COM 318 Unit 1

Persuasion

involved one or more persons who are engaged in the activity of creating, reinforcing, modifying, or extinguishing beliefs, attitudes, intentions, motivations, and/or behaviors within the constraints of a given communication context

Key concepts of Persuasion

• Message: verbal, social media, advertisement

• Intention: are they trying to persuade?

• Choice: does the person being persuaded have free choice

• Attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors

Social Influence

• Group conformity

• Compliance gaining

• Socialization

• Persuasion

Group conformity

• If we all agree to do something similarly because we are part of some group

Compliance gaining

the process of getting people to be okay with doing something for the betterment of the group

Socialization

Adapting to the social context

Where persuasion started

• Rhetoric: Art of persuasion

  • Ancient field of study

• Aristotle (384-322 BCE) said persuasion required:

  • Ethos: credibility of speak

  • Pathos: Emotional appeal

  • Logos: Logical appeals

Ethos

• Source credibility or attractiveness

• Source are more attractive if:

  • They are experts and credible

  • They are like the audience and relatable

  • They are attractive?

Experts and credible sources

Increases trust in information

They are like the audience and relatable

• Increases sense of efficacy - that audience can do what source is doing

• If the people in the advertisement are doing thing that say the readers like to do or is similar to things they do

They are attractive? - Ethos

• Model in a burger commercial

• Research suggest sexual ads attract attention

• Result of that attention varies

• This is not a generally a good one

Pathos

• Emotional appeals

• Advertisers often try to make us feel: happy, afraid, guilty

Pathos - Emotions

• Happy - if you have this perfume you to with also be smiling and happy

• Afraid - get sunscreen or skin cancer is possible

• Guilty - the dog ads

• These emotions

  • Cause immediate reactions

  • Change responses to logically presented information

Logos

• Logical appeal

• Scientific, rational information for why argument is right

  • Think about covid and all the ads they had about hand cleaning and wearing a face mask and why we should

Why logic fails

• Product choices are often equivalent - no logical choice

  • Think about different brands

• People are "cognitive misers" who are unmotivated to process logical arguments

  • Processing logic takes more effect and sometimes we just don’t want to do that

• People may not be capable of processing and understanding logical arguments

• People are not always rational

  • People don't always do what we expect them to do

Digital and Online Influence

• Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM)

• eWOM can be created through sponsored content

eWOM

• Create social media buzz

• To work, needs to feel genuine and peer-driven

  • Cannot feel manufactured or forced

• Works better amount younger audiences - who's on social media more

eWOM through sponsored content

• Paid endorsements for mentioning  brand or product

• Sponsored content can include native advertising

  • Ads posing as news stories

  • Form of paid media where the ad experiences follows the nature form and function of the user experience in which is is placed

  • Consumers look at native ads 52% more than traditional banner ads

    • They're successful because they blur the line between advertising and content

Interpersonal Influence

• Face-to-Face is the most effective arena for persuasion

  • You have people's attention, they tend to be more polite and more receptive to what your saying

  • Mass media has large reach, but low impact

  • Full range of verbal and non-verbal cues

  • Ability to adapt the message on the spot

    • You can read body language and see how they are responding

  • Harder to say "no" in person

Benefits of studying persuasion

• Become a more effective communicator!

  • Communication competence

• Enhance your knowledge and awareness of persuasive processes

  • Overcome habitual persuasion

• Become a more discerning consumer

  • Defensive function

• Understand why persuasion isn't always easy

  • Debunking function

• Improve your sense of well-being

  • It increases as your persuasive abilities increase

Propaganda

• It dehumanizes its audience

• It has a power imbalance over its audience

  • Things rather than people

• It has characteristics of close-mindedness

• It relies on authority, abstractions, fixed views, all-inclusive categories, simple cause-and-effect relationships, etc

