Yes ladders function in two ways. One is commitment and consistency effects. Each question has the answerer define themselves in a way that makes them more likely to agree with subsequent questions and, eventually, the final conclusion. A positive no would still build up consistency effects.
The other way they work is by ‘turning off your brain’. Shopping and similar decision making is controlled by a tug-of-war between the NAcc and the insula. A proper yes ladder lets the seller steer the conversation to the sale, without ever triggering the insula. If you have the buyer stop and think about something (eg, should my answer be yes or no?), it inhibits your ability to sell. You want them to just trust in you without ever activating the parts of their brain designed for second guessing. That means a lot of ‘no brainer’ questions. Positive no’s don’t necessarily do this, but it’s a lot harder to build a safe positive no question, when you could just use a yes instead. Hence, I was always taught to just steer clear of them.
(In retrospect, it this tactic does sound slightly more dark artsy than when I was replying to JGWeisnman about it)
Xacariah, would a positive ‘no’ break the chain, i.e. ‘would you like to be annihilated?’?
Sort of.
Yes ladders function in two ways. One is commitment and consistency effects. Each question has the answerer define themselves in a way that makes them more likely to agree with subsequent questions and, eventually, the final conclusion. A positive no would still build up consistency effects.
The other way they work is by ‘turning off your brain’. Shopping and similar decision making is controlled by a tug-of-war between the NAcc and the insula. A proper yes ladder lets the seller steer the conversation to the sale, without ever triggering the insula. If you have the buyer stop and think about something (eg, should my answer be yes or no?), it inhibits your ability to sell. You want them to just trust in you without ever activating the parts of their brain designed for second guessing. That means a lot of ‘no brainer’ questions. Positive no’s don’t necessarily do this, but it’s a lot harder to build a safe positive no question, when you could just use a yes instead. Hence, I was always taught to just steer clear of them.
(In retrospect, it this tactic does sound slightly more dark artsy than when I was replying to JGWeisnman about it)