attitude change and persuasion lect 4 Flashcards
what is persuasion (early advances)
-focus on message of learning approach
examples of persuasion in everyday
politicians, magazines, advertisement etc
McGuire persuasion steps
-persuasion through deliberate processes
-5 steps for attitude change
1.get audience attention
2.get audience to comprehend message
3.get audience to accept/yield message
4.get audience to retain new attitude
5.get audience to act on new attitude
what are the important factors in attitude change research
Hovland et al
1.source of communicator
2.message
3.audience
the communicator
expertise heuristic
-people tend to believe experts
-this is the function of credibility
-critical feature: perceived confidence of the communicator
research into expertise heuristic
bochner and insko
-pp asked ‘how many hrs sleep do people need?’
-on average pp answered 8 hrs
-info presented saying people need between 0-8 hrs
-presented either by noble prize winner (academic) or YMCA leader
-the extent of the persuasion depends on who
-more likely to believe noble prize winner
-maximum change in pp attitude when scientist recommended 1 hr (7hrs diff from original guess)
the message of persuasion
-importance of repetition (familiarity heuristic)
-Arkes: repeating statement makes it seem more true
-Campbell and Keller: repetition may not work with new or unfamiliar product, brand familiarity helps
fear content of persuasive messages
Janis: fear messages
-fear will have biggest impact on attitude change when it is moderate
-aim to frighten the audience and persuade them by offering a solution e.g wearing seatbelt to prevent worst case scenario in car crash
-too aroused by fear= unable to take on actual message
-not enough fear= people not motivated to avoid it
what medium of message is best
chaiken and eagly
-best medium (audio, written, video etc) depends on message complexity
-simple message = video
-complex = written
the audience self esteem
Janis
-audiences self esteem influences openness to persuasion
-lower self esteem = more easily persuaded
McGuire
-those with high or low self esteem are less easily persuaded, moderate self esteem is best for persuasion
what is idea behind the dual process model
persuasion also dependent on how much effort the audience are willing to put in
McGuire: assumed audience actively process the material BUT ancillary features can also influence persuasion
what are the 2 routes for persuasion using the dual processing model
1.high effort: deliberate route, audience listening and motivated
2.low effort: automatic route, not motivated to put effort in
what is the elaboration likelihood model
Petty and Cacioppo
-deliberative = central route
-low effort route = peripheral route
-elaboration likelihood = likelihood of using central route (function of motivation and capacity/ability, central route processing = stronger attitude change)
taking the peripheral route
how attractive person is, how familiar message is etc
-increased persuasion with this route
what is the argument quality
-strong argument= you want to make people stop and think about it
-need for cognition (some things make people more likely to use central route)
what is the heuristic systematic model (HSM)
Chaiken
-model overcomes some weaknesses from ELM (elaboration likelihood model)
-specifies when high/low effort processing might be used
-is the info good enough, more motivated you are, more likely to be paying attention, lots needed for persuasion
-less important = bar lowered for persuasion
what is the high effort route called
systematic route
-processes all info in a comprehensive way
what is the low effort route called
heuristic route
-cog shortcuts for decision making, requires presence of existing heuristic
what is the bias hypothesis
-HSM argues even under systematic processing, heuristic info may still be used (unlike ELM)
-if message is ambiguous, you fall back on existing heuristic to make decision e.g they are the expert
chaiken and maheswaran bias hypoth
-pp think they are part of marketing focus group examining new answerphone (XT100)
1.motivation
-hig mot: told XT100 may be marketed in area depending on focus groups decision
-low mot: XT100 may be marketed in other area depending on recommendation of this and other group
2.source credibility (heuristic)
-high credibility: info from respected consumer magazine
-low credibility: info from discount store chain
3.argument strength (message content)
-high strength: XT100 better than rivals
-low strength:XT100 worse than rivals
-ambiguous: XT100 has strengths and weaknesses
results of chaiken and maheswaran xt100 study, bias hypoth
-pp attending argument: high motivation and high argument strength = pos attitude, high mot + low argument strength = neg attitude
-initial heuristic bias: high mot + ambiguous argument + high credibility = pos attitude, high mot + ambiguous argument + low credibility = neg state
-heuristics: low mot = attitudes affected by only source credibility
what is the sufficiency principle
-HSM more specific than the ELM in when systematic processing will be engaged
(people want sufficient confidence in judgements before accepting a position)
what is confidence sufficiency determined by
sufficiency threshold
-confidence in the communication
-if confidence lower than sufficiency threshold, person uses systematic route
what is dissonance according to festinger
-unpleasant state of psychological tension when person has 2 or more cognitions that are inconsistent or do not fit together
-festinger proposed we seek harmony in attitudes, beliefs and behaviour and try to reduce tension from inconsistency between these elements
what is cognitive dissonance
-co occurance of inconsistent beliefs, attitudes or behaviours
-cog tension resolve by changing one of the beliefs/attitudes so both are consistent
-cog dissonance can be route to attitude change
what is the selective exposure hypoth
dissonance can lead to avoidance/resistance to persuasion
frey et al
-dissonance is unpleasant
-people motivated to avoid it (therefore people avoid info inconsistent with existing beliefs)
-avoidance less likely if…
1.attitude is strong = resources to rebut contradictory communication
2.attitude is weak = motivated to find out more and attend communication
self perception theory (vs cog dissonance)
-bem self perception theory: people infer attitudes from behaviour
if attitude is inconsistent with behaviour…
-according to dissonance you might change your attitude to resolve the inconsistency
-according to self perception, behaviour provides info about what the attitude should be