Model for moral persuasion

1. Minimize harm while maximizing truth telling

2. Maximizing accountability and transparency, while minimizing loyalty to bad actors

Processing and Persuasion

Cognition, what's going one in our brain when it comes to persuasion

Pure persuasion

• When we can all agree persuasion is being attempted or has occurred

• You and your friend are talking about where to eat and they suggest you guys go somewhere - they simple persuaded you

Borderline persuasion

Cases where it’s not clear

Consider when it comes to persuasion

• intentionality

• Effects

• Free will

• Conscious awareness

Intentionality

• Were you trying to persuade someone

  • Can be an obvious ad

  • Communication can be intentional

Effects

• What if the effects are unsuccessful or even unintended

• What if the effects don't match the intention

Free will

• Coercion

• Does the person being persuaded have a choice

Conscious awareness

Do you need to know that persuasion is happening to you?

Times when persuasion occurs

Consider

• Symbolic action

  • What symbols or actions are part of the persuasive process?

• Intrapersonal vs. Interpersonal

  • Can we persuade ourselves?

Elaboration Likelihood Model

• Developed by Petty and Cacioppo

• Is a dual-processing model - how likely we are to elaborate

• defines 2 types of cognitive processing

  • Central route

  • Peripheral Route

Central Route processing

• high cognitive happening

  • You are really paying attention to the situation (the central route)

  • Really thinking hard

  • Effortful

Peripheral Route Processing

• low cognitive happening

  • Someone buys a car because it looks nice - not really what the product is all about

  • Letting yourself be influenced by things that aren't really that important

Predicting Central Route Processing

• If your motivation to process is high

  • Personal relevance

    • If you don't really care like trying to find somewhere to eat you aren't going to think that hard

• If you have the ability to process

  • Prior experience

  • Knowledge

  • Opportunity

• If you are high in need for cognition

  • Enjoying thinking about things

Predicting Peripheral Route Processing

• If your motivation to process is high

  • Personal relevance

• If you do not have the ability to process

  • Prior experience

  • Knowledge

  • Opportunity

• If you are low in need for cognition

  • You do no enjoying thinking about things

Peripheral Cues

• Authority (parent, doctor)

  • Your parents telling you what to do

  • Doctor suggesting this certain medication

• Liking (if I like you, Ill like your ideas too)

• Commitment (I said IM committed, so I must act)

• Contrast (asked for a giant favor, but actual desired favor is small)

• Reciprocity (You persuade others to act by offering to return favor later)

• Scarcity (Use fear of missing out. FOMO)

• Social Proof ("everyone is doing it" bandwagon approach)

Example of ELM

Buying toothpaste - how much time do you actually want to spend time looking at buying toothpaste

• How might 2 shoppers process centrally or peripherally

  • Peripheral Route shopper

    • I like this label

    • I have a coupon for this brand

    • This is the cheapest brand

    • This is the brand my parents use

  • Central Route shopper

    • Evaluates all options

    • Examines ingredients

    • Examines health information

    • Examines cost

Examining Central vs. Peripheral route

1. Observe their non verbal behaviors - SOLAR

2. Ask questions

Observing non-verbal behaviors

1. If you observe behaviors that indicate attentiveness and alertness, they are probably using the central route

2. Use the acronym SOLER

   1. Squarely faced

   2. Open posture

   3. Leaned in

   4. Eye contact

   5. Relaxed

SOLAR

1. Squarely faced

2. Open posture

3. Leaned in

4. Eye contact

5. Relaxed

Heuristic systematic model

• One mode: systematic processing is more thoughtful and deliberate

• Second mode: relies on more short cuts. It is based on the application of decision rules or heuristic cues that help simplify the thought process

• Simultaneous processing of messages is commonplace

• Sufficiency principles - states that people strive to know as much as they need to when making a decision but no more or less.

