Commitment and social representations in the paradigm of voluntary submission: the foot-in-the-door procedure for organ donation.

Summary The objective of this work is to understand how the foot-in-the-door, a strategy consisting of asking for little (preparatory act) in order to obtain more (Freedman and Fraser, 1966), could become more effective. In order to do this, we have drawn on several distinct theoretical fields, notably the theory of the central core of social representations (Abric, 1976) and the theory of commitment (Kiesler, 1971). The main aim of the research we have carried out is to determine the behavioural and cognitive effects of carrying out a preparatory act relating to a central "or" peripheral element of a social representation.