Persuasion and Compliance

The Yale Model

• often described as explaining who says what to whom.

• Includes the factors that contribute to the persuasive effectiveness of the: source, message, and audience.

Expertise

perceptions that source is capable of making correct assertions

• Ability, knowledge, intelligence

Trustworthiness

perceptions that assertions made by source are ones the source considers valid

• Willing to report what they know truthfully without compromise

• Overt desire to persuade & advocating a self-serving position undermine trustworthiness

Sleeper Effect

• the tendency for persuasive communications from a noncredible source to become more influential over time

  • The source becomes dissociated from the message in memory

Discounting Cue

• suppresses initial attitude change in response to persuasive communication

Fear Appeals

• persuasive messages that highlight the harm that will befall the person if they don't take a specific action

  • Fear appeals most effective when paired with a message of efficacy

Message of Efficacy

• communicates that the person has the skills and abilities to take the recommended action and that taking the action will directly address the threat

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

The The ELM is a dual-process model, meaning that it distinguishes between two different routes to persuasion

Central Route to Persuasion

• The processing of a persuasive communication that occurs when the receiver is attentive, carefully considers the merits of the arguments, and agrees with the content.

Peripheral Route to Persuasion (3 types too)

• The processing of a persuasive communication that occurs when the receiver is distracted, is less focused on the merits of the arguments, and relies on superficial cues surrounding the message.

  • Credibility heuristic

  • Liking heuristic

  • Consensus heuristic

When we are exposed to a persuasive message, what determines whether we use peripheral-route processing or central-route processing?

• When people are distracted, peripheral-route processing should prevail.

• When a person has a high degree of personal involvement with the issue, the central route tends to prevail.

Heuristic-Systematic Model of Persuasion

It explains how people evaluate persuasive messages through two distinct information-processing modes

What are some variables that can increase resistance to persuasive messages?

Inoculation, forewarning

Sufficiency Principle

individuals are willing to exert additional cognitive effort to reach a desired level of judgmental confidence

Inoculation Theory

• Exposure to weak versions of a persuasive message increases later resistance to the message

  • Like a vaccine

  • You think of counter-arguments (mental "antibodies")

Forewarning

• advanced notification about the persuasive intent and/or topic position of a messenger

Freedom & Sears (1965)

• Attempted to persuade HS students that teenage driving should be outlawed

  • 3 conditions:

    • No forewarning

    • 2 minutes warning

    • 10 minutes warning

• Participants with no forewarning were most persuaded, participants with 10 minutes warning were least persuaded

Reciprocity: What technique uses reciprocity?

• Door in the face

• Consistency

  • What techniques uses consistency?

• Cognitive dissonance

• Principle of consistency

• Foot in the door

Principle of Scarcity

• we want what we can’t have.

Scarcity

• when a product, opportunity, or item is not widely available

  • e.g., because of low quantity, offer is only available for a limited period of time, exclusivity, or unique opportunity

    • “While supplies last”

    • “Act now, before it’s too late”

    • “Only 10 in stock”

West (1975)

• College students rated the quality of their college cafeteria food

  • Most were unhappy

  • 9 days later, students contacted again

• IV: cafeteria availability

  • Scarcity condition: told cafeteria would be closed for 2 weeks because of fire

  • Control condition: told cafeteria would not serve carbonated drinks for a few days

• Participants in scarcity condition showed significant attitude change, & rated the quality of the food much more positively

Why is scarcity effective?

• “Scarce-is-good” heuristic

• Psychological reactance

“Scarce-is-good” heuristic

• Scarcity increases perceptions of value (both for physical products, and more abstract things like personal characteristics)

• Reverse is also true

  • “what-is-good-is-scarce” heuristic

Psychological reactance

• as opportunities become less available, we lose freedoms

• when free choice is limited or threatened, people react by perceiving the threatened freedom as more attractive