Chapter 5 Flashcards
T/F: Fear arousing messages are generally ineffective.
False.
T/F: Speakers who talk fast are viewed as less credible than those who talk with occasional hesitation.
False.
T/F: In research to date, messages that acknowledge opposing arguments are always more effective than messages which are one sided.
False.
T/F: In a debate, it is usually advantageous to be the last to present your side of the issue.
False.
T/F: Political advertising has little effect on voters in the general presidential election.
True.
T/F: In actual fact, television commercials for toothpaste and aspirin have little effect on the buying habits of the general public.
False.
T/F: People’s attitudes change considerably during adulthood.
False.
T/F: One way to strengthen existing attitudes is to challenge them.
True.
T/F: Associating a message with the good feelings one has while eating or drinking makes it more convincing.
True.
Describe the central route to persuasion.
AUDIENCE:
• Analytical and motivated
PROCESSING:
• High effort
• Elaborate
• Agree or counter-agree
PERSUASION
• Cogent arguments evoke enduring agreement
Describe the peripheral route to persuasion.
AUDIENCE:
• Not analytical or involved
PROCESSING:
• Low effort
• Use peripheral cues
• Rule of thumb heuristics
PERSUASION:
• Cues trigger liking and acceptance but often only temporary
How does supermarket marketing work?
- Merchandise at eye level sells best
- Merchandise at the end of a supermarket aisle or near the checkouts sells better
- Bundle pricing (2 for $1 vs. 50 cents for 1) increases the sense of value
- Every few months they change the layout of items on the store shelves
What is credibility?
- perceived expertise
* perceived trustworthiness
How does classical conditioning persuade people?
- One repetition is not enough
- Conditioned responses are resistant to change
- Associations between higher order and conditioned stimuli must fit properly
- Celebrities must match the product
- Discrimination occurs when the CS is paired with the UCS and another is not
What are the six persuasion principles?
- Authority
- Liking
- Social proof
- Reciprocity
- Consistency
- Scarcity
How does authority persuade?
• People defer to credible experts.
How does liking persuade?
• People respond more affirmatively to those they like.
→ Familiarity → Celebrity → Attractiveness → Shared Beliefs → Shared Group Membership
How does social proof persuade?
• People allow the example of others to validate how to think, feel, and act.
→ put others in a good mood and thus more likely to say yes
How does reciprocity persuade?
• People feel obliged to repay in kind what they have received.
→ door in the face
→ foot in the mouth
→ “and that’s not all”
How does consistency persuade?
• People tend to honour their public commitments.
→ foot-in-the-door
→ lowball procedure
How does scarcity persuade?
• People prize what’s scarce.
→ playing hard to get
→ deadline technique
How and when do people join cults?
- People first join groups that reflect society’s “default values”.
- People in transitional periods are most vulnerable.
How do cults indoctrinate?
• Attitudes follow behaviour
→ Compliance breeds acceptance
→ The foot-in-the-door phenomenon
- Persuasive elements
- Group effects
What are the qualities of cult leaders?
- Create a social reality
- Create a granfalloon (“proud and meaningless association of human beings”)
- Generate commitment through dissonance reduction (foot in the door techniques)
- Establish credibility and attractiveness
- Send members out to proselytize the unredeemed
- Distract members from thinking undesirable thoughts
- Fixate members vision on a phantom
What are some questions to assess whether an organization is a cult?
- Are alternatives being provided or taken away?
- Is your access to new and different information being broadened or denied?
- Do you assume personal responsibility and control or is it usurped by the group and its’ leader?
How can persuasion be resisted?
• Strengthening personal commitment
→ Challenging beliefs
→ Developing counterarguments
• Attitude inoculation: Exposing people to weak attacks on their attitudes so that when stronger attacks come, they will have refutations available
• Real-life applications
e.g., Inoculating children against peer pressure to smoke
What affected the American opinion on military action in Iraq compared to the rest of the world?
• culture-shaping occurring top-down
→ cultural elites control the dissemination of information and ideas
• people in the U.S. and people elsewhere learned about and watched two different wars
When is appealing to central route processing more effective?
- ideas where people have to think carefully and mentally elborate
- rely on their own thoughts in response as well as on the persuasive appeals
- causes lasting and persistent change in attitude
When is appealing to peripheral route processing more effective?
• when needing superficial and temporary attitude change
What are the primary ingredients of persuasion?
- messenger
- message
- medium
- audience
What is the sleeper effect?
- delayed impact of a message
* occurs when we remember the message but forget the reason for discounting it
What makes a messenger perceived as an expert?
- say things the audience agrees with
- introduced as someone knowledgeable
- speak confidently
What makes a messenger perceived as trustworthy?
- looking straight in the eye
- audience believes communicator is not trying to persuade them
- argue against their own interests
- talking fast
How do good feelings enhance persuasion?
- enhancing positive thinking
- linking good feelings with the message
- faster, impule decisions; cuts down on rumination
What are some examples of the effectiveness of fear-arousing persuasion?
- smoking goes down when viewing super edgy and graphic anti-promotion commercials
- breast/testicular self-exams go up
What happens when fear-arousing communication is used to discourage pleasurable behaviour?
• no behavioural change, goes into denial
What is the most effective way to implement fear-arousing messages?
• fear severity and likelihood + offer a viable solution
What are some experiments that explored one-sided v. two-sided arguments and what were the results?
- acknowledging the inconvenience but adding it was important increased likelihood that people would recycle
- in wwii radio broadcast study, one-sided was more effective with those who already agreed, two-sided was more effective with those who disagreed
• simulated trials showed that two-sided arguments are better for people who are aware of opposing arguments
→ people will make up their own counterarguments if they have one-sided
What studies examine the primacy v. recency effect?
• Asch’s study describing a person with terms going intelligent-envious gave better impressions than envious-intelligent
→ previous descriptors coloured later ones
- success coming earlier for people are more able than those who successes come after early failures
- candidates benefit from being first on ballot
What is the rule for passive v. active appeals?
• Persuasion decreases as the significance of the issue increases.
→ On minor issues, such as which brand of aspirin to buy, it’s easy to demonstrate the media’s power.
→ On more important issues, it is not impossible, but one shove won’t do it.
Which two field experiments illustrated the strength of personal influence?
- people divided into three groups who weren’t intending to vote, effectiveness of : media < mailings < in person
- same with heart disease people
What is the two-step flow of communication?
• process by which media influence often occurs through opinion leaders, who in turn influence others
How does age affect persuade-ability?
- older = Conservative, younger = NDP
* younger people have very changeable attitudes that stabilize through middle adulthood
What breeds counter-arguing?
• warning that someone is trying to persuade you
What inhibits counter-arguing?
- disctraction
* low need for cognition
What is a cult?
group typically characterized by:
- distinctive ritual of its devotion to a god or person
- isolation from the surrounding culture
- a charismatic leader
How does compliance breed acceptance in cults?
- new converts are made active members of the team through behavioural rituals, public recruitment, and fund-raising
- greater personal commitment must be justified by believing
Using the factors known to affect the impact of persuasive communications, analyze cult persuasion.
THE COMMUNICATOR
• charismatic leader perceived as expert and trustworthy
THE MESSAGE
• vivid and emotional message
• warmth and acceptance offered
THE AUDIENCE
• vulnerable
• young people under 25 in a transitional period of their life
• white middle-class people who lack either “street smarts” or wariness
• facing personal crisis or away from home
