more effective than a 'standard treatment' that did not use a 'short' FITD questionnaire, but rather used standard length questionnaires over time. Psychological reactance and preference for consistency did not impact compliance with critical requests. In addition, demographic variables did not impact completion of critical requests questionnaires.