If you need help, just ask: Underestimating compliance with direct requests for help
Flynn and Lake, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 95(1), 2008, 128-143. Across several studies in lab and field settings, people underestimated by up to 50 percent how likely others were to agree to a direct request for help. Studies 4 and 5 changed whether participants took the role of help seeker or potential helper and shifted the size of the underestimate. Study 6 found that seekers undervalued the social cost of refusing relative to the instrumental benefit of helping.
Flynn and Lake, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 95(1), 2008, 128-143. Across several studies in lab and field settings, people underestimated by up to 50 percent how likely others were to agree to a direct request for help. Studies 4 and 5 changed whether participants took the role of help seeker or potential helper and shifted the size of the underestimate. Study 6 found that seekers undervalued the social cost of refusing relative to the instrumental benefit of helping.
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Flynn, F. J., & Lake, V. K. B. (2008). If you need help, just ask: Underestimating compliance with direct requests for help. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(1), 128-143. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.95.1.128 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.95.1.128