The Ben Franklin Effect

The Ben Franklin Effect is a psychological principle, used in persuasion, where someone becomes more likely to do what you asked them to do if you get them to do something smaller first. It’s a principle that is commonly messaged in a few different ways:

Dr. Robert Cialdini in the book “Influence” calls this ‘commitment and consistency’, claiming that someone is more likely to take action in a way that is aligned with a previous action…

The ‘foot in the door’ phenomenon takes the same approach where asking for something small makes someone more likely to say ‘yes’ to your next request…

And it parallels the famous expression “give them an inch and they’ll take it a mile.”

Given how powerfully this principle influences other people, isn’t it fair to say that it’d achieve the same effect when used on yourself?

When you take action on a small commitment to yourself, it often opens the door to you stepping up to a much larger commitment, one that feels too overwhelming to commit to from the start.

This is why James Clear in ‘Atomic Habits’ popularized the idea of ‘the 2 minute rule’ where your minimum standard is to take a desired action for just two minutes, and naturally the full behavior follows suit. It’s the reason why people are constantly encouraged to just get started, even imperfectly, because it creates momentum. 

It’s often explained as overcoming the ‘activation energy’ or inertia of an action such that there’s an upfront energetic demand. There's work that needs to get done to get over the initial hump but then it’s all downhill from there.

And this is what it looks like in practice. Need to get through a major backlog of email? Just commit to 5 emails. Don’t feel like doing cardio today? Get on the bike and go for just 5 minutes. Feeling resistance to making sales calls? Put your list together of the 10 people you want to follow up with.

The simple step of taking the first small action sets up the rest of the action to happen with way less resistance. Before you know it, you’re powering through emails, extending your cardio, and picking up the phone. 

Don’t underestimate the power of the unconscious mind. When you get it to start working for you and not against you, you become unstoppable. The mind is constantly making snapshot reflexes - and if you want to create a reflex where you quickly take initial action, which I call your best-self reflex, so that you to make the healthy, focused, productive choice unconsciously and by default… Check out the 21 Day Super Habits Challenge. It sets you up for success in ways you couldn’t imagine.