Week 8 - On Demand Lecture - Persuasion

Question 1

What is persuasion?

Answer 1

– The process by which a message changes a person’s
attitudes – how they evaluate the object – or changes their behaviours (Sutton & Douglas, 2013);

– The process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes or behaviours (Myers, Abell, & Sani, 2014).

Question 2

When was the Yale approach to communication and persuasion used?

Answer 2

• Post WWII, the time of the Cold War;
• Carl Hovland (US War Department): investigating how propaganda could be used to rally support for the American war effort;

Question 3

primary ingredients of persuasion

Answer 3

who - who is selling us the message
what - what is the content of the message
to whom - to whom are we sending the message
how

Question 4

4 steps of the persuasion process

Answer 4

attention
comprehension
acceptance
retention

Question 5

influential factors in persuasion

Answer 5

the message
the source

Question 6

influential factors in persuasion - the message

Answer 6

• Type of appeal
• Order of arguments
• One- vs two- sided
  argument
• Speech rate
• Perceived manipulation
• Fear factor

Question 7

influential factors in persuasion - the source

Answer 7

• Expert
• Likeability
• Trust
• Perceived status

Question 8

characteristics of the communicator important in persuasion

Answer 8

Key ones: expertise, physical attractiveness, and extensive interpersonal and verbal skills;

• Also: familiarity, closeness, and a sense of power;

Question 9

Linguistic Markers of Powerlessness:

Answer 9

hedges
tag questions
hesitations

Question 10

factors to think about when persuading an audience

Answer 10

• Self-esteem;
• High vs low self-monitors;
• Age;
• Divided attention;

Question 11

why is audience self-esteem important in persuasion?

Answer 11

low self esteem more easily persuaded because they doubt themselves more

Question 12

why is audience high vs low self-monitors important in persuasion?

Answer 12

high self-monitors persuaded more by attractive person but low self-monitors persuaded more by experts

Question 13

why is audience age important in persuasion?

Answer 13

young more susceptible to change

Question 14

why is audience divided attention important in persuasion?

Answer 14

when distracted and not paying full attention and when message is simple then its easier to persuade

Question 15

persuasion is an interaction between…

Answer 15

the source, the message and the audience

Question 16

evidence of audience effects in persuasion

Answer 16

• E.g., Lukin et al. (2017):
  – Audience Effects in Persuasion - people who are more Open are
  typically receptive to new ideas; Agreeable people may also be motivated to change belief by emotional arguments.

Question 17

evidence for use of humour in persuasion

Answer 17

• E.g., Conway and Dubé (2002):
  – Humour vs. no-humour appeals on threatening topics were effective for high-masculinity individuals.

Question 18

other factors important in persuasion

Answer 18

• Repetition:
  – Repeated exposure to a product can improve familiarity with that product (or person, object etc);
• Fear:
  – E.g., health campaigns to stop smoking; – Does it work?
  • Yes - people who are frightened may be motivated to attend to the message;
  • No – people might be unable to process the information or change their behaviour.

Question 19

the fear factor in persuasion

Answer 19

• Fear appeal –> effective communication + information on how to cope with the danger;
• Threat appraisal + coping appraisal

Question 20

fear appeals can achieve what?

Answer 20

compliance

Question 21

how can fear appeals help achieve compliance?

Answer 21

• These appeals frequently combine information that is fear-arousing with information that provokes a sense of personal vulnerability to the illness threat;
• In order to arouse fear a health risk must not only have serious consequences but the individual must also feel personally at risk;

Question 22

fear and health

Answer 22

• The attitudes towards the health recommendations are affected by severity of the health threat and argument quality, but not necessarily by personal vulnerability.

Question 23

how can incentives be used in the health industry to aid persuasion?

Answer 23

• Modification of relevant incentives is often employed as a health promotion strategy ;
  – E.g. a government may use fiscal and legal measures to alter the individuals’ health-damaging behaviour (e.g. drunk driving or smoking).
• What is the major difficulty in persuading people to engage in healthy behaviour patterns?
  – It requires people to delay immediate gratification/reward and it involves immediate effort.

Question 24

main theories/models of persuasion?

Answer 24

• Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)
• Cognitive Dissonance Theory (CDT)

Question 25

what does the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) view persuasion as?

Answer 25

• Persuasion as a cognitive process: use mental processes of motivation and reasoning (Petty & Cacciopo, 1986);

Question 26

what does the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) say persuasion depends on?