Attitude is…

"a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor"

• Directed toward something

• Use evaluative dimensions

  • Like/dislike

  • Good/bad

Attitudes are learned

• Through family and social interactions

  • You family believes something

• Personal experience

  • Unique to you

• Formal education and training

  • Through learning and reading

example of an attitude

Paris is the most beautiful city in the world

• beauty is subjective

Example of a fact

Last night, my temperature was 99 degrees

• this is verifiable and measurable

Measuring attitudes

• Explicit attitude

• Implicit attitude

Explicit attitude measure

• These attitudes are easily identifiable

• They're relatively easy to control

• They're asked in a way that assumes you can state your attitude

  • EX. Do you like Purdue University?

• Self-report scales

  • Likert-type scales

  • Semantic differential scales

  • Visually oriented scales

Implicit attitude measures

• Implicit Association Test (IAT)

• Affective Misattribution Procedure (AMP)

• Physiological measure

Explicit attitudes - Likert-type

• Provides a quantitative measure of attitudes, opinions, or personal values

• Scale often ranges from Strongly agree to strongly disagree

• A person's attitude is calculated by taking the average of all the rating they provide

Explicit attitudes - Semantic Differential scale

• Bipolar adjectives (opposites) are created

• Typically a 1-7 scale

• A person's attitudes is calculated by taking the average of all the rating they provide

Explicit attitudes - Visually oriented scales

• Designed to help participants conceptualize their attitude

• They can see where their attitude falls along the scale based on the pictures provided

Problems with explicit attitudes

• But what if you're interested in more sensitive questions?

  • Ex. Sexism is a major issue in the United States

• Social Desirability Bias

• People tend to under or over report

• Non-attitudes

Social desirability bias

• Giving the polite or socially acceptable answer

• Trying to provide the answer you think the researcher wants

What people tend to under report

• Feeling of low self-worth and/or powerlessness

• Feeling of bigotry and intolerance

• Acts of physical violence

• Unsafe sexual behavior

• Alcoholism/drug use

What people tend to over report

• Patriotism

• Voter turnout

• Compliance with medicinal dosing schedules

• Intellectual achievements

• Indicators of charity

• Religious service attendance

Non-Attitudes

• Sometimes people have not formed their opinions on something

• But if you ask, they feel pressured to provide a response

Implicit Attitudes

• To better address attitudes that people are less aware of (or less willing to express), researchers study implicit attitudes.

• Implicit attitudes are those attitudes we hold that we're not immediately aware of.

  • They may be unconsciously activated

  • They may be unintentionally activated

  • They're much harder to conceal than explicit attitudes

  • Some researchers have described implicit attitudes as "inescapable"

Implicit Attitudes - Implicit association test (IAT)

• Most common test

• Uses speed of associations to determine implicit attitudes (ex. Preferences)

  • Do you associate good with one thing and bad with another

• Response latencies are used to determine which associations are fastest/slowest

• Faster associations with pictures of light-skinned individuals and "good" as well as dark-skinned individuals and "bad" would indicate an implicit preference for light-skinned individuals

Implicit Attitudes - Affect misattribution Procedure (AMP)

• Developed as an alternative to the IAT

• Does NOT rely on response times

• The initial picture is expected to influence the evaluation of the subsequent object, despite the object's purposeful ambiguity

• The instructions are key!

  • It is important to note that the real-life image can sometimes bias people's judgements of the drawings. Please try your absolute best not to let the real-life image bias your judgment of the drawings! Give an honest assessment of the drawing (the second image), regardless of the image that precedes it

Attitudes → Behaviors

• Our behaviors often reflect our attitudes

• So when should we expect to see a greater consistency between out attitudes and our behaviors?

  • When attitudes are stronger

  • When attitudes are based on personal experience

  • When attitudes are central to our core belief system

Theory of Reasoned Action

Views intention to behave as the best predictor of behavior

3 things influence intentions

1. Beliefs and attitudes about the behavior

2. Normative beliefs

3. Perceived behavior control

Beliefs and attitudes about the behavior

• Beliefs about an object/behavior

• Evaluations about the object/behavior

• EX. Flu vaccines are effective

• It is easy to get vaccinated

• It is not painful to get vaccinated

• Getting vaccinated is a good idea

• These are all attitudes and beliefs about getting a flu vaccine

Normative beliefs

• What do you think about what others think or do?

