Cialdini raamat
multaneously engaged the force of both the reciprocity rule and the contrast prin-
ciple. Not only will my $5 request be viewed as a concession to be reciprocated, it
will also look like a smaller request than if I had just asked for $5 straightaway.
REJECTION-THEN-RETREAT
In combination, the influences of reciprocity and perceptual contrast can pre-
sent a fearsomely powerful force. Embodied in the rejection-then-retreat sequence,
they are jointly capable of genuinely astonishing effects. It is my feeling that they
provide the only really plausible explanation of one of the most baffling political
actions of our time: the decision to break into the Watergate offices of the Demo-
cratic National Committee that led to the ruin of Richard Nixon's presidency. One
of the participants in that decision, Jeb Stuart Magruder, upon hearing that the Wa-
annaabi.ee 
