Psyc 2210 Chapter 7

Persuasion

intentional effort to influence people’s attitudes and behaviors

When will a persuasive message will be effective? Some persuasive appeals will be more effective when the audience

is on auto pilot or when the audience in alert and attentive

Elaboration-likelihood model (ELM)

explains how people change their attitudes in response to persuasive messages

2 routes of the ELM

Central route and Peripheral route

Central route

occurs when people think carefully/deliberately about the content of a persuasive message

Peripheral route

primarily attend to peripheral aspects of a message— superficial, easy-to-process features tangential to the persuasive information

What determines whether we will engage in central or peripheral processing in response to a persuasive message?

Motivation and ability

Central route audience

Attend to logic, strength of arguments, recall relevant info of their own(experiences, memories), and elaboration of message

Peripheral Route examples

Message length, expertise or credibility of source, attractiveness

Peripheral route relies on

heuristics(An expert reporter or what most others do)

Motivated to devote time:

personal consequences (bears on goals, interests, well-being)

Able:

Cognitive resources and time to process deeply or knowledge about topic

For persuasion to occur via the central route, we have to be both

motivated and able

If either or both motivation and ablility is lacking, persuasion generally relies on

peripheral cues

Typical ELM Experiment setup

IV1: Strength of message (weak, strong)

IV2 Peripheral cues (number of arguments, attractiveness of source, expertise of source)

IV3: Personal relevance (low, high) likelihood people will process centrally or peripherally

DV: Post-communication attitude

Argument: Comprehensive exam for all graduating seniors at their university

IV 1: Strength of message (8 weak, 8 strong)

IV 2: Expertise of source (generated by local HS class, Princeton U professor)

IV 3: Relevance to audience (policy applied to them or not based on time policy would be initiated)

DV: Audience post-communication attitude toward comp exam

ELM Hypothesis predicts that high personal relevance will be persuaded by

Strength of argument

Argument: Comprehensive exam for all graduating seniors at their university

IV 1: Strength of message (8 weak, 8 strong)

IV 2: Expertise of source (generated by local HS class, Princeton U professor)

IV 3: Relevance to audience (policy applied to them or not based on time policy would be initiated)

DV: Audience post-communication attitude toward comp exam

ELM Hypothesis predicts that low personal relevance will be persuaded by

Expertise of source (not motivated to pay much attention to details/quality)

Argument: Comprehensive exam for all graduating seniors at their university

IV 1: Strength of message (8 weak, 8 strong)

IV 2: Expertise of source (generated by local HS class, Princeton U professor)

IV 3: Relevance to audience (policy applied to them or not based on time policy would be initiated)

DV: Audience post-communication attitude toward comp exam
Results:

High personal relevance were persuaded by strength and low personal relevance persuaded by expertise

What route is best for long-lasting attitude change?

Persuasion through the central route is preferable due to higher attention and elaboration

Immediate acquiescence & audience not motivated or attentive you want to use the

peripheral route

Yales’s 3 W’s of persuasion

Who says what to whom?

Source characteristics

Characteristics of person who delivers persuasive message

Source characteristics examples

Attractiveness, credibility, certainty

Attractiveness effect on persuasiveness

Attractive people create a favorable feeling associated with message

Actriveness is especially effective for

those who the message is not important or have little knowledge when they are more likely to pay attention to peripheral cues

Attractiveness can also influence through central route when

it is an argument for the validity of the message

Attractiveness central route influence examples

Muscled spokesperson promoting “Abdominator”

Credibility effects persuasivness as

People seen as knowledgeable, experts, & trustworthy are more persuasive

Credibility can influence through peripheral when

ow relevance or distracted

Credibility can influence through central route when

credibility can be taken as a strong argument in favor of moving toward the position the source is endorsing

Certainty can affect persuasiveness

as expressing views with certainty and confidence leads to more persuasion

Certainty juror example

Jurors base judgments of eyewitness credibility on confidence/certainty of witnesses when giving testimony

What if credibility & certainty levels don’t match? (Incongruency)

Expectations are violated so more likely to scrutinize message and engage in high-effort processing so they must have strong arguments

Message Characteristics

Message quality, Vividness, Fear, Culture

Message quality

High-quality messages are more persuasive; esp. for people high in M/A

What is a high quality message

Clear and logical, convey desirable consequences

Message quality will have more attitude change if

explicit conclusions, provide info that opposes other side, against own self-interest (sincere)

