Week 7

Question 1

Dual process model of persuasion

Answer 1

Peripheral process: unconscious, fast (using heuristics for eval for example)
Central process : conscious, slower (use of systematic processing of info for eval)

Question 2

Elaboration-Likelihood model (ELM)

Answer 2

• regarding a message recipient’s cognitive responses to persuasion

Question 3

Central idea of ELM

Answer 3

Sometimes people process persuasive messages mindlessly and effortlessly, but other times they process messages deeply and attentively.

Question 4

Peripheral route

Answer 4

• not motivated or not able to think carefully about the message

Question 5

Central route

Answer 5

Motivates and able to think carefully about the message.

Question 6

Describe in detail what central processing involves

Answer 6

• thinking carefully and deliberately about the content of the message
• high ability and motivation
• not distracted and if you care, you will pay attention

Question 7

Describe what peripheral processing involves

Answer 7

• low ability and motivation
• if you are distracted, or dont care enough, will use superficial clues, will not pay attention lot of attention.

Question 8

Petty et al study testing ELM method

Answer 8

• gave undergrads a list of arguments for comprehensive exit exams
• 3 things manipulated:
• strong vs weak arguments (central)
• source expertise (peripheral)
• personal relavance (motivation)

Question 9

Petty et al strong vs weak

Answer 9

• strong arguments lead to more attitude changes for pps to whom the issue is personally relavant.

Question 10

Petty et al expert vs non expert source

Answer 10

• expertise of the source of the communication matters more for pps to whom the issue is not personally relavant
• suggests that they mainly attend to peripheral aspects of the message.

Question 11

Factors that determine persuasion

Answer 11

Message source (who)
Message content (what)
Message audience (whom)

Question 12

Halo effect

Answer 12

People you like are assumed to have other good qualities as well.

Question 13

Credibility

Answer 13

• wether the sources are reliable or not
• eg using white coats, experts in advertisements to increase trust in a certain idea or product

Question 14

Certainty

Answer 14

• people who are certain and confident tend to be judged as more credible.

Question 15

The sleeper effect

Answer 15

• messages from unreliable sources tend to be rejected initially but over time become accepted.

Question 16

When are messages more persuasive

Answer 16

• high quality
• clear, logical
• appeal to core values of the audience
• argue against self-interest
• conclusions are explicit in the message

Question 17

Identifiable victim effect

Answer 17

• messages that focus on a single, vivid individual are more persuasive than fact-based messages

Question 18

Effect of extreme fear

Answer 18

• causes people to tune out the message, resulting in lack of persuasion

Question 19

Effect of culture on persuasion

Answer 19

• eastern ads emphasize the group
• western ads emphasize the individual
• east Asians respond more favorably to prevention focus advertising vs westerners

Question 20

How can age affect persuasion

Answer 20

• younger age = easier persuasion (Sears study with presidential election malleability)

Question 21

How can audience characteristics (emotion wise) affect persuasion

Answer 21

• mood can affect - emotion acts as a cue that something is important
• mood+strong message = more persuasion

Question 22

How can cognition affect persuasion

Answer 22

• the depth in which a person may think about things (need for cognition)
• High NFC people persuaded by central cues
• low NFC people persuaded by peripheral cues

Question 23

Metacgntion

Answer 23

• thinking about our own thinking

Question 24

Self validation hypothesis

Answer 24

• idea that feeling confidence about our thoughts validates them, making it more likely that we’ll be swayed in their direction. (The direction of the thoughts)

Question 25

Agenda control

Answer 25

• media contributes to shaping the information that we think is true and important

Question 26

Shared attention

Answer 26

• when people believe that they are attending to a message in a group, they process it more centrally.

Question 27

What attention biases and resistance can affect persuasion?

Answer 27

Schemas
Selective attention

Question 28

Surgeon general stats on smoking

Answer 28

• when released that smoking leads to lung cancer, 40% of smokers found doc to be flawed, but only 10% of non-smokers found it to be flawed.

Question 29

Edwards et al

Answer 29

• listened to messages advocating légalisation of marijuana
• message had 7 real and 7 silly arguments
• people who were FOR, stopped the buzz during real arguments and vice versa

Question 30

How can publicly committing to an attitude affect persuasion

Answer 30

• more resistant to change of that behavior/attitude
• more blinded to that attitude/behavior now, because you have publicly committed to it.

Question 31

Thought polarisation

Answer 31

Thinking about an issue tends to produce more extreme, resistant attitudes

Question 32

How can knowledge affect resistance

Answer 32

• more knowledge in a certain domain = more resistance to persuasion

Question 33

Attitude inoculation

Answer 33

• resisting a ‘small’ attack on our attitude makes us better able to resist larger attacks later (like a vaccination)