Persuasion & Attitudes

Question 1

relationship between persuasion and behaviour

Answer 1

Attitudes direct our actions , precede behaviour. Persuasion can influence attitudes therefore can shape behaviour. Societal importance = marketing, politics, health use persuasion

Question 2

Two mains dual processes model of persuasion

Answer 2

Elaboration Likelihood Model = Petty 1980
People can take a central or peripheral route to persuasion. Central = more lasting attitude change, happens when message is a high personal relevance. If low personal involvement = source credibility may play a bigger role.

The heuristic vs systematic model = Chaiken 1980
Heuristic = careful analysis, systematic is the opposite.

Question 3

Source characteristics role = 3 studies

Answer 3

Bochner&Insko 1966 = Nobel prize saying 3 hours sleep is enough was more convincing

Experts are are more persuasive = Holland&Weiss 1952

Attractive Communicators are more persuasive = Chaiken 1979

Question 4

Critic of ELM

Answer 4

High emphasis on strength of the message, but it is unclear what makes an argument strong = subjective process - Okeefe&Jackson 2007.
Possibly best to evaluate arguments in terms of probabilistic accounts - Oaksford 2007

Also, ignores social networks and social context = persuasion is not always through speaker-listener interaction. ex: Thaker et al 2021 = covid vaccine intentions influenced by social norms, self-efficacy beliefs = clearly more to it than argument strength or source characteristic.

Question 5

What other factors can influence attitude change through persuasion

Answer 5

Mood, source likability, physiological factors, cognitive dissonance (festinger 1957) = if in dissonance, attitude change is more likely = makes persuasion more effective??

Question 6

Recent review of dual process models

Answer 6

There is an interplay btw message content and source credibility. People also use message expectedness to infer about source credibility (expected message more convincing) = Collins et al 2018

Question 7

Conclusion

Answer 7

Dual processes have been highly influential but also appear to lack comprehensiveness of all elements involved in persuasion , newer findings support this.