Photo: Mountain view with sheep by Julie Berlin
Got a colleague you hate? Ask him/her to do you a favor.
That’s right. According to a study conducted by Jon Decker and David Landy, inconveniencing someone can actually make that person like you more. Sounds counter-intuitive? Wouldn’t asking someone who don’t like us for a favor make them like us even less?
Well, as much as we would like to believe, we humans are not rational creatures.
Just take a look at the iPhone. Would a rational creature spend so much more to get so much less?
Why would people spend so much more money to buy a fancy car that practically does the same thing as a regular car - transport?
Why Inconveniencing Others Helps Make Them Like You Better
If you’ve read my blog for a while, you’d know of something called “cognitive dissonance“. That’s when you have conflicting thoughts and to resolve those thoughts, you come up with a justification so you can be consistent with what you did.
In this case, that person’s attitude towards you is bad. But by doing your favor, his behavior is now conflicting with his attitude.
So what does he do? He comes up with a self-justification like this one: “That thing he did, he had no choice. I would have dont the same thing myself. If I helped him, that means he is not THAT bad.”
Business Applications
So how can you use this for business purposes? Easy.
You can:
- Ask competitors for favors… like exchanging links and guest posting.
- Ask customers for favors… like requesting testimonials and referring their friends to you.
- Ask your partners for favors… like requesting they send out a promotional email of your product to their list.
- Ask fellow bloggers for favors… like… there’s so many things you can do here, but you get my point.
Once they did you a favor, things tend to go smoother the next time you ask for something bigger. 
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