Persuasion

1. Persuasion

2. What is persuasion? Persuasion: the process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors. I. Where does persuasion live? Everywhere! A. The Media B. Science C. The Arts D. Interpersonal Encounters (where persuasion attempts are most prevalent and have their greatest impact)

3. II. The Pathways of Persuasion A. The Central Route to Persuasion: the case whereby people “systematically process” a persuasive communication, listening carefully to and thinking about the arguments. This occurs when people have both the ability and the motivation to listen carefully to a communication. B. The Peripheral Route to Persuasion: the case whereby people “heuristically process” a persuasive communication and are swayed by peripheral cues (such as a speaker’s appearance or the amount of evidence rather than the quality of evidence). This occurs when people do not have the ability and/or the motivation to listen carefully to a communication.

4. C. If it’s a complex message, written communication is more effective in changing attitudes. D. If it’s a simple message, audio-visual is more effective in changing attitudes.

5. III. The Communicator: Who is the Messenger? I.Credibility:judgments made by a perceiver concerning the believability of a communicator. • Credibility is dynamic. It can change over time, and even during a single persuasive message.

6. B.The Sleeper Effect:refers to a situation in which a message attributed to a lower credibility source becomes more persuasive over time compared to a message attributed to a high credibility source. 1) The sleeper effect operates through a process of disassociation, whereby a message becomes separated from its source in the minds of receivers. 2) Although the sleeper effect has been empirically documented in laboratory settings, it is difficult to produce in real-world settings.

7. C. The underlying dimensions of credibility. 1)Expertise (competence, qualification)… Academic Degrees and Experience. Mature angular faced people vs. baby faced people. Taller people and a full head of hair.

9. 2)Trustworthiness… Eye Contact. Mature angular faced people vs. baby faced people. Arguing against your own self-interest. Fast talkers vs. slow-talkers.

10. 3)Goodwill:perceived caring. 4)Composure: speaking confidently and being straightforward. II.Liking:favorablejudgments made by a perceiver concerning the believability of a communicator. A. Charisma:someone who possesses a certain indefinable charm or allure.

11. B. Celebrities… C. Attractiveness… D. Similarity… 1) Dress. 2) Backgrounds and Interests. 3) Age, religion, politics, etc. 4) Similar Names! 5) Kidney Donors!

12. E. Mimicry Fosters Liking F. Compliments… 1) Ingratiation: the act of gaining acceptance or affection for yourself by persuasive and oftentimes subtle compliments. IV. The Communication: What is the message and how is it being delivered? A. Fixed-Action Patterns:mechanical like behavior sequences. B. Trigger Feature: a specific cue that activates the fixed-action pattern.

13. I. Visual Persuasion A. Iconicity: images can represent, or sum up, ideas and concepts. They serve as symbolic representations of things. 1) Emotional responses. 2) Distortions or violations of reality. 3) Selectivity, Exaggerations, and Minimizations. Fast Food! It looks delicious, right???

14. B. The Persuasiveness of Architecture C. The Persuasiveness of Color

15. D. The Persuasiveness of Art 1) Historically, art has been used to further political, religious, and social ends. 2) The arts have been used as tools for political and societal propaganda, most notably by totalitarian regimes. 3) Artists use their art to make political and social statements.

16. E. The Persuasiveness of Movies F. The Persuasiveness of Television 1) The Selection of Issues Sensationalism: when more exciting (often visually exciting) stories are chosen over less exciting stories even if the less exciting stories are more newsworthy. 2) The Selection of Guest and Panel Members 3) What is Included on a Set 4) Camera Angles and Cuts

17. II. Music and Persuasion • Song lyrics and music. B. Music, mood, and behavior. C. Background music is used by retailers to influence consumer behavior. 1) Background music has been shown to affect shopping pace. 2) Background music has been shown to affect moods. D. The Right Ear!

18. III. Aromas and Persuasion A. Some evidence suggests that fragrances may increase attraction. B.Ambient aromas and consumers’ shopping pace. C. Effects of repeated exposure to a given fragrance.

19. IV. Haptics: the study of touch. Touching other people, if done appropriately, tends to facilitate persuasion. V. Proxemics: the study of how we use space to communicate. A. Invading another person’s space facilitates persuasion if the invader is perceived as rewarding but hinders persuasion if the invader is not perceived as rewarding. B. The degree of personal space distance between two people varies across cultures.

20. VI. The Scarcity Principle: opportunities seem more valuable to us when they are less available. A. Limited Numbers: when we learn that there are only a few left in stock or that it’s the last one in stock, we have a tendency to assume that it is of remarkable value. It is kind of like the social proof of material goods. If everyone is buying it, it must be the thing to have. B. Time Limits: when we believe that we must act now in order to get the deal/product or the deal/product will be gone, we are enticed to do so. • Chronemics: the study of how time is used to communicate.

