I find Irisu's manipulation tactics to be cunning and fascinating, and I find her manipulating Houtarou to be the most interesting, here are the tactics that she used to get Houtarou to work for her.
1. Foot-in-the-door technique
Foot-in-the-door (FITD) technique is a technique that is used to get a person to agree to a large request by having them agree to a smaller request first. Arguably Irisu's main tactic to convince Houtarou. Irisu asked Houtarou and the classic club to do a small favor, which is to watch and share their opinions about/review the movie (although she was going for Houtarou), and they complied. The classical club, including Houtarou, shared their opinions about the movie and the flaws it had.
After they finished watching and reviewing the movie, Irisu asked them to do a slightly bigger favor, which is to offer their opinions about other schoolmates' theories of the movie conclusion. Irisu knew that their theories were flawed to some extent, but she asked Houtarou and the classic club (again, she was only going for Houtarou) to make it easier for her later to convice him to conclude the movie.
Then Houtarou rejected their theories, as Irisu had planned. Then, she asked Houtarou to meet her personally to ask for his help to finish the movie, which was already her intention from the start. Although Oreki was hesitant at first, she then convinced Houtarou that he was special and talented, although we'll get to that later.
The foot-in-the-door technique made Houtarou more likely to accept her final request because of the two previous favors he had already done. A two-favor foot-in-the-door technique is normally already effective to most, but Irisu took it further by making Houtarou do three favours, she already knew that Houtarou is smart and she needed to do more than that to convice him.
2. Convincing Houtarou that he is special and guilt-tripping him
Irisu conviced Houtarou that he was specical and talented, by making Houtarou do favors for her, it increased the amount of Houtarou doing things that proved his intelligence, which complemented perfectly with the foot-in-the-door technique she used earlier. She told Houtarou that he was special and then asked for his help, but Houtarou said that he was just lucky.
Then, she pressurized Houtarou to help her by telling him a story about a talented athlete who won a competition, when interviewed, the athlete said that she was just lucky, similar to what Houtarou said, but it was implied that the athlete's words hurt the bench members. That story made Houtarou felt guilty about his words and started to doubt himself and feel obliged, and finally accepting her request.
Making someone feel special would make one more likely to do something for them because it would make them think that they're the only one who can do it, adding a feeling of obligation. And then guilt tripping someone would also make them more likely to do a favor for them because they would feel guilty by not doing it.
3. Asking for help to the classical club instead of asking Houtarou directly, and using an acquaintance (Eru).
Irisu knew that Houtarou was very hard to convince and always conserved his energy (AKA being lazy), but if she asked help from the classical club through Eru, Oreki would be much more likely to go with them because of the peer pressure it would create. Using Eru, who is the president of the club as an acquaintance also made the classical club easier to convince.
Summary: Irisu's combination of multiple manipulation tactics were effective to get Houtarou to finish the movie for her without having to pay Houtarou back for his favors. Particularly, the foot-in-the-door technique complemented perfectly with the one where she made Houtarou feel that he was special. Although Houtarou realized that he has been manipulated and became wary of her, he was still already used by her.
I just finished writing and correcting it and I didn't even realize that it took me more than 3 hours to write this, dang. Irisu is indeed best girl. And yes this is just me being an Irisu fan and just trying to make her seem as objectively great as possible, if you've reached this point, thank you so much for reading this.
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