Chapter 7 -Persusasion Flashcards
What is the elaboration likelihood model?
A model of persuasion with two routes:
Central route:
people thinking carefully about the persuasive message they are sending. (A car company emphasizing car safety)
Peripheral route:
People cite superficial cues as a source of persuasion. (Like hotness, source of message)
What is the role of motivation and ability?
Help determine if we use central route of peripheral route. You need both motivation and ability to use central.
What are source characteristics?
Characteristics of a person who delivers a persuasive message: like attractiveness, credibility and, certainty
Why does attractiveness influence people?
Celebrities often appear in commercials and other organizations, hot people tend to persuade those who:
-don’t care about the message
-don’t have much knowledge in the domain
Why does credibility influence people?
If the person advertising seems trustworthy then people send to trust them.
Advertisers often exploit this.
Ex. Toothpaste ads when dentists recommend
What is the sleeper effect?
When a persuasive message from an unreliable source initially has little influence, but later causes attitudes to shift.
Ex. Unreliable covers something reliable covers something
And people circle back and support it years after
Why are people influenced by certainty?
People don’t feel persuaded by sentences with a lot of waffling
What are message characteristics in persuasion?
Content of a persuasive message, quality of evidence and explicitness of its conclusions.
What is message quality in persuasion?
-Straightforward, clear, logical
-Has explicit conclusions
-if the speaker argues against self benefit (arguing against cigarettes even if it would reduce his chance at inheritance)
What is the identifiable victim effect? (Vividness)
People tend to be more moved by the struggle of one (vividly seeing them struggle) vs a more abstract number of people struggling.
How should information be presented?
Colourful, interesting, and memorable.
How do people use fear to convince?
Use fear and concrete steps people can take to address the source of fear.
How is culture used for persuasion?
Important to fit the values and norms of the place you are persuading people in.
Ex. Watching if they’re in independent vs interdependent
What are audience characteristics?
Audience characteristics are characteristics of those who receive a persuasive message. Like need for cognition (students), their mood or age.
What is need for cognition?
People who read scientific American and do crosswords.
These people are more convinced by high quality arguments
What is a mood as a characteristic?
When in the right mood people are more perceptive to persuasion
Ex. Hitler got people outraged
And they were more likely to follow him to satisfy that outrage
How does age influence persuasion?
Younger people are more likely to be persuaded.
How does knowing your audience help persuasion?
People who know a bit about a topic (global warming) will use a central route.
For those who know less might use the peripheral route (might choose attractive people here as opposed to solid reasoning)
What is the power of the media?
Researchers rely on surveys
When people are watching a show at the same time as others, they will feel more connected to the community and can process it more deeply.
What is agenda control?
Efforts by the media to emphasize certain events and topics, thereby shaping what events and topics the people think are important.
(Bias/propaganda)
What is the hostile media phenomenon?
We all tend to assume the media is biased against our preferred causes
Does fake news/misinformation travel faster?
Fake news does seem to spread faster then real news.
They tend to target more emotional reactions
This can make people make misguided choices
What is selective attention? (Resistance to persuasion)
Tune into information that reinforces our attitudes.
Online “echo chamber”
What is selective evaluation? (Resistance to persuasion)
People who are personally motivated will be more skeptical of information that challenges cherished beliefs.
What is selectively frame? (Resistance to persuasion)
Shining a positive light on things we support and negative light on things we oppose.
How do previous commitments and resistance halt persuasion?
Many persuasive messages fail because they can’t overcome the audiences previous commitments.
What is the thought polarization hypothesis?
More extended thought about an issue causes a more extreme entrenched attitude.
How does prior knowledge help resist persuasion?
Prior knowledge makes you more resistant to persuasive messages.
When arguments turn into moral mandates, what happens? (What is moralization of attitudes)
Less likely to compromise
More motivated to act on them
People will believe their opinions are objectively true
Distance themselves from those with different beliefs
So if you frame a position in terms of moral position it will be more persuasive.
What is attitude inoculation?
Small attacks on peoples beliefs that engage their pre-existing attitudes, prior commitments, and background knowledge: enabling them to counteract a larger attack to resist persuasion.