• Descriptive norms:

  • What close others do

    • Ex. My close friends get vaccinated for the flu

• Injunctive norms:

  • What others ought to do

  • Ex. College students should get vaccinated for the flu

Perceived behavior control

• An individual's confidence that they are capable of performing a behavior

• Examples

  • I am comfortable getting vaccinated

  • I can afford the flu vaccine

  • I know where to get the vaccine

Psychological consistency

• People desire consistency among their attitudes, beliefs and behaviors

• Inconsistency causes psychological discomfort

Consistency car example

• You're in the market to buy a car

• You want a car that gets good gas mileage

• Which car?

  • Toyota Prius - 58 city/53 highway

  • Chevrolet Suburban 15 city/22 highway but you think its looks nicer and kinda the one you want

Cognitive dissonance theory

• People seek to maintain a stable, positive self-concept

  • Behavior that contradicts one's beliefs or self-concept causes dissonance

    • I'm a good person, but I did something bad

    • I care about fuel economy, but I wanted a big SUV

  • People rationalize their choices and actions in light of their self-concept

Maintaining consistency

• Denial

• Bolstering

• Bargaining

• Differentiation

• Transcendence

• Modifying one or both attitudes

Denial

• Ignoring or denying any inconsistency

  • "it’s not a big deal that I brough a big SUV. Nothing to worry about"

Bolstering

• Adding rationalizations

  • "I don't need to buy the Prius, because enough other people will buy them"

Bargaining

• Striking a balance between alternatives

  • "if I buy the Suburban, I'll make sure to recycle all of my plastic bottles."

Differentiation

• Separating or distinguishing good and bad qualities of a decision

  • "The Suburban burns a lot of gas, but it's not as bad as some other cars”

Transcendence

• Focusing on a greater good, life lesson, higher purpose

  • "Being environmentally friendly is much bigger than this one purchase decision"

Modifying one or both attitudes

• Changing attitudes to fit with the behavior

  • "Maybe I'm just not that concerned with fuel consumption."

  • "I'll worry more about the environment when I'm older."

Features of credibility

• It's a receiver-based construct

  • Credibility is in the eye of the beholder

  • Not entirely controllable by the source

• It's a multidimensional construct

  • Credibility is a composite of source characteristics

• It's situation specific

  • Credibility is contextual in nature

• It's dynamic

  • Credibility can change over time, sometimes suddenly

Credibility and Celebrities

• Celebrity endorsements are common

  • 25% of ads use celebrity endorsements

  • 10% of all ad expenditures are used to pay celebrities

  • Ex. Nike spend %500 million on endorsements in 2016

• Celebrity endorsement work better for new products

• Celebrity endorsements improve customers' attitudes toward products, but not always their intention to purchase the products

Factors of credibility

Primary dimensions

• Expertise

• Trustworthiness

• Good will

Secondary dimension

• Dynamism

• composure

• sociability

• To much of any of these can ruin credibility. Ex. If you are too excited or to calm

Factors of credibility - Expertise

• It has the greatest effect on persuasion

• Consumers tend to evaluate these sources on the following qualities:

  • Experienced/inexperienced

  • Informed/uniformed

  • Trained/untrained

  • Qualified/unqualified

  • Skilled/unskilled

  • Intelligent/unintelligent

  • Expert/

  • Competent/incompetent

• Attractiveness and expertise?

