Social Psych- Persuasion

ELM of persuasion

idea that there are 2 routes to persuasion: central and peripheral

central/systematic route

occurs when the audience is motivated/able to think through an issue

- works when issue is personally relevant

- focused on the strength of the argument

- longer lasting change

peripheral/heuristic route

occurs when audience is influenced by incidental cues (not central message)

- works when issue is not personally relevant

- superficial change

power of the persuader

causes compliance

- most effective when under surveillance

- message not necessarily internalized

attractiveness of persuader

causes identification

- most effective when communicator and message are salient

- peripheral route = effective

credibility of persuader

causes internalizatioin

- most effective when message is relevant to professional domain of speaker and using central route

- take info to heart because an "expert" is talking

effects of certainty

more confident/certain = more persuasive

sleeper effect

delayed persuasion by an initially rejected message

- people remember message, but not speaker

appeals of message

appeal to core values = more effective

effect of self-interest

argue against self-interest = more effective

vividness of the message

colorful/interesting/memorable info = more persuasive

identifiable victim effect

the tendency to be more moved by the vivid plight of a single individual than by a more abstract number of people

effect of long messages with strong arguments

more effective when processed centrally

effect of long messages with weak arguments

less effective when processed peripherally

long vs short messages

Long and weak << short and strong (central)

effect of speed of message

too fast = less likely to be processed

too slow = lose audience

effect of discrepancy from original attitude

too discrepant = ignored/resisted

current attitude = ineffective in changing attitudes

reasonable appeals

when audience is motivated and able

emotional appeals

when audience is not motivated/able

fear-based appeals

most effective when they force people to imagine having a disease/problem

- heightened vulnerability

- personal testimonials > statistics

appeals to independence

audience is higher socioeconomic status = more effective

promotion orientation

focus on the positive outcomes to achieve (Western)

prevention orientation

focus on negative outcomes to avoid (Eastern)

effect of mood on persuasion

good mood > bad mood for persuasion

- good mood = peripheral route (want to maintain good mood)

one sided arguments

effective when audience won't be exposed to other side

two sided arguments

effective when audience exposed to opposing views

political party effect

people were swayed by their party, not the policy

attitude inoculation

making people immune to attempts to change their attitudes by initially exposing them to small doses of the opposing argument

primacy effect

tendency to remember earlier info better than recent info

recency effect

tendency to remember recent information better than earlier information

when to present first

when messages are back-to-back and response is delayed

when to present last

when messages are separated in time and response is soon after second message

Which age group is more easily persuaded?

young people (teens-early 20s)

culture and persuasion

appeal to cultural norms

- ex: attractiveness depends on culture

What is agenda control?

Efforts of the media to select certain events and topics to emphasize.

How does agenda control affect public perception?

It shapes which issues and events people think are important.

shared attention

When people believe they're attending to a stimulus at the same time that many others are attending to it, they're inclined to process the stimulus more deeply

hostile media phenomenon

The tendency for people to see media coverage as biased against their own side and in favor of their opponents' side.

naive realism

belief that we see the world in a reasonable and objective fashion

fake news

content, articles, videos that present made up or false information

selective attention

tuning into info that reinforce attitudes and tune out info that contradicts

thought polarization hypothesis

the hypothesis that more extended thought about a particular issue tends to produce a more extreme, entrenched attitude