The leure procedure: experimental studies and theoretical options.

Summary This thesis work deals with luring (Joule, Gouilloux and Weber, 1989). This procedure of voluntary submission takes place in three steps: 1/ a person is led to make an advantageous decision to perform a given behavior, 2/ he/she is informed of the impossibility of performing this behavior, 3/ he/she is proposed to make a new, less advantageous decision concerning another behavior. The results attest to the robustness of the decoy effect (experiments 1 and 2). Two complementary theoretical interpretations are put forward. The first is based on commitment theory: the first decision commits the individual to a behavior (Experiment 3), and more precisely, to a course of action (Experiment 4). The second refers to the psychological discomfort felt by the individual after having learned that it was impossible to carry out the first decision. We test the hypothesis that accepting the second request allows the individual to reduce his discomfort (experiment 5). The results support this interpretation, even when the two requests are not formulated by the same experimenter (experiment 6) and when the two requests are only weakly related (experiment 7). The results attest to an effect of the delay after the advantageous decision has been made on the acceptance of the target request (Experiment 8) and on the participant's psychological discomfort state (Experiment 9). This delay promotes the luring effect. They also attest to an effect of the delay after the announcement of the impossibility of implementing the first decision on the acceptance of the target request (Experiment 10) and on the participant's state of psychological discomfort (Experiment 11). This delay cancels out the lure effect.