Chapter 7 - Insights on Persuasion

Question 1

As these examples show, persuading people can be evil, controversial, and even good at times. Persuasion isn’t always good or bad, but it can be both. Instead, the message’s purpose and content make people think good or bad about it.

Answer 1

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Question 2

People who use the central route of processing can make more long-term changes than people who use the peripheral route of processing.

Answer 2

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Question 3

It’s not so much the arguments that make people think, but how they make them think. It’s also more likely for people to change their attitude if they think more deeply than if they think only superficially

Answer 3

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Question 4

If a person is well-spoken, has good intentions, and has a lot of arguments (or even better, if the different arguments come from different sources), we tend to accept the message without much thought.

Answer 4

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Question 5

If you speak confidently and fluently, you will appear more credible. The more charismatic, energetic, confident-seeming, and fluent-speaking a person appears, the more likely they are to persuade others

Answer 5

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Question 6

As it turns out, we’re more likely to accept negative feedback as genuine than positive feedback.

Answer 6

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Question 7

If the audience believes the communicator is not trying to persuade them, then they are more likely to believe the communicator is trustworthy.

Answer 7

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Question 8

Begin your argument with facts rather than speculations.

Answer 8

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Question 9

Another way to get your message across is to let someone else do the talking for you.

Answer 9

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Question 10

Surprise of all surprises, making direct eye contact with the audience does not improve persuasion

Answer 10

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Question 11

In the direction of the listeners. This correlational study found that students who looked at a speaker’s eyes were less influenced by their words.

Answer 11

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Question 12

Researchers have discovered that we are, in fact, swayed by physical attractiveness and likeability. When it comes to charitable donations and candy sales, we’re more likely to respond to those we like. Even though Girl Scout cookies are delicious, few people would buy them if they were sold by unattractive middle-aged men.

Answer 12

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Question 13

There are many ways to be attractive. Physical attractiveness is only one factor. Even emotional arguments, when delivered by beautiful people, can have a greater impact

Answer 13

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Question 14

Earlier experiments with real people found that mimicry makes people like you because it suggests empathy and rapport.

Answer 14

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Question 15

Also, similarity makes a person look good. We tend to like people who are like us, so we like them.

Answer 15

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Question 16

A lot of people who are well-educated or think logically are interested in arguments that are based on facts

Answer 16

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Question 17

People are more likely to be swayed by later emotional appeals if their initial attitudes were formed primarily via the peripheral route. When their first attitudes are formed mostly through the central route, they are more likely to be persuaded by later information-based, central route arguments.

Answer 17

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Question 18

Good feelings can help people be more persuasive, in part because they make people think more positively and in part because they connect good feelings with the message

Answer 18

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Question 19

In order to get people to do a big favor for you, you should get them to do something small first.

Answer 19

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Question 20

When presented with two options, people are more likely to choose the first one they see. When presented with two identical pieces of bubble gum, one placed on top of the other on a white clipboard, 62 percent of people chose the first piece they saw.

Answer 20

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Question 21

Like people who join cults, they are influenced by people who are powerful and religious. It’s because of these powerful voices that they start to see themselves as “living martyrs,” and they think their self-destructive moment will lead them to a place of happiness and heroism.

Answer 21

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Question 22

An audience is more likely to perceive a speaker as credible when the speaker:

Answer 22

argues against his or her self-interest