Much of the compliance process (wherein one person is spurred to comply with another person’s request) can be understood in terms of a human tendency for automatic, shortcut responding.

They stopped a second sample of individuals and began the interaction with a pre-suasive opener: “Do you consider yourself a helpful person?” Following brief reflection, nearly everyone answered yes. In that privileged moment—after subjects had confirmed privately and affirmed publicly their helpful natures—the researchers pounced, requesting help

At first glance, it appears the crucial difference between the two requests was the additional information provided by the words because I’m in a rush. However, a third type of request showed this was not the case. It seems it was not the whole series of words but the first one, because, that made the difference.