Persuasion Exam Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms and concepts for the persuasion exam.

Powerful Language

A speaking style that avoids hedges, fillers, and tag questions, thereby projecting confidence and credibility.

Powerless Language

Speech that includes hedges, hesitations, and tag questions, which can undermine a speaker’s credibility.

Language Expectancy Theory

Theory stating that people hold norms for language use in persuasive settings; violating these norms can increase or decrease persuasion depending on how the violation is perceived.

Kinesics

The study and use of body movement, gestures, posture, and facial expressions as nonverbal persuasion cues.

Paralanguage

Vocal qualities such as tone, pitch, rate, and volume that accompany speech and influence persuasion.

Proxemics

The strategic use of physical space and distance to communicate and persuade.

Haptics

The persuasive use of touch in communication.

Chronemics

The study of how time—punctuality, pacing, delays—functions as a persuasive nonverbal cue.

Nonverbal Immediacy

Behaviors such as eye contact and smiling that create warmth and likability, increasing compliance.

Intrinsic Motivational Appeal

A persuasive strategy that taps internal satisfactions like pride, enjoyment, or self-esteem.

Extrinsic Motivational Appeal

Persuasion that relies on external rewards or punishments such as money, prizes, or threats.

Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM)

Fear-appeal model proposing that high threat plus high efficacy produces danger control (behavior change), whereas high threat plus low efficacy leads to fear control (message avoidance).

Danger Control

Audience response in the EPPM where individuals take protective action to reduce the threat.

One-sided Message

A persuasive message that presents only the advocate’s viewpoint.

Two-sided Message

A persuasive message that acknowledges opposing arguments; most effective with knowledgeable audiences when it refutes those arguments.

Primacy Effect

The tendency for information presented first to have a stronger impact on attitudes, especially on controversial topics.

Recency Effect

The tendency for information presented last to be better remembered and to shape decisions when choices follow immediately.

Compliance-Gaining Strategies (Marwell & Schmitt)

Five general tactics: rewarding activity, punishing activity, expertise, activation of impersonal commitments, and activation of personal commitments.

Rewarding Activity

A compliance-gaining strategy that offers positive incentives for agreement.

Punishing Activity

A compliance-gaining tactic that threatens or applies negative consequences to secure compliance.

Expertise (Compliance)

Using perceived superior knowledge or skill to influence another’s compliance.

Activation of Impersonal Commitments

Invoking a person’s internalized values or moral standards to gain compliance.

Activation of Personal Commitments

Reminding someone of interpersonal obligations or promises to secure compliance.

Situational Dimensions (Compliance Gaining)

Contextual factors—dominance, intimacy, resistance, rights, relational consequences, apprehension—that shape persuasive message choice.

Dominance (Situation)

The level of power the persuader holds over the target in an interaction.

Intimacy (Situation)

The emotional closeness between the persuader and the target.

Resistance (Situation)

The anticipated opposition or refusal from the target audience.

Rights (Situation)

The degree to which the persuader believes a request is justified or legitimate.

Relational Consequences

The potential impact of a compliance attempt on the future relationship between persuader and target.

Apprehension (Situation)

The persuader’s level of anxiety about the persuasive encounter.

Scarcity Principle

The idea that limited availability increases perceived value, often implemented through 'limited number' or 'deadline' tactics.

Psychological Reactance

A motivational state triggered when people perceive their freedom is threatened, prompting them to desire the restricted option more.

Subliminal Messages

Stimuli presented below conscious awareness; research shows they have weak or minimal persuasive effects.

Iconicity

The quality of an image that makes it resemble and thus represent the reality it depicts.

Indexicality

The capacity of images to serve as evidence or proof that an event occurred—'seeing is believing.'

Syntactic Indeterminacy

The characteristic of visuals whereby they can imply relationships without explicit logical connectors, allowing implicit persuasion.

Fixed-Action Patterns

Automatic, stereotyped behaviors elicited by specific cues; Cialdini labels this the 'click-whirr' response.

Because Technique

A compliance tactic in which simply providing a reason ('because…') increases agreement, even when the reason is weak.

Ethical Considerations in Persuasion

Evaluating intent, means, ends, respect for audience autonomy, and potential impact when crafting persuasive messages.

Othello Error

A deception-detection mistake that interprets signs of nervousness as definitive evidence of lying.

Truth Bias

The default tendency to assume others are honest, making deception harder to detect.

Explicit Conclusion

A persuasive message that clearly states the desired conclusion for the audience.

Implicit Conclusion

A persuasive message that leaves the audience to infer the conclusion themselves.

Foot-in-the-Door Technique

Strategy where compliance with a small request increases the likelihood of compliance with a larger follow-up request.

Door-in-the-Face Technique

Strategy beginning with a large, likely-rejected request to enhance compliance with a smaller subsequent request.