Week 8 - On Demand Lecture - Persuasion Flashcards
What is persuasion?
– 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).
When was the Yale approach to communication and persuasion used?
- 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;
primary ingredients of persuasion
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
4 steps of the persuasion process
attention
comprehension
acceptance
retention
influential factors in persuasion
the message
the source
influential factors in persuasion - the message
- Type of appeal
- Order of arguments
- One- vs two- sided
argument - Speech rate
- Perceived manipulation
- Fear factor
influential factors in persuasion - the source
- Expert
- Likeability
- Trust
- Perceived status
characteristics of the communicator important in persuasion
Key ones: expertise, physical attractiveness, and extensive interpersonal and verbal skills;
- Also: familiarity, closeness, and a sense of power;
Linguistic Markers of Powerlessness:
hedges
tag questions
hesitations
factors to think about when persuading an audience
- Self-esteem;
- High vs low self-monitors;
- Age;
- Divided attention;
why is audience self-esteem important in persuasion?
low self esteem more easily persuaded because they doubt themselves more
why is audience high vs low self-monitors important in persuasion?
high self-monitors persuaded more by attractive person but low self-monitors persuaded more by experts
why is audience age important in persuasion?
young more susceptible to change
why is audience divided attention important in persuasion?
when distracted and not paying full attention and when message is simple then its easier to persuade
persuasion is an interaction between…
the source, the message and the audience
evidence of audience effects in persuasion
- 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.
evidence for use of humour in persuasion
- E.g., Conway and Dubé (2002):
– Humour vs. no-humour appeals on threatening topics were effective for high-masculinity individuals.
other factors important in persuasion
- 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.
the fear factor in persuasion
- Fear appeal –> effective communication + information on how to cope with the danger;
- Threat appraisal + coping appraisal
fear appeals can achieve what?
compliance
how can fear appeals help achieve compliance?
- 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;
fear and health
- The attitudes towards the health recommendations are affected by severity of the health threat and argument quality, but not necessarily by personal vulnerability.
how can incentives be used in the health industry to aid persuasion?
- 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.
main theories/models of persuasion?
- Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)
- Cognitive Dissonance Theory (CDT)
what does the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) view persuasion as?
- Persuasion as a cognitive process: use mental processes of motivation and reasoning (Petty & Cacciopo, 1986);
what does the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) say persuasion depends on?
the way the receiver makes sense of the message;
feature of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)
Two possible routes or methods of influence: central and peripheral;
- Each route targets a widely different audience;
two routes to persuasion in ELM
central
peripheral
when does the central route to persuasion in ELM occur
occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favourable thoughts;
when does the peripheral route to persuasion in ELM occur
occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues such as speaker’s attractiveness.
centrally routed messages in central route to persuasion
- Centrallyroutedmessages:wealthofinformation,rational arguments, evidence to support a particular conclusion;
question regarding the central route to persuasion
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.
what do peripheral messages rely on in the peripheral route to persuasion?
- Peripheral messages rely on receiver’s emotional involvement to achieve persuasion;
common cues of peripheral message in peripheral route to persuasion
- Authority
- Commitment
- Liking
- Reciprocation (you’ll get something in return)
- Scarcity (you might miss out so got to do it!)
- Social Proof (everyone else is doing it so I should too)
what do the common cues in the peripheral route to persuasion lead to?
compliance
what is cognitive dissonance? (Festinger, 1957)
“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”
what do people tend to avoid in terms of cognitive dissonance?
People tend to avoid exposure to ideas that produce cognitive dissonance, unless their attitude is either:
a) Very strong
b) Very weak
what did Festinger (1957) say persuasion persuasion was in terms of cognitive dissonance?
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;
What does cognitive dissonance theory (CDT) say?
- 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
according to CDT what happens if a persuader can create dissonance while offering a solution to minimise disparity?
- 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
how has CDT been used to better target persuasive messages?
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.
cognitive dissonance and culture
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).
research paradigms in dissonance research
the free-choice paradigm
the belief-disconfirmation paradigm
the effort-justification paradigm
explain the free-choice paradigm (dissonance)
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.
explain the belief-disconfirmation paradigm (dissonance)
when exposed to info that is inconsistent with their beliefs, they are aroused and dissonance may lead to misperception of info
explain the effort-justification paradigm (dissonance)
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.
