Attitude change: persuasion Flashcards
Lecture 4
What are the two main dual-process models of persuasion?
The elaboration likelihood model (ELM).
Heuristic-systematic model (HSM).
Outline the ELM of persuasion
Petty and Cacioppo (1986).
Dual-process theory: persuasion occurs through either a highly cognitive (central) or more superficial (peripheral) pathway.
Elaboration likelihood: refers to the probability that an individual will thoughfully process persuasive information.
The central route focuses on logical reasoning and careful considerations of arguments.
- High elaboration: audience carefully evaluates the message.
- Requires motivation and ability.
- Relies on the quality of the argument.
Leads to stronger, longer-lasting attitude changes.
Changes are resistant to counterarguments.
The peripheral route relies on superficial cues rather than content.
- Low elaboration: the audience does not deeply process the message.
- Persuasion depends on peripheral cues.
Leads to weaker, temporary attitude changes.
Changes are less resistant to counterarguments.
Factors influencing the route:
Motivation: personal relevance or importance of the topic; need for cognition (enjoyment of thinking deeply).
Ability: cognitive resources available to process information; complexity of the message.
Cues: central (logical arguments, data, evidence); peripheral (visual appeal, authority figures, and emotional appeals).
What are the four assumptions of ELM?
- There are two routes of thinking that a person may employ.
- Situational and personality variables affect which route of thinking a person will employ.
- Persuasion tools will have different effects depending upon the route of thinking employed.
- Change achieved through the central route is more persistent over time, more resistant to change, and more predictive of behaviour.
Outline Assumption 1 of ELM
There are two routes of thinking that a person may employ: either to think hard (elaboration) or not much thinking (no elaboration).
If the arguments are elaborated, persuasion occurs of the arguments are compelling and leads to long-lasting and resistant attitude change.
If the arguments aren’t elaborated, people don’t think about the arguments but respond to superficial cues. Persuasion occurs of the superficial cues are compelling, and attitude change is temporary and susceptible to further change.
What are superficial cues?
Credibility:
- expertise.
- trustworthiness.
- status.
Attractiveness.
Similarity.
Emotion.
Outline assumption 2 of ELM
Situational and personality factors affect which route of thinking a person will employ, i.e. people can move between the two routes.
Situational factors are external conditions or contexts that influence an individual’s likelihood to engage in high or low elaboration, e.g. time pressure, distractions, message relevance.
Personality factors are internal traits or predispositions that shape how people process persuasive messages.
Example 1: need for cognition
A personality variable reflecting the extent to which people engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activity.
WATT = Willingness or Ability To Think.
High WATT proccessors to low WATT processors.
(Booth-Butterfield, 2009).
Individuals high in NFC enjoy deep thinking and are more likely to take the central route.
Individuals low in NFC tend to rely on peripheral cues.
Study of need for cognition
(Mock) jury research found that:
- Those with a low NFC are especially prone to take in peripheral information.
- So are less likely to notice the quality of expert witness arguments (central messages).
e.g. McAuliff and Kovera (2008) manipulated the scientific strength of expert witness arguments and found it affected high NFC (not not low NFC) participants.
Salerno et al. (2017):
- Let participants see a cross-examination of the experts, focusing on peripheral information.
- Half the participants also saw information that highlighted the flaw of the experts testimony.
- Found that only for high NFC did varying how good witness testimony was make a difference.
- In the groups, they found (as predicted) that when given central and peripheral cues in the cross-examination, group deliberations increased participants accuracy (regardless of NFC) - so NFC was not a factor. However, in the peripheral cues only group (where cross-examination only picked out the peripheral cues), group deliberations made low NFC participants less accurate as peripheral cues obscured the argument’s weaknesses; but made high NFC participants more accurate as they bothered to look at the arguments weakness anyway.
Outline assumption 3 of ELM
Persuasion tools will have different effects depending upon the route of thinking employed.
Persuasion tools effect on central route: driven by quality of argument presented, tools like logical reasoning, data, and evidence have most significant effect.
Persuasion tools effect on peripheral route: influenced by superficial cues (credibility, appearance, emotional appeal), quality of argument matters less, the focus is on the presentation rather than the substance.
Same variables can affect persuasion:
- Via different processes.
- At different levels of elaboration likelihood.
via different processes - e.g. central route = a doctor endorsing medication is scrutinised for qualifications and scientific basis of endorsement.
