Blog #8- Compliance and Italian Scams

I would love to think that I am not gullible in any way, but I often get teased about being gullible by my friends. Perhaps I am too trusting of others, but I would still like to think that I am cautious when it is necessary. Situations of unfamiliarity usually raise my caution levels and catch my attention. Specifically, when I am traveling to unfamiliar places, I tend to be very careful and somewhat paranoid. I would like to think that I am on my guard and deter scams set-up to fool tourists. However, I can recall a number of occasions that I proved myself gullible, and can now attribute some of these situations to social psychological theory. In some of these situations, I acquiesced to requests from others, mainly because I like to appease others within reasonable means. This behavior can be described as compliance, which describes behavior that is brought about due to an appeal (Allen, 1965; Kelman, 1961). Although I try to avoid being a “sucker,” recollection of certain instances has certainly proved that my compliance was a result of being very gullible.

One summer I went to Europe with my mom and a group of friends. We were traveling around Switzerland and Italy for two weeks. After spending about a week in Switzerland, I had become very comfortable with the easy-going, warm Swiss people. I was lulled into a false sense of security by the small towns and quiet countryside. As we were preparing to Milan, Italy, we were told to be very careful as it was a much more fast-paced city. I laughed off the idea of getting scammed by the gypsies and thieves in Italy, I felt I was too smart to be a victim of those petty crimes. However, as soon as I emerged from the subway into a main square in Milan, I was approached by two foreign individuals. They were speaking in Jamaican accents about being welcome in Italy, and enjoying the city. They spoke so fast, I was having a hard time keeping up, and started to walk away. The pair stopped me and offered me a string bracelet that had been woven out of yarn. They wanted to give it to me for free, “a gift for the beautiful lady.” I was shaking my head and saying “no, thank you,” but they had already tied the bracelet in a knot around my wrist. My mom was furious, but the men insisted it was free and backed away offering us well-wishes for our visit. We went on our way, and soon forgot about the incident. As we were eating lunch in a small café an hour later, a woman approached us, wearing the same clothes as the two men and with the same accent. She pointed out the bracelet and said she was glad we were welcomed into Milan. She then mentioned that she was accepting donations for their organization (of course I can’t remember the organization or its cause for the life of me). I considered this for a second, and then felt a little guilty, and gave her a few Euros. I now know that I was duped by the norm of reciprocity, meaning the societal idea that one should repay an individual who does a favor or gives a gift (Gouldner, 1960) The foreign organization was using the bracelets as tags for gullible individuals like me, and using other members to go out and collect donations from those who accepted the gifts. I would never have considered giving a random woman money at a café in Italy, until I was given a gift by that organization, and felt I must repay them somehow.
Now that I know all of the different sales pitches, I would like to think that I would never make such a mistake in the future. I can only be thankful that they were seeking voluntary donations and did not take advantage of my gullibility any further!



References

Allen, V. L. (1965). Situational factors in conformity. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 2, 133-175.

Gouldner, A. W. (1960). The norm of reciprocity: A preliminary statement. American Sociological Review, 25, 161-178.

Kelman, H. C. (1961). Processes of opinion change. Public Opinion Quarterly, 25, 57-78.