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Johannes David Hattula
Former Member
Title
Dr. oec.
Last Name
Hattula
First name
Johannes David
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+41 71 224 2876
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PublicationToo Much or Not Enough : How the Degree of Interpersonal Similarity Forces Compliance with RequestsImagine you are asked for participation in a survey. Would your willingness to comply depend on characteristics of the requester? Would you be more likely to answer when there is a similarity between you and the requester? And, particularly, would the degree of similarity affect your willingness? Many studies provide support for the persuasive role of similarity on willingness to comply. When people share similarities, they feel socially connected that is enough to increase compliance with requests. However, contrary to that literature, research on uniqueness empathizes humans' innate drive for uniqueness that leads them to avoid too much similarity. Therefore, we experimentally investigate whether the degree of similarity, manipulated by the first name of the requester, influences compliance with a request. 600 marketing and sales managers were invited to participate in an online survey. They were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: one third of the participants were invited by a person with the same first name ("high similarity"), the second third received the request by a person with same first name initials ("low similarity"), and the remaining third was contacted by a person with a completely different first name ("no similarity"). The conditions were identical with the exception of the name that appeared as the requester of the invitation. The results support our assumption of an inverted u-shaped relationship between the degree of similarity and humans' willingness to comply. Persons with identical initials were significantly more likely to participate in the survey than both those who received the request by a person with different initials and those with same first name. We find no difference between highType: conference paper