Answer 26

the way the receiver makes sense of the message;

Question 27

feature of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

Answer 27

Two possible routes or methods of influence: central and peripheral;

• Each route targets a widely different audience;

Question 28

two routes to persuasion in ELM

Answer 28

central
peripheral

Question 29

when does the central route to persuasion in ELM occur

Answer 29

occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favourable thoughts;

Question 30

when does the peripheral route to persuasion in ELM occur

Answer 30

occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues such as speaker’s attractiveness.

Question 31

centrally routed messages in central route to persuasion

Answer 31

• Centrallyroutedmessages:wealthofinformation,rational arguments, evidence to support a particular conclusion;

Question 32

question regarding the central route to persuasion

Answer 32

Are all recipients capable of receiving and processing centrally routed messages for long term change?
1. The audience must be highly motivated to process all of the information given;
2. The audience must be able to process the message cognitively.

Question 33

what do peripheral messages rely on in the peripheral route to persuasion?

Answer 33

• Peripheral messages rely on receiver’s emotional involvement to achieve persuasion;

Question 34

common cues of peripheral message in peripheral route to persuasion

Answer 34

1. Authority
2. Commitment
3. Liking
4. Reciprocation (you’ll get something in return)
5. Scarcity (you might miss out so got to do it!)
6. Social Proof (everyone else is doing it so I should too)

Question 35

what do the common cues in the peripheral route to persuasion lead to?

Answer 35

compliance

Question 36

what is cognitive dissonance? (Festinger, 1957)

Answer 36

“an unpleasant state of psychological tension generated when a person has two or more cognitions (bits of information) that are inconsistent or do not fit together”

Question 37

what do people tend to avoid in terms of cognitive dissonance?

Answer 37

People tend to avoid exposure to ideas that produce cognitive dissonance, unless their attitude is either:
a) Very strong
b) Very weak

Question 38

what did Festinger (1957) say persuasion persuasion was in terms of cognitive dissonance?

Answer 38

Persuasion is not a result of injecting new or refined beliefs into others;

Persuasion - an interpersonal process using cognitive
dissonance to alter either our beliefs or behaviours – making a change;

Question 39

What does cognitive dissonance theory (CDT) say?

Answer 39

• When dealing with a new or unfamiliar stimulus – individuals use schema, cognitive structure for organising new information (Festinger, 1957, 1962);
• For new information to be understood or perceived useful, schemata link the new stimulus to previously understood experience.
• Motivation

Question 40

according to CDT what happens if a persuader can create dissonance while offering a solution to minimise disparity?

Answer 40

• If a persuader can create dissonance while offering a solution to minimise the disparity, it is likely to that the receive will adopt these suggested new behaviours

happens because an easy alternative is provided

Question 41

how has CDT been used to better target persuasive messages?

Answer 41

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 behaviours.

Question 42

cognitive dissonance and culture

Answer 42

Heine and Lehman (1997): free choice paradigm (rating desirability of CDs):
– “a reasonable working assumption is that dissonance effects are, at least in some important ways, culturally constructed” (p. 397).

Question 43

research paradigms in dissonance research

Answer 43

the free-choice paradigm
the belief-disconfirmation paradigm
the effort-justification paradigm

Question 44

explain the free-choice paradigm (dissonance)

Answer 44

free-choice paradigm: once a decision is made, dissonance is likely to be aroused.

after a person makes a decision, each of the negative aspects of the chosen alternative and positive aspects of the rejected alternative is dissonant with the decision.

Gives sense of regret.

each of the positive aspects of the chosen alternative and the negative aspects of the rejected alternative they can be consonant with the decision.

difficult decisions should arouse more decisions than easy ones because greater proportion of dissonant cognitions afterwards than if easy one is being made so greater motivation to reduce dissonance.

Question 45

explain the belief-disconfirmation paradigm (dissonance)

Answer 45

when exposed to info that is inconsistent with their beliefs, they are aroused and dissonance may lead to misperception of info

Question 46

explain the effort-justification paradigm (dissonance)

Answer 46

arises when a person engages in unpleasant situation and wants to obtain a desirable outcome.

if the outcome is more difficult to obtain but the effort to obtain it is unpleasant then that can create a sense of dissonance which should be reduced if we exaggerate how desirable the outcome is, how desirable it is to obtain something even if it is against our beliefs.