Two Routes to Persuasion

1. Two Routes to Persuasion October 24, 2006

2. Outline for the rest of the semester • Getting people to do what we want: This week: • How do we persuade people to change their attitudes? Next week: • How do we persuade people to change their behaviors? Last week: • Do attitudes predict behavior or are they actually unrelated?

3. Importance of Persuasion • Some consequences of publicizing research on marijuana use. • U.S. high school seniors who believe that there is a “great risk” to regular marijuana use has doubled from 35% in 1978 to 73% in 1993. • Reported marijuana use also dropped from 37% to 16% • Similar pattern for cigarette smoking. • Current rate of cigarette smoking around 26% less than ½ rate of 30 years ago.

4. But, attempts at persuasion do not always work • Government campaign to encourage use of seatbelts flopped. • 7 cable TV messages broadcast 943 times a day during prime time to 6400 households. • Studies showed that the campaign had no effect. • Nevertheless, advertisers spend about $500 per year attempting to persuade you. • Question: What factors influence the persuasiveness of a message?

5. Some Basic Assumptions • People want to have “correct” attitudes and beliefs. • However, the potential number of issues on which to have an opinion are potentially infinite. • Therefore, people cannot carefully scrutinize every message, nor can they evaluate all of the evidence to arrive at a well thought out opinion. • People must compromise by paying more attention to some things than others. • This “compromise” forms the basis of the ELM model.

6. Two Routes to Persuasion • Elaboration Likelihood Model • Two routes reflect the tension between wanting to be right and wanting to be efficient. • Central Route: Persuasion occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts. • Peripheral Route: Persuasion that results when people are influence by incidental cues such as the speaker’s attractiveness.

7. Central Route • People who follow the central route carefully scrutinize the information contained in a message and answer two types of questions: • Does the message fit well with what I already know? • How does this information affect me? • This process of thinking about the message is called “Elaboration.”

8. Why Do People Take the Central Route? • Whether people process a message carefully depends on two main factors • (1) The motivation to process the message carefully. • People are more motivated to think about messages with high personal relevance. • Should they build that highway on the other side of town? Should they build that highway next to my house? • (2) The ability to process the information carefully. • Some people are more motivated to think than others. • Stable personality trait (need for cognition).

9. Example: Computer Ad • Buying a computer is a major purchase and one about which people are probably motivated to think carefully. • Target customers tend to be analytical & presumably high in motivation to think. • More likely to see ads take the central route to persuasion.

10. Computer Ad from 1989

11. Attitude Resulting from the Central Route • Attitudes formed by the central route are distinct because they are: • Accessible: Easily recalled. • Persistent and Stable: Attitudes last a long time. • Resistant: Are not easily challenged by competing messages. • Predict behavior: Attitude will actually influence subsequent behavior.

12. Peripheral Route • People are not always going to think carefully about your message. • Sometimes the arguments in favor of your message are also weak. • What happens when elaboration likelihood is low? How do we change people’s attitudes in the absence of much thought? • Persuasion then results from peripheral cues in the social context.

13. Cigarette Ad: Low on Substance High on Image

14. Comparing the two Ads • Can you imagine an ad for a cigarette that would look like the ad for the computer? Is that a ludicrous idea? • Which “peripheral” cues are being used in the cigarette ad? • Can you imagine such peripheral cues in the computer ad?

15. Sources of Peripheral Cues • Peripheral cues may come from 4 main sources. • (1) The Communicator • (2) The Message • (3) How the Message is Communicated • (4) The Audience • Who says what, how and to whom?

16. The Communicator • Perceived credibility of the speaker increases persuasion. • Example for jury study: • Speak Confidently. Speech style influences persuasion. • Question: Approximately how long did you stay before the ambulance arrived? • (Confident) Twenty minutes. Long enough to help get Mrs. Davis straightened out. • (Hesitating) Oh, it seems like it was about uh, twenty minutes. Just long enough to help my friend Mrs. Davis, you know get straightened out. • Straightforward witnesses rated as more competent and credible even when saying the same thing.

17. Attractiveness • We like people who are like ourselves. • Example: Study gave African-American junior high students a taped appeal for proper dental care. • When cleanliness of teeth assessed the next day, those who heard the appeal from an African American dentist had cleaner teeth. • Messages from a member of our own group are generally more appealing.

18. Exceptions Depend on the Topic • Preference for similar or dissimilar communicator? • People prefer to hear from others who are similar to them on topics of subjective preference (should I drink Coke or Pepsi?) • But prefer to hear from people dissimilar to them on judgments of fact (How many inches of rain fell in Sydney, Australia last year?). A dissimilar person provides a more independent judgment.

19. The Message • Positive emotions may act as a peripheral cue. • Yale students more convinced by persuasive messages if they were allowed to eat peanuts and drink soda while reading them. • Persuasive messages more convincing while listening to pleasant music. • People associate their positive emotions with the message and therefore accept the message without thinking.

20. What about Fear? • Fear can also be used to make a message more persuasive. • Example: Study in which doctors sent letters to their patients who smoked. • 8% of patients who received positively framed messages (if you quit now you will live longer) attempted to quit. • 30% of patients who received negatively framed messages (if you continue to smoke you will die sooner) attempted to quit. • Fear messages will only overwhelm if you don’t tell people how to avoid danger.

21. When are these types of appeals appropriate? • Are there certain arena’s in which fear tactics are used more often? Why? • What are the norms that govern the appropriateness of using fear to be persuasive? Can you use fear to get someone to go on a date with you? • When do people label these tactics as being “propaganda.”

22. How the Message is Communicated • Passive versus active appeals. • Some passive appeals can be very effective. • Advertised brand of Aspirin outsells the generic brand at 3 times the price even though they are identical. • General rule: Persuasion increases as the significance and familiarity of the issue decreases.

23. Power of Personal Appeals • On issues that are more significant than which brand of Aspirin to buy, passive appeals are less effective. • Example: Study of people about to vote on a revision to their city’s charter. • 19% who only heard about the issue in the media voted in favor of the charter. • 45% who received four mailings in favor of the revision actually voted for it. • 75% who were visited personally and given the appeal face to face actually voted in favor.

24. The Audience • When the audience is forewarned they will have time to generate counter-arguments. • When people know that they are going to be the object of a persuasion attempt they will pay careful attention to the message. • Thinking tends to be biased toward confirming their initial view. • Use forewarning when you know the audience is likely to agree with you.

25. Advantage of Distraction • Persuasion is enhanced by distracting people just long enough to prevent them from generating counter-arguments. • Example: Political ads use vivid images to distract our attention just enough so that we do not scrutinize the message too carefully.

26. Summary • People cannot possibly develop a well thought out opinion on every single issue. • Instead, they scrutinize a message when they are motivated and able to do so. • The central route will result in increased persuasion only when arguments are strong. • When you know that your arguments are weak, you should give people cues that will allow them to form an attitude without thinking too much.