Intro

Question 1

How common is persuasion?

Answer 1

• Estimates suggest that the average person is exposed to anywhere from 300 – 3000 messages per day
• Persuasion is a large part of many professions

Question 2

Why study social influence and persuasion? 4 benefits

Answer 2

1. Instrumental function - become a better persuader
2. Knowledge and Awareness - knowledge is power
3. Defensive function - less likely to be taken in
4. Debunking function - dispelling myths about persuasion

Question 3

Criticism of Persuasion

Answer 3

Learning about persuasion fosters manipulation

Question 4

What criteria could you use to define persuasion? (4 problems) And there flaws We might be eliminating things that there worth study

Answer 4

Intentionality
• Unintentional influencers?
• People might not know what outcome they are seeking
• Unintended receivers?
• Stated versus actual intent

Effects
• Persuasion as product
• Source → Receiver
• Difficult to measure persuasive effects
• Theshhold? Boomerangs?

Free Will and Conscious Awareness
• Persuasion is not coercive?
• On a continuum

Interpersonal v Interpersonal

Question 5

Working Definition of Persuasion

Answer 5

Persuasion involves one of more persons who are engaged in the activity of creating, reinforcing, modifying, or extinguishing beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, and/or behaviors with the constraints of a given communication context (Seiter & Gass, 2007)

Question 6

Cialdini’s view

Answer 6

We need short cuts (stereo types, rules of thumbs)

Question 7

Langer’s research on mindlessness (1978)

Answer 7

“Excuse me. I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?” “Excuse me. I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I’m in a rush?” “Excuse me. I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies?” “Because” is the magic word

Question 8

Dual Process Models

Answer 8

Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) Heuristic Systematic Model of Persuasion (Chaiken, 1980)

Question 9

Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986)

Answer 9

Is a dual process theory of how attitudes are formed and changed. The model examines how an argument’s position on the “elaboration continuum”, from processing and evaluating (high elaboration) to peripheral issues such as source expertise or attractiveness (low elaboration), shapes its persuasiveness. 2 routes to persuasion:

• Central
• Peripheral (peripheral cues)

Which route we take depends on motivation and ability.

Question 10

Comprehensive Exams Experiment (Petty et al., 1981)

Answer 10

What is more important: source or the message itself?

• Students heard a speech proposing that all senior students should be required to take exams before they graduate
• Manipulated expertise: high school student or Princeton Professor
• Manipulated quality of arguments: weak or strong
• Manipulated personal relevance: this would happen the following year or 10 years from now

Question 11

The Motivation to Pay Attention to the Arguments

Answer 11

• personal relevance of the topic
• Need for Cognition - A personality variable reflecting the extent to which people engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activities.

Question 12

The Ability to Pay Attention to the Arguments

Answer 12

When people are unable to pay close attention to the arguments, they are swayed more by peripheral cues.

• Distraction
• Difficulty of message to understand (e.g., use of jargon)
• Time constraints
• Mood – good mood: Peripheral, bad mood: Central

Question 13

Jewelry Store Story

Answer 13

Friend who recently opened an Indian jewelry store called him and was giddy Turquoise jewelry was not selling even though it was tourist season and her shop was full The quality was good for what she was asking She tried centralizing the display and getting her staff to push the sales She went out of town and wrote a staff saying that they should ½ the jewelry but they thought that meant to double the price. The Jewelry sold much better WHY: The lack of knowledge about jewelry on the part of the tourists caused them to act on the expensive=better stereo type This is an example of the Click, Whirr principle.

Question 14

Necklace for the fiancée story

Answer 14

Jeweller was going to give a friend a deal on a $500 necklace so he told his friend it was 250 his friend thought that was too cheap for his fiancée. A few days later jeweller calls friend back and shows him a necklace for 500, his friend wanted it. Jeweller said as a wedding gift he would sell it to him for 250, the friend was happy.

Question 15

Mother turkeys story

Answer 15

Turkeys are good mothers to the chicks who “cheep-cheep”. But if they don’t then the mother will ignore or even kill the chick. “Extreme reliance on the sound” makes them mother a polcat instead of viciously attack. (moral of the story: we work on instinct)

Question 16

Click, Whirr

Answer 16

Tape recorder metaphor Click: the appropriate tape is activated Whirr: rolls out the appropriate set of behavior

Question 17

Fixed-action pattern

Answer 17

Intricate sequence of behavior that occur in the same fashion over and over (automatic behavior) Sometimes this is beneficial for survival

Question 18

Trigger Feature

Answer 18

A specific feature of something that is the cause for activating the activates the fixed-action pattern or Click, Whirr response. For example the colour of the feathers on a bird

Question 19

Judgmental heuristics

Answer 19

Short cuts that allow for simplified thinking that works well most of the time but leaves us open to occasional costly mistakes.

