20. Commitment and consistency

This is where the hook really starts to get in.

Commitment and Consistency is our desire to be consistent with who we see ourselves as being, and to remain consistent with how other people have perceived us.

In society, we value people who are true to their word, who are reliable and consistent. If someone is changeable or unpredictable, that is a criticism, even an insult. We do not want other people to think of us that way.

Beyond social reputation, the Commitment and Consistency principle is a mental shortcut we use to streamline decision-making. We have so many decisions to make daily that we reduce the number by using past decisions as reference points. The consequence is that we act in ways that are consistent with our previous actions or thoughts, and when we commit to something or someone, we stick to it. We also try to behave in ways that are consistent with the image we have portrayed to others.

Cialdini describes an experiment where a group of people were given a cancer awareness button and asked to wear it for a week. Most found this harmless and complied. Some time later, these same people were asked to give a donation to help fight cancer. This group donated significantly more money than the control group. Why? Because in wearing the button for a week, cancer-fighting had become a small piece of their identity. They were now more likely to behave as a cancer-fighter would.

Ethical Use of Commitment and Consistency

Anyone who helps someone create a genuine change is engaging this rule. The personal trainer who helps a client shift from thinking of themselves as "out of shape" to "someone who trains." The therapist who helps a patient move from "anxious with low self-esteem" to "confident with a healthy self-image."

If this series of articles is working as intended, it is engaging this rule for you right now. By reading this, and no doubt other material that questions what you were taught, you are giving yourself more and more evidence that you are mentally free. Every word you read shows you that you are the kind of person who is willing to do the research and put in the effort to reclaim your mind as your own sovereign territory.

How JWs Use Commitment and Consistency

If we are not conscious of this principle we can find ourselves on a "compliance ladder" where the further we go, the more difficult it becomes to get off without hurting ourselves.

Think about how in field service we were encouraged to leave literature and tracts with people, with phrases like "it is going to do more good in their house than it will hidden away in my ministry bag." As if somebody knew that for certain householders, the simple acceptance of a tract would be the first rung on a long ladder.

It starts with a five-minute chat at the door, which becomes a doorstep Bible study, which turns into inviting the Witnesses inside, which turns into a regular hour-long study every week.

This evolves into attending "just one special talk," which turns into attending the public talk every week, which turns into staying for the whole meeting.

Attending turns into participating and commenting. Maybe first just reading a scripture into the microphone, but soon enough you were underlining the paragraph and giving answers in your own words, step by step "making the truth your own."

This snowballs into becoming an unbaptised publisher, then getting baptised. From there, you are too far up the compliance ladder to jump off, so you keep moving upward. You fill in an advanced medical directive to uphold the blood doctrine. You cut off family members outside the organisation. You shun someone who gets disfellowshipped.

On and on it goes.

Here's an extra layer that is especially sinister:

How many times did you hear people joke about how "when I first started studying I said I would never go on the ministry, but now I am out knocking on doors every single week." It was not a secret that these compliance ladders were built to turn people into "faithful sheeplike ones." In fact, many bragged about how this had happened to them, how they had been led away from their own free will, one step at a time.

Identification Exercise: Commitment and Consistency

• Map your own compliance ladder. What was the first small commitment you made (or that was made on your behalf)? What was the last? How many steps can you count between the two?
• Think of a time you stayed committed to something in the organisation even though you no longer believed in it. What kept you there? Was it conviction, or was it the weight of everything you had already invested?
• Where in your life now do you notice yourself continuing with something primarily because you have already started, rather than because it still serves you?
• On a scale of 1-10, how effective was this tactic when it was used against you?