Results of 2 experiments with a total of 221 housewives support the prediction that name-calling, by conveying a negative judgment, would enhance Ss' willingness to comply and their actual compliance with a later request for help. Negative names produced more compliance behavior than positive names. Also, whether or not the negative name was related to the help request made no difference in the percentage of Ss who agreed to comply. Exp II also demonstrated that it was the name's impugnment of the S's general character and not its impugnment of a specific behavior that was needed to increase later compliance. Implications for experiments using negative judgments as independent variable manipulations and for the relationship between self-esteem and consistency processes are discussed. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)