Attitudes (Persuasion Models)

What is persuasion?

Persuasion is the process of changing our attitude towards something based on some kind of communication from others.

What are the three theories regarding persuasion (attitude change) ?

• Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

• Yale attitude change approach 

• Experience

What is the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) ?

ELM considers variables of the YACA to determine when attitude change will occur.

What are the 3 variables the ELM considers to determine when attitude change will occur.

• Source: where the message is coming from 

• Content: the content of the message 

• Audience: characteristics of the audience 

What are the 2 main routes of the ELM?

Central and peripheral

What is the central route of persuasion?

• Uses facts, figures and reasoning.

• Makes the audience think carefully about the message to allow them to evaluate the information

• Most effective upon people who are more likely to think and analyse the content of the message during arguments

• Messages need to be credible, clearly presented and backed up with evidence

What is the peripheral route of persuasion?

• Uses images and emotions (peripheral cues) to perpetuate change.

• This route requires minimal thinking and processing from the audience

• The audience targeted by this route is usually young as they are still in a strong phase of learning and development, therefore most commonly easily persuaded

• Also commonly targets those with low self-esteem and a negative self-concept

What are the three aspects of the YACA?

Source, Message, Audience

What is the source in YACA?

the person who conveys the message

• The more favourably we regard the source, the more likely we are to view the message favourably

• Effectiveness of source is determined by credibility, trustworthiness, expertise and likeability

What is the message in YACA?

for the message to be effective, you need to evoke strong emotions or strong processing in the audience

• Good feeling can make a message more convincing i.e. using happy music

• Fear is often used to create a strong message (usually in health or safety)

• Messages that use statistics incorporates the central
  route to encourage a person to think

What is the audience in YACA?

features of the audience of a message also so affect how easy it is to persuade attitude change

• Older generations often have more conservative views as they are more likely to have formed opinions through direct experience

• Young people often form their attitudes from second hand sources (i.e. media, what someone has said) and are therefore, easier to persuade

• Time of day can also impact levels of alertness and therefore, how likely someone is to change their opinion

What are three factors that are apart of the audience? (YACA)

Self-esteem: people with low self-esteem persuaded more easily as people with high self-esteem because they are less likely to have counter points

Personality: traits and personality types can often shape attitude formation due to things like extraversion vs. introversion
Knowledge: level of prior knowledge on a topic can also influence attitude change - if someone knows alot about the topic they will be less willing to change their opinion

What are the two aspects of the Experience persuasion approach?

Direct and indirect

What is direct experience?

Experiencing something for yourself.

• Attitudes formed here are generally stronger.

• More likely to think and talk about a direct experience, more accessible.

What is indirect experience?

Being exposed to a topic, event or issue in a secondary way (less personal).

• reading, being told, watching an advert.

• attitudes formed this way are more susceptible to change as they are less emotionally intense and don't evoke the same thought processing

What are the three persuasion strategies?

1. The norm of reciprocity.

2. Door-in-the-face

3. Foot-in-the-door

What are persuasion strategies effective for?

Selling products, changing attitudes, ideas and behaviours

What is the norm of reciprocity?

Based on the social norm that people will return a favour when one is granted to them.

• Linked to the psychology of compliance, is more likely to occur when the requester has previously complied with a target’s request,

• Technique used by marketers to manipulate purchasers

What is the door in the Face strategy?

Begins with an initial large request and then progressively lower to something smaller.

Purchasers feel obliged to buy the smaller option because they rejected the initial large offer.

What is the foot in the door strategy?

Begin begins with getting the purchaser to agreed to a small favour or item, only to request a larger purchase.

Linked to the psychology of compliance - as you have agreed to the initial request you are more likely to agree with others