Compliance refers to a response, specifically a submission, made in reaction to a request. The request may be explicit (directly or overtly stated) or implicit (subtly implied). The target may or may not recognize that he or she is being urged to act in a particular way. In social psychology, compliance is considered a social influence, meaning it is based on the effect that the words, actions, or mere presence of other people have on thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or behavior.

Persuasion and the gaining of compliance are particularly significant since they use the power of social influence to attain submission of others. Compliance affects everyday behavior, especially in social interactions. Social psychologists view compliance as a means of social influence used to reach goals or attain social or personal gains. Social psychology focuses on people as a whole and how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors allow individuals to attain compliance. In studying compliance, social psychologists aim to examine overt and subtle social influences experienced and their relationship to compliance.

Compliance: The Underlying Principles

Some years ago, Robert Cialdini, a well-known social psychologist, decided that the best way to find out about compliance was to study what he termed compliance professionals— people whose success (financial or otherwise) depends on their ability to get others to say yes. Who are such people? They include salespeople, advertisers, political lobbyists, fundraisers, politicians, con artists, professional negotiators, and many others.

Cialdini’s technique for learning from these people was simple: He temporarily concealed his true identity and took jobs in various settings where gaining compliance is a way of life. In other words, he worked in advertising, direct (door-to-door) sales, fund-raising, and other compliance focused fields. On the basis of these firsthand experiences, he concluded that although techniques for gaining compliance take many different forms, they all rest to some degree on six basic principles (Cialdini, 1994, 2008):

1. Friendship/liking: In general, we are more willing to comply with requests from friends or from people we like than with requests from strangers or people we don’t like.
2. Commitment/consistency: Once we have committed ourselves to a position or action, we are more willing to comply with requests for behaviors that are consistent with this position or action than with requests that are inconsistent with it.
3. Scarcity: In general, we value, and try to secure, outcomes or objects that are scarce or decreasing in availability. As a result, we are more likely to comply with requests that focus on scarcity than ones that make no reference to this issue.
4. Reciprocity: We are generally more willing to comply with a request from someone who has previously provided a favor or concession to us than to someone who has not. In other words, we feel obligated to pay people back in some way for what they have done for us.
5. Social validation: We are generally more willing to comply with a request for some action if this action is consistent with what we believe people similar to ourselves are doing (or thinking). We want to be correct, and one way to do so is to act and think like others.
6. Authority: In general, we are more willing to comply with requests from someone who holds legitimate authority—or simply appears to do so. 

According to Cialdini (2008), these basic principles underlie many techniques used by professionals—and ourselves—for gaining compliance from others.