Vividness

Colorful, interesting, and memorable—it tends to be more effective

Identifiable Victim Effect

People are more likely to help when they focus on individual suffering than when they focus on tragic consequences to anonymous or statistical victims

Why is there a Identifiable Victim Effect

Recognizable victims elicit feelings of empathy increases willingness to donate

Fear is most effective when

combined with concrete instructions on how to avoid outcomes

Leventhal et al. (1967) smoking habits

IV: (1) graphic film of lung cancer surgery,

IV 2) pamphlet on how to stop smoking,

IV (3) both

DV: Cigarettes smoked each day

Results

Fear and instructions was the most effective at reducing number of cigarettes smoked and just instructions least effective

Culture

media in different cultures varies and it is tailored to fit the norms, values of a particular cultural group

Han & Shavitt (1994) ads in American & Korean news magazines & women’s magazines results for Americans

emphasize benefits to individual

Han & Shavitt (1994) ads in American & Korean news magazines & women’s magazines results for Korean

focus on benefits to collectives

Gain: “Healthy teeth and gums only a floss away”

Loss: “Floss now or suffer from cavities and gum disease”

DV: + Attitude & Intention to floss

Results between westerners and non-westerners

Westerns – approach goals with promotion orientation and non-Westerners focus on prevention orientation (outcomes to avoid)

Order of presentation

First & last arguments more effective than middle

Primacy effect

initially encountered information primarily influences attitudes

Recency effect

recently encountered information primarily influences attitudes

3 Audience Characteristics

Match the message to the intended audience, need for cognition, age

Need for cognition

Those who drive to think deeply about things, puzzle, ponder will tend to take central route

IV: High/Low NFC

IV2: Strong/Weak arguments

DV: Attitudes toward comprehensive exam

Need for Cognition experiment results for high NFC

more persuadable through the central route

IV: High/Low NFC

IV2: Strong/Weak arguments

DV: Attitudes toward comprehensive exam

Need for Cognition experiment results for low NFC

were less sensitive to argument strength

Younger people are

more persuadable and malleable

18 to 25 yrs people are usually in the process

of forming their attitudes

Older people have

strong and long-held attitudes

Children may be most vulnerable to

persuasion attempts

2011 & 2017 studies: ½+ waking hours of most Americans are spent

in contact with various types of broadcast, online, and print media

Media is difficult to study

typically rely on correlations (Self-report and Self-selection)

What effect does the media have on our attitudes?

Media can shape opinions, tastes, behavior to some degree and influence us indirectly

Media is effective in shaping our

conception of social reality

Agenda Control

media selects certain events & topics to emphasize, controlling which issues and events people think are important

Prominence in media is correlated with

perceptions of importance

IV: # of stories seen on the topic of US foreign energy dependence (0, 3, 6)

DV: participants asked whether energy is one of top 3 most important problems facing country (y/n)

Higher stories, higher importance

Media representations do not resemble reality

Males portrayed 3x more often than females, Children, elderly, ethnic minorities, and lower-income individuals underrepresented, and Crime is more prevalent than in average American’s real life

TV consumption is linked to social attitudes - heavy TV watchers

Endorse more gender & racial stereotypes, overestimate the prevalence of violence & crime

Resistance to persuasive appeal

attitude doesn’t change

Why doesn’t the media have a stronger effect on buying, voting, adopting healthier habits?

Attention & evaluation biases, previous or public commitments, knowledge on topic

Selectively attend to info

that supports our attitudes

Study: NYT article that caffeine associated with increased risk of fibrocystic disease in females DV: Credibility of NYT study

Results

Females in high-caffeine intake category were more critical of evidence while men’s opinion unaffected (selective evaluation)

We selectively attend to and evaluate messages in ways that

confirm our preexisting attitudes

Previous Commitments and Resistance

media can’t overcome target audience’s previous commitments

Attitudes tied to our social identity are more

resistant to change

Public commitments to certain attitudes make them resistant to change – why?

Keep a consistent self-concept and engages us in more extensive thought about an issue

Thought polarization hypothesis

more thought results in more extreme, entrenched attitude

Those with prior knowledge wiil engage through the central route causing them to

scrutinize message carefully & resist

Wood (1982) pro-preservationists read counterattitudinal essay

IV: knowledge (high, low)

DV: attitude change

Result? Who changed attitude toward counteratt. position?

High knowledge results

slight change

Wood (1982) pro-preservationists read counterattitudinal essay

IV: knowledge (high, low)

DV: attitude change

Result? Who changed attitude toward counteratt. position?

Low knowledge results

more of a change toward message