Attitudes & Persuasion pt. 2

Question 1

What is persuasion?

Answer 1

to influence or change a person’s beliefs or opinions

Question 2

What is the central route to persuasion?

Answer 2

Occurs when people think carefully and deliberately about the content of a persuasive message

Question 3

What is the peripheral route to persuasion?

Answer 3

the person is influenced by peripheral cues (eg. authority) without engaging in much thought

Question 4

Which motivational and ability factors influence using the central vs. peripheral route?

Answer 4

• Peripheral cues are more effective on people who do NOT have the cognitive resources to process the strength of the arguments
• Central processing is preferred by people who have the mental capacity to reason through arguments and by people in high need for cognition

Question 5

Which factors promote attitude change?

Answer 5

• an affective component (feelings)
• a behavioral component (the effect of the attitude on behavior)
• a cognitive component (belief and knowledge)

Question 6

Which source characteristics influence persuasion?

Answer 6

“The Who”
- attractiveness
- credibility
- certainity

Question 7

What is the halo effect?

Answer 7

a cognitive bias in which our overall impression of a person, product, or brand influences how we perceive their specific traits or abilities
- positive impression - more likely to view their individual qualities positively (no direct evidence)
- negative impression - more likely to view their individual qualities negatively (regardless of any evidence to the contrary)

Question 8

Which message characteristics influence persuasion?

Answer 8

“The What”
- message quality
- vividness
- fear
- culture

Question 9

What is the identifiable victim effect?

Answer 9

Identifiable victims are often more powerful sources of persuasion than abstract statistics

Question 10

What is the difference between independent and interdependent cultures?

Answer 10

Independent Self-Construal:
“the self is an autonomous entity that is distinct and separate from others:
- uniqueness and independence
- focus in internal causes of behavior
- the self is stable across time and social context

Interdependent Self-Construal:
“the self is fundamentally connected to other people”
- find a place within the community
- fulfill appropriate roles
- close attention to social contexts

Question 11

Which audience characteristics influence persuasion?

Answer 11

“To Whom”
- need for cognition
- mood
- age
- audience size
- diversity

Question 12

What is need for cognition?

Answer 12

an individual’s tendency and enjoyment in evaluating and integrating multiple relevant sources of information to make sense of their surroundings