Cialdini’s Science of Persuasion: The Principle of Commitment

Ask for small commitments first, then, when the large requests come, they will find it impossible to say no.

Image of Russian stacking dolls from TES teach.

Last week I cleared out boxes

loft-bound for the longest time.

I found cards and letters

from the days when we preferred them to email

when international phone calls were too expensive

for us scholarship students.

Too few of yours: proof that even then

you favoured silence as a method.

 

Sheet after sheet of colourful stationery

with my girly, high-pitched scrawl,

giggly, breathless, full of words

to reassure how free you were,

no demands at all.

How I played the game of reasonable

contrast to all those you’d loved before.

Not sensing all the while

the noose tightening around my neck.