Séverine Halimi-Falkowicz

Test d’Indépendance au Contexte (TIC) et Structure des Représentations Sociales

Deux techniques permettent le reperage systematique du systeme central d’une representation sociale: la technique de la mise en cause (MEC) et le modele des schemes cognitifs de base (SCB). Malgre cet apport, ces techniques presentent des inconvenients: la MEC, de par son principe de double negation, et les SCB, de par la longueur de passation. Une nouvelle technique a ete developpee: le test d’independance au contexte (TIC). Elle vise a rendre compte des caracteres trans-situationnel ou contingent des elements representationnels, tout en presentant un moindre cout cognitif percu. Deux objets de representation ont ete etudies aupres d’une population etudiante. Les resultats revelent que le TIC parait, aux participants, cognitivement moins couteux que la MEC. De plus, le TIC permet un reperage du noyau central identique a celui offert par la MEC.

Increasing compliance with a request: two touches are more effective than one

Touch procedures have been shown to increase the likelihood of compliance with requests. But the effect of subsequent touches following a classical touch procedure has not been investigated. It was predicted that two touches would lead to more compliance than one touch. 180 male and 180 female bystanders were asked to fill in a short or long questionnaire by a female confederate. They were touched by the confederate either once, twice, or not at all. Results showed that there was more compliance in the two-touch than in the one-touch condition, and when the participants were touched by the confederate. These findings support the hypothesis. Moreover, whereas participants were less likely to fill in the long questionnaire in the no-touch condition, touch procedures led to more compliance whatever the questionnaire length. Also, touch was more effective when a female confederate made the request to a male participant.

Cross-Cultural Investigation of Compliance Without Pressure The “You Are Free to. . .” Technique in France, Ivory Coast, Romania, Russia, and China

Compliance-without-pressure techniques have been widely studied in North America and West Europe. Among these techniques, the “but you are free” (BYAF) is a verbal compliance procedure that solicits someone to comply with a request by simply telling a person that he or she is free to accept or refuse the request. This technique is interpreted with the commitment theory and the psychological reactance theory which are more relevant in individualistic cultures than in collectivist cultures. So, four studies compared the efficiency of the BYAF technique in collectivist cultures (Ivory Coast, Russia, and China) and in individualist cultures (France and Romania). As suggested in the hypothesis, our analysis indicated that the BYAF technique will be much less successful in more collectivist cultures. Such results underline the importance of considering specific cultural contexts in social influence studies.