Voluntary submission: cross-cultural studies: France, Romania, Russia: touching versus, "You-are-free-of..." procedure.

Summary The touching procedure consists of touching the arm of the subjects whose help is sought (Kleinke, 1977 . for review, cf Guéguen, 2002). The "You are free to..." (VELD), on the other hand, consists in declaring subjects free to accept or refuse to comply with a request (Guéguen & Pascual, 2000, 2005). These two voluntary submission procedures (Joule, 1986; Joule & Beauvois, 1998), taken in isolation, increase the probability of acceptance of a target request. First objective: to study the joint effect of touch and VELD procedures, relative to their isolated effect (in France). In the literature, touch and VELD procedures have never been studied separately and jointly in the same experiment. Some research shows higher acceptance rates when using both procedures than when using only one. Therefore, we assumed a higher acceptance rate of the target query following the joint use of the touch and VELD procedures than following their isolated use. Second objective: to study the effect of these procedures in two Eastern European countries (Romania and Russia). The results show a greater effectiveness of touch and VELD procedures when used together rather than in isolation in France, Romania and Russia. Furthermore, the touch procedure was effective in France, Romania and Russia on its own, while the VELD procedure was effective in France and Romania on its own.