21. C. Psychological Reactance:whenever free choice is limited or threatened, the need to retain our freedoms makes us want free choice significantly more than before. Therefore, when increasing scarcity interferes with our prior access to some item, we will react against the interference by wanting and trying to possess the item more than we did before. D. Censorship: when information becomes censored, it becomes scarce. This increases the appeal of acquiring such information. E. Optimal Conditions 1) New Scarcity is More Powerful than Constant Scarcity 2) Competition for Scarce Resources: social demand increases liking of products.

22. VII. Subtle Persuasion A. Subliminal Messages: are processed without conscious awareness. B. Supraliminal Messages: are subtle, or faint, but are still processed consciously. C. Logos D. Slogans or Catch Phrases E. Cute Animals

23. VIII. Sex Appeals A. Sex appeals function as peripheral cues to persuasion, and operate through the process of association. B. The implicit associations advertisers want receivers to make are: 1) If I buy/use product X, I will look or feel more sexy to others. 2) If I buy/use product X, other sexy people will be attracted to me. Fast Cars and Sexy Women!!!

24. C. Strong sex appeals can backfire, in one of several ways: 1) They may offend receivers and trigger a consumer backlash. 2) They may distract receivers from attending to or processing message content. IN SUM… Too strong = disgust/distraction. Too mild = overlooked.

25. IX. Persuasion through Association • Blaming the weather reporter for the bad weather. B. Credit Cards: Buy Now!Oh by the way, you’ll have to pay us later… and with interest. C. Basking In Reflected Glory(BIRGing):a self-serving cognition whereby an individual associates themselves with successful others such that another’s success becomes their own. Your home team won! Yes, we won! D. Cutting Off Reflected Failure (CORFing):a self-serving cognition whereby an individual disassociates themselves as much as possible from the losing team. Your home team lost. Yes, they lost.

26. X. The Persuasive Effects of Emotion A. The persuasiveness of feeling good… Eating and Laughing 1)Food and Persuasion

27. 2)Humor and Persuasion Humor and attention. Humor and distraction. Humor and liking. Related humor vs. unrelated humor.

28. B. The persuasiveness of fear…The Resources Relative To Magnitude of the Threat Model of Stress and Activity 100% 100% High PR High FM ILA OLA ELA Level of Arousal Low FM Low PR 0% 0% Excessive Level of Arousal (ELA) Personal Resources (PR) Insufficient Level of Arousal (ILA) Fear Manipulation (FM) Optimal Level of Arousal (OLA)

29. XI. Message Discrepancy Too Different Message Optimal Discrepancy Your Beliefs Too Similar

30. XII. One-Sided vs. Two-Sided Appeals

31. XIII. Primacy vs. Recency A. Primacy Effect: information presented first usually has the most influence. B. Recency Effect: information presented last sometimes has the most influence. Recency effects are less common than primacy effects.

32. XIV. Personal vs. Media Influence A. The Two-Step Flow of Communication: process by which media influence often occurs through opinion leaders, who in turn influence others.

33. XV. Sequential Persuasion: in order for persuasion to be effective, oftentimes a series of steps must be performed in a prescribed sequence. A. Norm of Reciprocity tactic (Pregiving): giving the persuadee something in advance before asking for compliance. B. The Foot in the Door tactic: making a small request first, and, once it is agreed to, following it with a second larger request. C. The Door in the Face tactic: making a request so large that it is turned down, and then following it up with a second smaller request. • The Contrast Principle: the differences between two things are perceived as being greater when presented one right after another than if presented separately.

34. D. The That's Not All tactic: adding additional incentives to the original offer (sweetening the deal). E. The Lowball tactic: making a deal that is too good to refuse, and then, after the initial deal is agreed to, changing it to one that is not as attractive. F. The Bait and Switch tactic: luring customers with an attractive product and then trying to get them to comply with a similar but different product. G. The Framing tactic: framing the request in a way that makes it seem more attractive.

35. V. The Recipient of The Communication: Who is the audience and how are they affected? I. How old are they? A. Life Cycle explanation: attitudes change as people grow older. B. Generational explanation: attitudes do not change; older people largely hold onto the attitudes they adopted when they were young. C. Young children vs. older people.

36. II. What kind of people are they? A. Moderately high self-esteem vs. high or low self-esteem. B. High self-monitors vs. low self-monitors. C. Dogmatic and authoritarian people and closemindedness. D. Need for Cognition: a personality variable reflecting the extent to which people engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activities. 1) High need for cognition vs. low need for cognition.

37. III. Other factors that make the audience more vulnerable to persuasion. A. Distraction: people’s attitudes are more easily changed when they are distracted enough from developing counterarguments, but not so distracted that they don’t receive / understand the message. B. Rumination: if you get people to simply think about the reasons why they feel the way they do about something, that in and of itself leads to attitude strengthening. C. Peer Pressure

38. IV. Factors that help the audience resist persuasion. A. Forewarning: people know ahead of time what the topic and method of persuasion will be and can be mentally prepared to avoid being taken advantage of. B. Inoculation: you give people counter-arguments to prepare them for people trying to change their attitudes. C. Plant a Poison Parasite!