theories and models of persuasion

Question 1

the elaboration likelihood model

Answer 1

PETTY CACCIOPO 1986
* Persuasion as a cognitive process: using mental processes of motivation and reasoning
* Persuasion depends on the way the receiver makes sense of the message
* 2 possible routes or methods of influence: central and peripheral
* Each route targets a widely different audience
* The central route- occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts
* Peripheral – occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues such as speaker’s attractiveness

Question 2

the central route

Answer 2

• Centrally routed messages: wealth of info, rational arguments, evidence to support a particular conclusion
• Not everyone is capable of receiving or processing centrally routed messages:
• The audience must be highly motivated to process all of the info given
• The audience must be able to process the message cognitively

Question 3

the peripheral route

Answer 3

• Relies on receivers emotional involvement to achieve persuasion
• Common cues of peripheral message:
• Authority
• Commitment
• Liking
• Reciprocation- getting something
• Scarcity- if people are worried, they may miss out on something
• Social proof- peer influence, social pressure

Question 4

the cognitive dissonance theory

Answer 4

FESTINGER 1957
* Cognitive dissonance is a state of psychological tension produced by having to apposing cognitions at the same time (Hogg and Vaughan, 2017)
* Festinger 1957- say people tend to avoid exposure to ideas that produce cognitive dissonance, unless their attitude is either; very weak, or very strong
* Persuasion is not a result of injecting new or refined beliefs into others it is an interpersonal process using cognitive dissonance to change beliefs or behaviors
* When dealing with a new or unfamiliar stimulus individuals use schema, cognitive structure for organizing new information (Festinger)
* For new information to be understood or perceived useful, schemata link the new stimulus to previously understood experience
* Motivation is importance in this approach- motivate yourself to convince yourself the motivation was worth it to reduce cognitive dissonance
* If a persuader can create dissonance while offering a solution to minimize the disparity, it is likely t that the receiver will adopt these suggested new behaviors= this occurs by providing an easy alternative.
* CDT has been used to better target persuasive messages: by offering a solution, product or course of action that bridges the gap between receivers incongruent beliefs and behaviors

Question 5

is CDT culturally grounded?

Answer 5

• Heine and Lehman (1997)- free choice paradigm = ppts rate how desirable CDs were. They were looking at different individuals from different cultures-
• results show, that in collectivist cultures, they were more sensitive to social role requirements and more likely to attribute cognitive disturbances to situation, and by doing so they resulted in less dissonance.
• Individualist cultures- more likely to influenced by internal attributes,

Question 6

key research paradigms in dissonance research

Answer 6

• The free choice paradigm- once a decision is made dissonance is likely to be aroused (explains regret). When you decide, you compare the pros and cons of your decision
• The belief disconfirmation paradigm- when people are exposed to info inconsistent with their beliefs is can arouse dissonance- if the dissonance is not reduced by changing ones beliefs it can lead to misinterpretation or rejection of the information.
• The effort justification paradigm- dissonance is aroused when someone engaged in unpleasant behavior when they want to obtain a desirable outcome- if the effort to obtain certain outcome is unpleasant dissonance is created, and this should be reduced if we explain how desirable the outcome is
  Effort justification is the idea that when people make large sacrifices to pursue a goal, the effort they make is often rationalized by elevating the attractiveness of the goal.