This is a short story of how I used one of the tricks in Robert Cialdini’s Influence to get McDonald’s to bring a bag of fries to me without paying for it.
No, I did not lie, steal, or dine-and-dash.
This is about using one crucial word that changed the narrative in the mind of the cashier to get them to do me a favor.
My friend told me how, one night, she tried to get free fries by flirting with a McDonald’s cashier after a night out with her friends. Bless her drunken shenanigans.
But, as pretty and charming as she is, the cashier held his ground and my friend ended up paying for her fries.
Upon hearing this, I wanted to see if I could do it.
As an added challenge, I would do it sober, without trying to charm the cashier (re: I’m not that good-looking).
So we went to McDonald’s and I asked my friend to find us a table. I wanted to do this alone.
I ordered a burger and when it was time to pay, I pointed to my friend sitting at the table and asked the cashier:
“My friend there wants fries. Could you please toss in a few of them for free? Because she’s not going to eat more than 3-5 fries and I don’t really want to eat the rest. You know how it is…”
The cashier looked confused at first, then chuckled and said “Sure”.
That was it. A few minutes later, a bag of fries was placed at our table. I had asked for just a handful of fries but they gave us a medium-sized bag. Chef’s kiss
But why did this work?
Because of the word “because”.
In 1977, psychologist Ellen Langer and her research team at Harvard University conducted a study: The Copy Machine Study
Langer tasked her research assistants to try to cut in front of innocent people waiting in line at the photocopier by asking them one of three questions:
- Version 1 (request only): “Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the Xerox machine?”
- Version 2 (request with a real reason): “Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the Xerox machine, because I’m in a rush?”
- Version 3 (request with a fake reason): “Excuse me, I have 5 pages. May I use the Xerox machine, because I have to make copies?”
Here are the success scores of each question:
- Version 1: 60% of people let the researcher skip the line.
- Version 2: 94% of people let the researcher skip ahead in line.
- Version 3: 93% of people let the researcher skip ahead in line.
When I asked the cashier to do me a favor by throwing in fries for free, I backed up the request with a rational reason for why I needed his favor.
My reason wasn’t 100% bulletproof—I could have just paid for the fries like any other customer. But I asked for a favor and made it clear why I was asking the favor.
People, generally speaking, are kind. They want to help and be good samaritans. But they need to know their kindness is not being taken advantage of.
One way to alleviate that concern is to give them a rational reason so they can enact their kind self (and feel good about it).
By answering their why with a because.