\u00a0So Robert Cialdini explains that humans like to be given a reason; we like to hear a “because”. But his only explanation for this is that it is somehow hard-wired into our brains.<\/p>\n\n\n
I don’t know. I’ve been paying attention to how I feel differently when students ask “Can I go to the bathroom?” and when they ask “Can I go to the bathroom because …”. And I am beginning to form a hypothesis of my own.<\/p>\n\n\n
I think that when a favor is asked without the “because”, I (we) assume a reason … and it’s typically a negative assumption.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Student: “Can I borrow a pencil?”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Me: “Why? – because you came to class unprepared?”<\/p>\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Or: “Why? – because you lost yours?<\/p>\n\n\n
\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Or: “Why? – because you’re too cheap to buy your own?”<\/p>\n\n\n
This means that a student with a “because” handy can kill my negative assumption before it’s even born: “Can I borrow a pencil because mine has gotten too short to hold in my hand?”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Not only does this preclude my negative assumption, it hits me with an implied compliment in presuming my reasonableness.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
This need for a “because” may seem insignificant at first glance, but I am getting the impression it is bigger than we imagine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0So Robert Cialdini explains that humans like to be given a reason; we like to hear a “because”. But his only explanation for this is that it is somehow hard-wired into our brains. I don’t know. I’ve been paying attention to how I feel differently when students ask “Can I go to the bathroom?” and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9874,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9873\/revisions\/9874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}