PSYC221 Week 5

Attitude inoculation is…

Making people immune to attempts to change their attitudes by initially exposing them to small doses of the argument against their position. 

Reactance theory

When a person’s idea of free will / freedom to perform a behavior is threatened, an unpleasant state of reactance is aroused which they can then reduce by performing the act that was threatened. 

Social impact theory

The impact of other people on the target person depends on 

• The number of people present and their strength or importance as well as how close they are to that person 

• The number of target persons, the strength of these targets and how close to one another they are 

Social impact decreases as…

target factors increase 

Social impact increases as…

source factors increase 

The amount of influence someone has in a situation is a function of three factors which are…

Their number 

Their strength 

Their immediacy 

The effectiveness of persuasive communications depends on who says what to whom. What makes someone more persuasive?

1. Credible speaker 

2. Attractive speakers 

what is the WHO in “who says what to whom”?

The source of the information

what is the WHAT in “who says what to whom”?

The nature of the communication

natures of communcation can be…

1. Perceived intent 

2. One v. Two-sided 

3. Order

Perceived intent effect on persuasion

If you perceive that someone is trying to persuade you then it is less persuasive, if you don’t perceive it as an intent to change your behaviour then it’s more presausive. 

One vs. Two sides arguments effect on persuasion

Preaching to the choir saying something that the person already believes first will be more persuasive you can then go on to say something opposite to what they’d want to hear.

The Order of arguements effect on persuasion

If there were two speeches one after the other and there was no delay. You would want to go first the first speaker sets up the main impression. Primacy is a good thing. If there is a delay between the speeches or the speeches and the decisionn then you want to be last. 

who is the WHOM in “who says what to whom”?

the AUDIENCE 

The characteristics of an audience that make for a less or more persuaded audience: 

An audience that is more distracted is more persuadable.  

People are more persuadable between the ages of 18 – 25, This is due to less experience, there is an openness that can make greater presuadbaility. 

Individual differences that impact how persuadable someone is

The level of someone’s self monitoring (Higher self monitoring more persuadable, lower self monitoring is less persuadable) 

Need for cognition – an individual's tendency to engage in and enjoy thinking, those who are in higher need of cognition are harder to persuade 

Higher intelligence leads to less persuadable overall 

 

Elaboration likelihood model (ELM) states there are two route to persuasion: 

Central route

The peripheral

Elaboration likelihood model Central root steps:

• You must attend to the message,  

• You need to be able to comprehend the message being presented,  

• Reacting (elaboration) this is where the individual comes up with reasons why the persuasive appeal may be correct or incorrect, this involves thinking and those who like thinking will do this more

Elaboration likelihood model the peripheral route

skips all the steps of the central route and goes straight to persuasion. 

When do we use the peripheral route? (ELM)

These factors influence our use of the peripheral route:

Expertise, speed of delivery, message length, scientific objectivity, attractiveness 

Attractiveness heuristic

Agreeing with those we like (we can see this in perfume commercials) 

The familiarity heurisitc

We like things that are familiar to us. 

The expertise heuristic: 

The reason we should listen to experts is that they should be credible

Message length heuristic:

The longer argument will normally have more valid arguments hence more persuasive.  

When do we use the central route? 

When things are self relevent we are more motivated. What matters in the central route is validity and strength of the argument

Higher arousal emotions and persuadeability:

Higher arousal emotions tend to produce worse things like stereotyping and make people more persuadable through the peripheral route as they reduce capacity. It also makes persuadeability though the central route LESS likely, if the capacity is being drained off then you don’t have the capacity for the central route. 

Low arousal emotions and persuadeability:

Low arousal emotions make people more persuadable through the central route and less persuadable through the peripheral route. 

When does fear work for persuasion?

It works to the extent that you can induce enough fear but not too much, evoking too much fear people end up disengaging. Anxiety decreases capacity which is why we don’t want too much. Provide a way to avoid the negative outcome and make it self relevant.

Social proof 

We view behaviour as correct to the degree that we see others performing the same thing. (laugh tracks as an example) 

Injunctive norms

Perceptions of what is the appropriate behaviours in a given situation 

Descriptive norms

How people actually behave in the situations. 

Scarcity for persuasion

opportunitiess seem more valuable when they are less available.