Peripheral route = same variable (doctor) acts as a peripheral cue = doctor’s white coat and authoritative demeanor are sufficient to persuade.
at different elaboration likelihood:
When elaboration likelihood is high, variables are processes for logical importance.
When elaboration likehood is low, variables serve as superficial cues.
e.g. high elaboration = celeb endoring car is evaluated on their actual experiences with vechiles.
low elaboration - celebrity’s fame alone increases the appeal of the car.
Attractiveness cue variability
Shavitt et al. (1994) looked at effectiveness of a restaurant advert.
Manipulated:
- Attractiveness of advert endorser.
- Involvement (did they or did they not get a voucher for that restaurant).
- Focus on central features of product (via priming): unrelated to attractiveness (taste and aroma) vs related to attractiveness (public image).
When attractiveness unreleated to priming:
- Because they primed taste and cue.
- Attractiveness = peripheral cue.
- Attractiveness affected evaluations for low involvement conditions but not high involvement conditions (as less elaborated processing).
When attractiveness related to priming:
- Because they primed public image.
- Attractiveness = itself an ‘argument’.
- Attractiveness affected evaluations for high involvement condition (but not low involvement condition) via more elaborated processing.
Exactly as ELM assumption 3 would predict.
outline assumption 4 of ELM
Change via the central route:
- Persistent over time.
- Resistant to change.
- Predictive of behaviour (higher than peripheral route).
Example: Horcajo and Luttrell (2016)
- Researchers looking at whether attitudes towards legalisation of doping behaviours would resist change.
- Asked if there were differences if you did it through the elaborated central route compared to the peripheral route.
- Participants were more persuaded by the central route, but were more resistant to change.
What is the heuristic-systematic model (HSM) of persuasion?
Dual-process model of persuasion.
Proposes two modes of information processing: systematic processing (same as central route) and heuristic processing (same as superficial route).
HSM allows for simultaneous use of both heuristic and systematic processing (parallel processing) unlike ELM.
Systematic processing: thoughtful, deliberate, and effortful examination of arguments.
- High cognitive effort and engagement.
- Motivation.
Heuristic processing: quick, effortless way of evaluating message using simple decision making rules or mental short-cuts.
- Minimal cognitive effort.
- Motivation low.
Relies on heuristics, such as “experts know best”, “the majority must be right” and “length implies strength”.
Differences in ELM vs HSM
Stroebe (2016): four main differences
- Think-a-lot vs what?
ELM - lots of things at peripheral end.
HSM - just one thing at each end (heuristic processing). - Instead of vs, with
ELM is a continuum of how much elaboration -> the most of one, the less of the other.
HSM sees both types of processing as happening at the same time (Luo et al. 2013):
- Addivity (reinforcement): heuristic and systematic processing may lead to the same conclusion and confidence in that conclusion will be higher than with eithe technique alone.
- Bias: heuristic processing may generate initial conclusions that bias the nature and scope of systematic processing.
- Attenuation (lessening): sysematic processing may produce conclusions that limit or overturn those of heuristic processing. - HSM’s sufficiently principle.
Unique to HSM (Eagly and Chaiken, 1993).
Sufficiency principle: people process information to the extent necessary to feel confident that their judgement meets their desired level of “sufficiency”.
The suficiency thershold is the desired level of confidence or certainty an individal seeks to acheive.
If heuristic cues alone meet the sufficiency threshold, further systematic processing is unnecessary.
If heuristics fall short of the sufficiency threshold, individuals engage in systematic processing to fill the gap. - Motives
ELM (and original HSM) -> people are motived by accuracy motivated (to be correct) - objective and unbiased information processing.
HSM (Chaiken 1989, Bohner et al. 1995) → three potential motives: accuracy motivation, defence motivation (confirm preferred and disconfirm dispreferred attitudes -> biased information processing), and impression motivation (assess social acceptability, select pleasing/appeasing attitudes, biased information processing).
Strengths of dual-processing models of persuasion
- Hugely popular
- Flexibility across contexts (different audiences process messages differently).
- Takes into account individual differences (variability in audience triats.
Limitations of dual-processing models of persuasion
- Over-simplication: reduce persuasion to two distinct routes.
- Limited considerations of emtion.
- Overemphasis on motivation and ability.
