attitude change and persuasion lect 4

Question 1

what is persuasion (early advances)

Answer 1

-focus on message of learning approach

Question 2

examples of persuasion in everyday

Answer 2

politicians, magazines, advertisement etc

Question 3

McGuire persuasion steps

Answer 3

-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

Question 4

what are the important factors in attitude change research

Answer 4

Hovland et al
1.source of communicator
2.message
3.audience

Question 5

the communicator

Answer 5

expertise heuristic
-people tend to believe experts
-this is the function of credibility
-critical feature: perceived confidence of the communicator

Question 6

research into expertise heuristic

Answer 6

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)

Question 7

the message of persuasion

Answer 7

-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

Question 8

fear content of persuasive messages

Answer 8

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

Question 9

what medium of message is best

Answer 9

chaiken and eagly
-best medium (audio, written, video etc) depends on message complexity
-simple message = video
-complex = written

Question 10

the audience self esteem

Answer 10

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

Question 11

what is idea behind the dual process model

Answer 11

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

Question 12

what are the 2 routes for persuasion using the dual processing model

Answer 12

1.high effort: deliberate route, audience listening and motivated
2.low effort: automatic route, not motivated to put effort in

Question 13

what is the elaboration likelihood model

Answer 13

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)

Question 14

taking the peripheral route

Answer 14

how attractive person is, how familiar message is etc
-increased persuasion with this route

Question 15

what is the argument quality

Answer 15

-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)

Question 16

what is the heuristic systematic model (HSM)

Answer 16

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

Question 17

what is the high effort route called

Answer 17

systematic route
-processes all info in a comprehensive way

Question 18

what is the low effort route called

Answer 18

heuristic route
-cog shortcuts for decision making, requires presence of existing heuristic

Question 19

what is the bias hypothesis

Answer 19

-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

Question 20

chaiken and maheswaran bias hypoth

Answer 20

-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

Question 21

results of chaiken and maheswaran xt100 study, bias hypoth

Answer 21

-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

Question 22

what is the sufficiency principle

Answer 22

-HSM more specific than the ELM in when systematic processing will be engaged
(people want sufficient confidence in judgements before accepting a position)

Question 23

what is confidence sufficiency determined by

Answer 23

sufficiency threshold
-confidence in the communication
-if confidence lower than sufficiency threshold, person uses systematic route

Question 24

what is dissonance according to festinger

Answer 24

-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

Question 25

what is cognitive dissonance

Answer 25

-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

Question 26

what is the selective exposure hypoth

Answer 26

dissonance can lead to avoidance/resistance to persuasion

Question 27

frey et al

Answer 27

-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

Question 28

self perception theory (vs cog dissonance)

Answer 28

-bem self perception theory: people infer attitudes from behaviour

Question 29

if attitude is inconsistent with behaviour…

Answer 29

-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