  • There is a study (1970s) that showed that attractiveness and expertise is commonly associated together. Our perception can be false. The person who was attractive was seen as more persuasive

  • False correlation

Factors of credibility - Trustworthiness

• Integrity and honesty

• Consumers tend to evaluate these sources on the following qualities:

  • Honest/dishonest

  • Trustworthy/

  • Open-minded/closed minded

  • Just/unjust

  • Fair/unfair

  • Unselfish/selfish

  • Moral/immoral

  • Ethical/unethical

  • Genuine/phony

Factors of credibility - Good will

• Conveys respect for the audience, uses empathy

• Consumers tend to evaluate these sources on the following qualities:

  • Cares about me/doesn’t care

  • Has my interests at heart/doesn't have my interests at heart

  • Not self-centered/self-centered

  • Concern with me/non concerned with me

  • Sensitive/insensitive

  • Understanding/not understanding

Factors of credibility - Dynamism

Is the source energetic and enthusiastic?

Factors of credibility - composure

• Is the source cool, calm, and collected?

• If they are frazzled they aren't going to be very persuasive

Factors of credibility - Sociability

Is the source friendly and outgoing?

Sleeper effect

• A message from a low-credibility source may increase in persuasiveness over time

  • Because over time, the audience remembers the message but not the source.

    • "I remember hearing somewhere that…"

    • You forget the source but you remember the information itself

• And keep in mind that a high-credibility source can also lose influence over time

To improve credibility as a persuader

1. Be prepared! research all sides of the topic

2. Cite evidence and sources of evidence

3. Explain your qualifications to speak on the topic

4. Build trust with your source

5. Display goodwill toward your audience

6. Adapt your language style to your listeners and the context

7. Avoid powerless language styles

8. Emphasize similarity, commonality

Credibility - Be prepared

• Know your side of the argument

• But also know how other might oppose you

  1. Craft responses to those objections

Credibility - Cite evidence and sources of evidence

• Make sure your source is reputable and that you trust it

• Use sources that other will recognize as credible

  1. Or list the qualifications of your source

Credibility - Explain your qualifications to speak on the topic

Share your qualifications at the beginning of your persuasive attempt

Credibility - Build trust with your source

One way: tell the audience how their compliance with what you're saying benefits you but also stress how it benefits them

Credibility - Display goodwill toward your audience

• Show that you care; look interested

• One way: If asked a question, repeat it back. Then answer their question. End by asking if you've answered their question.

Credibility - Adapt your language style to your listeners and the context

• Use appropriate language based on the audience and situation

  1. But avoid being inauthentic or seeming forced

Credibility - Avoid powerless language style

Avoid hedges, vocal fillers, and qualifiers (ex. Sort of, umm)

Credibility - Emphasize similarity, commonality

But only in topically relevant ways

• if you are talking about astrology and things like that you can relate by saying “I’m a Capricorn also!”

Motivation Appeal

• "external inducements, often of an emotional nature, that are designed to increase an individual's drive to undertake some course of action"

  • Incentives that typically seek to alter your mood, feelings, or emotions as a form of persuasion

• Intrinsic Motivation

• Extrinsic motivation

Intrinsic Motivation

• Internal, self-initiative to do something

• For the joy, satisfaction you get

Extrinsic Motivation

• External incentive or stimulus to do something

• Motivation is stimulated outside of you

  • Created by someone other than you

Logic vs. Emotion

• They're not necessarily mutually exclusive

  • The logic/emotion dichotomy is an artificial distinction

• Emotional appeals are generally more persuasive than rational appeals

  • But purely emotional ads don't typically persuade people, people can snuff it out and we don't typically like it right in our face

• Positive emotional appeals (humor) are more effective than negative emotional appeals (fear, guilt)

Stage model of fear appeals

• Ex. Cigarette health ads

• When exposed to fear, you consider:

  • The severity of the threat

  • Your perceived vulnerability to the threat

  • When both are high, your defensive motivations kick in.

    • How to stop the fear and stop the threat

Stage model - Low severity and vulnerability

a person will tend to ignore the threat rely on peripheral processing

• Ex. A bee sting hurts, but you’re not allergic