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For the email:
I’ve been re-reading the classic book: Influence by Dr. Robert Cialdini and in it he references a psychological experiment from a 1978 Harvard study where psychologists created an experiment whereby someone asked if they could skip the line for a photocopier.
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In the first case, the person simply asked something like “can I go ahead of you? I only need to make 5 copies.”
This approach was only successful 60% of the time
But when a person added the magic word “because” and gave a reason as to why they needed to skip ahead in line, the success rate went up to 90%… when they said:
“Can I go ahead of you because I’m in a rush.”
The word “because,” moreover providing a reason for cutting ahead in line created a compliant reaction for the person in line!
If you’re interested in learning more about why this works, look up “fixed action patterns.”