Deux techniques permettent le repérage systématique du système central d’une représentation sociale: la technique de la mise en cause (MEC) et le modèle des schèmes cognitifs de base (SCB). Malgré cet apport, ces techniques présentent des inconvénients: la MEC, de par son principe de double négation, et les SCB, de par la longueur de passation. Une nouvelle technique a été développée: le test d’indépendance au contexte (TIC). Elle vise à rendre compte des caractères trans-situationnel ou contingent des éléments représentationnels, tout en présentant un moindre coût cognitif perçu. Deux objets de représentation ont été étudiés auprès d’une population étudiante. Les résultats révèlent que le TIC paraît, aux participants, cognitivement moins coûteux que la MEC. De plus, le TIC permet un repérage du noyau central identique à celui offert par la MEC.

The “evoking freedom” technique is a verbal compliance procedure that solicits someone to comply with a request by simply telling them they are free to accept or to refuse the request. The measure of the efficiency of this technique on compliance with large samples and the evaluation of its influence on various requests was tested in the first set of experiments. This technique was found to be efficient in increasing the number of people who agreed to give money to a requester, the number of smokers who agreed to give a cigarette, passersby who agreed to respond to a survey, and homeowners who agreed to buy pancakes. In the second set of experiments in which the mode of interaction between the requester and the person solicited was tested, the “evoking freedom” technique was found to be associated with greater compliance with a request addressed by mail and through face‐to‐face, phone‐to‐phone, or computer‐mediated interaction. The third set of experiments tested the effect of semantic variations of the “evoking freedom” technique and the weight of the repetition of the semantic evocation of freedom. These later experiments that used various phrases evoking the freedom to comply were found to be associated with greater compliance. Moreover, a double evocation of freedom was associated with even greater compliance than a single evocation. The importance of this technique for commitment communication is discussed.

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

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The commitment/consistency principle for compliance implies that people act in ways consistent with their previous behavior. Cialdini and Sagarin (2005) have stated that, according to this principle, asking individuals questions to which they would be expected to say “yes” could be associated with achieving greater compliance with a subsequent request. However, this procedure, referred to as the four walls technique, has never been tested experimentally. In this study, we conducted an experiment in which participants were first asked to answer several questions that required “yes” or “no” responses. Then, the participants were asked to comply with an additional request. It was found that saying “yes” several times beforehand is associated with greater compliance with a subsequent request than is saying “no” beforehand or when no first request was made.