An effect that says that if a person first agrees to a small request from another person, they are more likely to agree to a greater request from that person later. This is a compliance strategy used by various people, ranging from telemarketers to leaders. Telemarketers start out by asking for a bit of time, and then escalate it into trying to sell people things. Leaders work it more slowly because they want to end with greater control. They start by asking people to do small things, and then use the tasks the people are doing to change the person's attitudes. This changing of attitudes comes from an induced cognitive dissonance. This use of the phenomenon was seen in Communist China when the hostages went through having to do a series of tasks that eventually persuaded the people to believe that Communism was good.