Question 20

Controlled responding

Answer 20

To react on the basis of thorough understanding of all relevant information

Question 21

People will use controlled responding when?

Answer 21

They have the desire and ability to do so

Question 22

WW2 Plane crash story

Answer 22

Accident investigators noticed that often errors made by the captain that were not corrected by the other crew led to crashes. Famous general had a new co-pilot who lifted wheels too early because he thought the general signaled him to when he was really just singing and bobbing his head to a song he was thinking about

Question 23

Mimics

Answer 23

Creatures who copy the trigger of another animal to trick them in to “playing their behavior tapes” at the wrong time. For example fire flies

Question 24

Tailor shop story

Answer 24

When men are trying on three piece suits one tailor would ask the other how much the suit cost. The first tailor would pretend to mishear and quote a lower price. The customer would think they were being sneaky and buy the suit before they figured out the mistake.

Question 25

Jujitsu analogy

Answer 25

In jujitsu someone can take down a bigger opponent by knowing how to use leverage, gravity and momentum to their advantage. A Profiteer of persuasion could use little personal force to manipulate without the appearance of manipulation.

Question 26

Three pails of water

Answer 26

A student sits in front of three pails of water. Hot, cold, and room temp. They put one hand in the hot and the other in the cold. They are told to put both hands in the room tempeture pail at the same time. The hands feel different even though the water is the same. An story of perceptual contrast

Question 27

You need to sell an expensive idem and a cheaper one to the same customer, what do you sell first? What principal is at play?

Answer 27

Expensive perceptual contrast

Question 28

The college letter is an example of…

Answer 28

perceptual contrast

Question 29

Real estate agents showing bad house first is an example of…

Answer 29

perceptual contrast

Question 30

Selling a car before suggesting add on’s is an example of…

Answer 30

perceptual contrast

Question 31

Overbooked flight try’s to get people to change flights by offering vouchers. The flight attendant made a joke that the voucher was $10 000 to make people laugh. It made people laugh but then she had a hard time convincing people to take the real voucher deal of $200. What was her mistake

Answer 31

perceptual contrast

Question 32

What are fixed-action patterns among animals? How are they similar and different from what happens in humans?

Answer 32

Intricate sequence of behavior that occur in the same fashion over and over (automatic behavior) Sometimes this is beneficial for survival Mother turkeys

Question 33

What makes automatic responding in humans so attractive? So dangerous?

Answer 33

It provides us with a short cut. If we had to think about everything then we would be cognitively overloaded. We can be tricked.

Question 34

Why did people give 37 more than a quarter?

Answer 34

Pique Technique

Question 35

Pique Technique

Answer 35

Rather than make a standard request for something, make an unusual request that leads people to wonder why you are making that particular request (and hence pay attention to you).

Question 36

Why does the pique technique work?

Answer 36

Making a novel request creates surprise, breaking the person out of their schema and forces them pay attention, thinking further about your request in a central processing fashion. The novelty in the request piques their interest (hence the name of the technique).

Question 37

Heuristic Systematic Model of Persuasion (Chaiken, 1980) Aka dual process theory

Answer 37

This attempts to explain how people receive and process persuasive messages. The model states that individuals can process messages in one of two ways: heuristically or systematically. The guiding belief with this model is that individuals are more apt to minimize their use of cognitive resources thus affecting the intake and processing of messages. Provides an account of how a phenomenon can occur in two different ways, or as a result of two different processes. Often, the two processes consist of an implicit (automatic), unconscious process and an explicit (controlled), conscious process.

Question 38

peripheral cues

Answer 38

Attractiveness

Source Expertise

Liking Environment

Body movement • Head nodding versus shaking (Wells & Petty, 1980) • Arm stretching versus flexing (Cacioppo et al., 1993) • nodding

Question 39

Which is longer lasting, Peripheral /Automatic or central/controlled processes in persuasion?

Answer 39

Central or controlled

Question 40

If you wanted to sell someone something would you use the central or peripheral route?

Answer 40

Peripheral

Question 41

3 Self Goles that infuence how we act

Answer 41

1. Goal of maintaining a positive self concept
2. Goal of Affiliation and liking
3. Goal of accuracy