When she said, “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?,” 60 percent of people allowed her to go ahead of them. When she added her reason, asking, “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I’m in a rush?,” her yes rate increased to 94 percent. In her third variation, she also gave a reason, but purposely designed it to be ridiculous: “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies?” Shockingly, the number of people who accepted her request stayed about the same at 93 percent.
