Lecture 3- Persuasion

Question 1

What are the components of a persuasion?

Answer 1

1) source-origin
2) message
3) Target

Question 2

What is the aim of fear appeals?

Answer 2

1) evoke fear, often health related advertisement
2) attract attention and be relevant to target audience

Question 3

what are the two routes of persuasion?

Answer 3

1) Central route= careful attention to message and argument quality
2) Peripheral route= attention to superficial characteristics

Question 4

Describe the central route of persuasion

Answer 4

Elaboration Likelihood model (ELM)

1) audience need to have high interest and ability to think about the message
2) focused on the quality of the message arguments
3) attitude change that endures
4) requires effort and uses resources
5) produce long-lasting attitude change

Question 5

Describe the Peripheral route of persuasion

Answer 5

ELM

1) The audience has low interest or ability to think about the message
2) focused on surface features (superficial)
3) attitude change may be temporary
4) Fast and easy

Question 6

What are heuristics?

Answer 6

mental short cuts

Question 7

Give me examples of heuristics

Answer 7

1) source credibility
2) attractiveness
3) length of message
4) product value

Question 8

How does credibility affect persuasion?

Answer 8

persuasion based on the need to be right
1) experts in fields= trustworthy
2) experts restricted to narrow field so can be mistaken or fake

Question 9

How does attractiveness affect persuasion?

Answer 9

1) association of attractiveness with desirability of the message
2) works with humour
3) celebrity endorsement attracts attention

Question 10

What are the techniques of persuasion?

Answer 10

1) compliance- behaviour as a result of direct request
2) Persuasion- a message changes a persons attitude or behaviour

Question 11

What are the principles of compliance?

Answer 11

1) friendship
2) commitment
3) reciprocity
4) social validation
5) authority

Question 12

What is the norm of reciprocity?

Answer 12

the rule that obliges us to repay others for what we have received from them

Question 13

Describe the Door- in - the - face technique

Answer 13

1) Start with an (unreasonable) large request
2) Wait for other party to say “no”
3) Then lower your request to something reasonable
4) Contrast effect: Smaller request seems reasonable
People feel obligated to reciprocate the concession (lowering the offer)

Question 14

What is norm of consistency?

Answer 14

rule that obliges us to be consistent in our behaviour

Question 15

Describe the foot- in - the - door technique

Answer 15

1) Start with a small request
Wait for the other party to say “yes”
2) Then ask for an additional large (related) request
3) People feel obliged to keep consistent and are more likely to comply to the larger request
4) First request should not be too small and/or second request not too large

Question 16

What is the lowballing technique of persuasion?

Answer 16

1) have people commit to a course of action
2) wait until they say yes
3) then make the request more costly

Question 17

What was Festinger (1957)theory?

Answer 17

Dissonance theory

Question 18

Describe the dissonance theory?

Answer 18

behaviour and cognitions can be:
1) Consonant- logically consistent
2) Dissonant-inconsistent with each other
We try to reduce dissonance

Question 19

How can we educe dissonance?

Answer 19

1) change cognition
2) change behaviour
3) add consonant cognition
4) trivialise it

Question 20

How is dissonance created in research?

Answer 20

1) induced compliance
2) hypocrisy induction
3) free choice

Question 21

What are the conditions for dissonance?

Answer 21

1) act counter- attitudinally
2) act on free will
3) experience tension
4) attribute the feeling of arousal to counter attitudinal action

inducing dissonance can lead to attitude change/ behaviour change

Question 22

How does attitude inoculation affect persuasion?

Answer 22

Mc Guire
1) present first weak counter argument to an existing attitude to target
2) allows target to create own counterarguments
3) later less susceptible to stronger persuasive attitudes

Question 23

How does affect to freedom affect persuasion?

Answer 23

innate desire for autonomy and independence
reluctance to change- due to uncertainty and loss of control

Question 24

what strategies are used to resist persuasion?

Answer 24

1) Avoidance
2) contesting- countering aspects of the persuasion
3) biased processing
4) empowerment- strengthening self and existing attitudes