Social Psychology: Persuasion

Persuasion

process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, or behaviours.

Source of Persuasion

Question of Credibility

Perceived Expertise

• “Similar views seem more expert” phenomenon

• can be stimulated through agreement

• seen as “knowledgeable” on the topic

Perceived Trustworthiness

• we are more willing to listen to a communicator we trust

• explains why “fake news” spreads quickly

• higher if the audience believes the communicator is not trying to persuade them

Trustworthiness

• to speak confidently and fluently to persuade

• humour reduces distrust

• appearing that your intention is to persuade decreases trustworthiness

Expertise

• citing sources increases trustworthiness

• have someone introduce you as an expert

• say something the audience already agrees with

Attractiveness

• citing sources increases trustworthiness

• have someone introduce you as an expert

• say something the audience already agrees with

The Audience

The Age

Life Cycle Explanation

• attitudes change as people grow older

• e.g. becoming more conservative

Generational Explanation

• attitudes do not change

• older people hold onto the attitudes they adopted when they were young

• generational gap develops

Their Thoughts

Need For Cognition

• motivation to think and analyse

• agreement - “the notion of thinking abstractly is appealing to me”

• disagreement - “I only think as hard as I have to”

High Cognition

• preparing counterarguments

• knowing someone is going to try to persuade you makes you think of any counterarguments

Low Cognition

• increased distractions

• enhanced by a distraction that keeps people from thinking about counterarguments

• participants who “multitask” are less likely to counterargue

How They Send the Message

The Elaboration Likelihood Model

• routes to persuasion

Peripheral Route

• people are influenced by indirect, incidental cues (speaker’s attractiveness)

• focusing on cues that trigger automatic acceptance without much thinking

Central Route

• focusing on arguments and respond with favourable thoughts

• asking rhetorical questions

• involving the audience in an activity that challenges them

• providing intriguing case studies

The Sleeper Effect

• caveat for source

• delayed persuasion after people forget the source or its connection with the message

• remembering the message, forgetting the reason

Backfire Effect

• phenomenon where presenting facts contrary to an opposing individual’s beliefs further reinforces their belief

• combined with belief perseverance and confirmation bias

Emotions

• produce good emotions and associate them to you

Sadness/Romance

• relational, tying the source to its audience

Create/Invoke

• the fear, to provide the relief or solution

• the higher the better; do not use apocalyptic messages

Formats Increasing Persuasiveness

Lowball

• tactic for getting people to agree to something

• people agreeing to an initial request will often still comply

• people receiving only the costly request are less likely to comply

Foot-in-the-Door

• people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger one

• get people to do the small favour first so they can do the big favour

Door-in-the-Face

• strategy for gaining a concession

• after a target rejects a large request, counteroffer with a smaller one

Affecting Persuasiveness

Attitude Inoculation

• presenting weak counterarguments protects the attitude from latter, stronger counterarguments

• respond to the weakest arguments later in your message

Message

Timing

• messages can be more memorable than others, depending on the location

Primacy Effect

• information presented early has the most influence

• first impressions

Recency Effect

• information presented last has influences sometimes

• less common than primacy

• forgetting creates recency

Channel of Communication

• the way the message is delivered

• face-to-face, online, writing, etc.

Mere Repetition

• make statements believable

• more likely to believe a statement they have heard twice than once

Passive Persuasion

• more effective on minor issues

• more familiar people are with an issue, the less persuadable they are

• looking through shop reviews and going through the negative ones first than the positive ones

Active Persuasion

• strengthens attitude

• stronger for more personal and controversial issues

• attitudes more often endure and influence our behaviour when rooted in our own experiences

Personal Persuasion

• more effective than Media Persuasion

• two-step flow of communication - media influence often occurs through opinion leaders

Attitude

• verbal commitments/behaviour made by a target solidifies the thought and emotion

• positive social engagements between a target and persuades increases success

• environment where persuasion happens is important

• choosing is a powerful behaviour

Concerned with Consistency

Self-Presentation Theory

• externally

• managed impressions to maximise a positive social image

Theory of Cognitive Dissonance

• internally

• tension felt when two conflicting ideas are present in us