Linguistic Accommodation Enhances Compliance to Charity Donation: The Role of Interpersonal Communication Processes in Mediated Compliance-Gaining Conversations

Abstract

We address the link between communication accommodation and compliance gaining in momentary, mediated encounters, using Goffman's theory of interaction ritual as a conceptual bridge. We report an online experiment of compliance-gaining conversations with 915 dyads of strangers recruited from Amazon M-Turk. The extent to which two strangers accommodated each other's non-content linguistic features predicted their behavioral compliance - monetary donation to a charity. This accommodation-compliance link was (a) observed, to some extent, in both conversationalists in the dyads, albeit moderated by seeker-target role differentiation, (b) partially mediated by perceived warmth and competence, and (c) was robust against alternative mechanisms including compliance-gaining strategies, personalities, and demographics. We discuss implications regarding communication-induced influence in mediated conversations and related interpersonal communication processes in general. Lay Summary: How can a fleeting online interaction bring about compliance, especially for prosocial causes such as charity donation? This article finds that compliance is increased when there is a legacy of cooperative interactions (i.e., successful interaction rituals) on the part of all conversation partners - not just the one who seeks compliance. Such interaction can be identified when the individuals start to coordinate and accommodate each other's language use (e.g., using similar expressions or adopting similar linguistic styles). The research shows that since online conversations often rely on text-based communication that lacks other channels with which to signal cooperative interactions, coordinated language plays an important role in gaining compliance.