Lecture On Persuasion

Question 1

Know what attitudes are, what their characteristics are, and what their dimensions are.

Answer 1

On attitude is a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object.

• Characteristics:
  1. Deals primarily with affect, not cognition
  2. Tied to an object
  3. Tends to be consistent: same stimuli, same response over time; similar stimuli, similar response over time; different forms of expression, same tone.
  4. They are learned-through media, from parents, interactions with peers.
  5. Influence behavior
• Dimensions:
  1. Valence: positive-negative
  2. Strength: Strong-weak
  3. Awareness: Conscious-subconscious

Question 2

Understand what beliefs are and what types of beliefs exist.

Answer 2

Beliefs link an object to some attributes. The beliefs deal with cognition (thinking), not affect.
There are core beliefs (defines who you are, hard to change and serves as a foundation for other beliefs) and there are peripheral believes.

Question 3

Classical conditioning and Pavlov’s dog experiments

Answer 3

Every time a dog sees or smells food the dog salivates before Pavlov gave the dog food he would ring a bell, dog was conditioned to salivate to the ringing of the bell.

Question 4

Operant conditioning

Answer 4

This deals with reinforcement and punishment to either increase or decrease the likelihood that a behavior will be performed. With operant conditioning you can teach a rat to play basketball.

Question 5

Modeling- Bandura

Answer 5

1. Attention-the other person needs to pay attention to what you’re saying if you want to persuade them
2. Retention-they need to be able to remember what you have said
3. Reproduction-they need to be able to engage in the recommended behavior
4. Motivation-they not only need to be able to engage in the recommended behavior but they must be willing to engage in it
   - -If any of these steps are missing then there will be no persuasion.

Question 6

Know various forms of arguments and evidence, and be able to say which are more or less effective.

Answer 6

Persuasive Argument messages:

1. One-sided message: only favoring arguments
2. Two sided message: favoring and opposing arguments
   - Refutational two-sided message-argue how yours is superior
   - Non-refutational two-sided message-present both sides and let the audience decide for themselves.
   - -When you use refutational two-sided argument you come across as honest. you come across as an expert because you know both sides of the arguments and you know why yours is superior

Evidence:
1. Statistical evidence: info based on a large number of cases-more logical; communicates credibility
2. Narrative evidence: case studies, anecdotes, or examples-more emotional, understandable, vivid, and memorable.
Use both because they reinforce one another

Question 7

Know how to effectively use fear in persuasion.

Answer 7

Fear has two components:
1. Threat severity
2. Threat susceptibility
Simply scaring people will not change their behavior. You should enhance the audiences perception of efficacy. Efficacy has two components:
1. Self efficacy-ability to perform the recommended behavior.
2. Response efficacy-ability of the recommended behavior to remove the threat.

Question 8

Know how to effectively use guilt in persuasion.

Answer 8

• High guilt-feeling of being mad at the source.
• Explicit guilt-feeling of being manipulated.
• Moderate/low and implicit guilt-grabs attention and creates the desire to remove the guilt.
• An example of this is the door in the face strategy-request for something so big that people will say no, you make them feel guilty for turning you down, later you request for something much less and you will get a yes.

Question 9

Know how to effectively use humor in persuasion.

Answer 9

• Grabs attention
• Enhances source liking, but may undermine credibility
• Leads to shallow processing of info, through distraction.