39. “One way to get the “yes” you want is to allow (or provoke) the other party to say “no” first."

“One way to get the “yes” you want is to allow (or provoke) the other party to say “no” first. Consider some fascinating research conducted by Professor Robert Cialdini of Arizona State University. Cialdini’s research assistants went around the city posing as workers from the county juvenile detention center. They stopped people on the street at random and asked them for a favor: “Would you be willing to chaperone a group of juvenile delinquents on a day trip to the zoo?” As you might imagine, most people were taken aback by the extreme request, and only 17 percent said yes. The researchers then tried a different approach. This time when they stopped a person, they asked for an even greater favor: “Would you be willing to serve as a counselor at the juvenile detention center? This will require two hours of your time each week for three years.” Not surprisingly, everyone turned down this request. Without skipping a beat, the researchers then went on to ask: “Well, if you can’t do that, would you be willing to chaperone a group of juvenile delinquents on a day trip to the zoo?” The response was staggering. Now, 50 percent of those asked to chaperone agreed to comply! When the exact same proposal—a request to chaperone—was preceded by an extreme demand that was sure to be rejected, three time as many people said yes."

From "Negotiation Genius" written by Deepak Malhotra and Max H. Bazerman and published by Bantam Books