Polite declines more effective than polite requests in gaining compliance.
Polite requests are more likely to be followed than impolite ones, but adding a polite word to a request doesn't make much difference. Polite responses don't affect compliance much, but saying "No, thank you" politely when declining a request makes people more likely to say no. So, being polite when refusing a request is more important than when making one or agreeing to it.