Chapter 7 - Social Psychology

Persuasion

• process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors

• persuasion is a process that can be aimed to induce positive changes (such as toward a healthier life) OR negative (such as Nazi propaganda)

• the topic of persuasion was originally studied by Yale professor Carl Hovland during World War II in order to understand how to boost soldiers’ morale

The Yale Model

Elements of Persuasion

1. The Communicator: who delivers the message and what are their successful attributes

2. The Content: emotions vs. reason; the impact of raising fear; primacy vs. recency

   1. Reason vs. emotion: it depends on the audience

   2. Primacy: the first message usually has the advantage

   3. Recency: the last message wins when there’s a delay between the two messages and the decision comes right after the second one

3. The Channel of Communication

   1. Personal influence beats media influence

   2. Complex vs simple messages

4. The Audience to Who the Message Is Conveyed

   1. Age, cognitive ability

      1. attitudes are especially open to change in adolescence and early adulthood, then become more stable

      2. this makes college students a KEY audience for public health messages

What Paths Lead to Persuasion?

• Central Route

• Peripheral Route

Central Route

occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts

• Purpose: more durable, and more likely to influence behavior

Peripheral Route

• occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker’s attractiveness

• focuses on cures that trigger automatic acceptance without much thinking

  • Purpose: superficial and temporary attitude change

Elements of Persuasion: (1) The Communicator

• Who is delivering the message? The communicator

  • Credibility = expertise and trustworthiness (how believable a communicator seems, and Myers describes it as having these two parts)

  • Trust increases when the speaker:

    • argues against their own self interest, like a fast-food executive recommending less fast food

    • isn’t trying to persuade us, like a conversation we overhear

    • speaks fluently and confidently, since speaking quickly can make a speaker seem more credible

    • Trustworthiness: eye-contact

• The Sleeper Effect: the sleeper effect describes what happens when a message from a low-credibility source becomes more persuasive over time

  • Health misinformation on social media. A student sees a claim from an account they know is unreliable and dismisses it. Weeks later, they find themselves thinking, “Didn’t I hear somewhere that…?” They remember the claim but not where it came from.

• Aspects of Attractiveness and Likeability

  • Physical Attractiveness

  • Similarity

Elements of Persuasion: (2) The Content

• What is being said in the message

  • Reason vs. Emotion

    • is a logical message more persuasive, or one that arouses emotion?

      • Effect of good feelings

      • Effects of arousing fear

    • When soliciting donations to fight world hunger, should the message rely on statistics or on a picture of a starving child in Africa?

      • It depends on the audience:

        • Well-educated, analytical people respond to rational appeals

        • Most audiences are uninvolved and are more likely to respond to an emotional message

        • When people’s initial attitudes are formed through emotional responses, they are more likely to respond to emotional messages (priming)

Elements of Persuasion: (3) The Channel of Communication

• Personal vs. Media Influence

  • Main Point: personal influence usually beats media influence, especially on attitudes and behaviors that matter to people

  • mass media works best on unfamiliar or minor issues, such as which brand of pain reliever to buy, and works less well on issues people already care about

  • why personal contact works better:

    • it’s interactive: the persuader can answer objections and tailor the message

    • it brings social norms and accountability

    • it’s harder to tune out than an ad

Elements of Persuasion: (4) The Audience

• How old are they?

  • Life Cycle Explanation: some attitudes change as people get older

  • Generational Explanation: attitudes do NOT change, and older people largely hold onto the attitudes they adopted when they were young

  • No other way to explain this one other than it will be EXTREMELY dependent on the content of the message, and you might not know until after you try to persuade someone/a group if their age plays a role

• They key question is not just whether people hear a message, but whether they counterargue against it

• Forewarned is forearmed

  • The warning gives people time to prepare counterarguments, but this only happens when the topic matters to them

• Distraction disarms counterarguing

  • A mild distraction can make a message more persuasive because it blocks the listener from building counterarguments

• Uninvolved audiences use peripheral cues

  • If it personally affects the audience, message is likely processed centrally

  • If it does not personally affect the audience, peripheral cues like attractiveness and likeability are more likely to influence them (processed through the peripheral route)

Can we resist persuasion?

• depends

• strengthening personal commitment

• inoculation programs

  • if i can persuade first, and strengthen attitudes and beliefs, they will be less likely to change

• our greatest defense against persuasion is how deeply we are anchored in our attitudes or beliefs

  • for better or for worse