ABSTRACT
In short, research examining compliance gaining generally focuses on persuasion aimed at getting others to do something or to act in a particular way. As such, a better title for this chapter might be "compliance seeking," even though it sticks with the more traditional term "compliance gaining." It focuses on the study of compliance gaining. The chapter discusses how this type of research got started. It examines the ways in which goals are important when trying to understand compliance gaining. The chapter argues that goals give meaning to situations, including situations that involve compliance gaining. It also discusses how compliance-gaining research has been plagued by several problems. Rather than examining compliance gaining in artificial laboratory settings using hypothetical situations or paper-pencil measures, investigators should look for compliance gaining as it occurs in more naturalistic contexts.
