Psy 261 ch. 7

Persuasion

  • persuasion: the process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors
    • the good we call ‘education’ and the bad we call ‘propaganda’

What paths lead to persuasion?

  • central route to persuasion: occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts
    • occurs when people are motivated and able to think about an issue; the weak arguments are seen and ignored
    • central route processing can lead to more enduring change because people rely on their own thoughts in addition to the strength of the arguments
    • explicit and reflective
  • peripheral route to persuasion: occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as product placements in movies or a speaker’s attractiveness
    • occurs when we’re not motivated or able to think carefully, and therefore the strength of the arguments won’t matter
    • focuses on cues that trigger automatic acceptance without much thinking
    • easily understood, familiar statements are more persuasive
    • implicit and automatic

What are the elements of persuasion?

  1. the communicator
  2. the message
  3. how the message is communicated
  4. the audience
  • aka, who says what, by what method, to whom?
  • the communicator
    • it’s not just the message that matters, but also who says it
    • credibility: believability, perceived expertise and trustworthiness
    • sleeper effect: delayed impact of a message that occurs when an initially discounted message becomes effective, such as we remember the message but forget the reason for discounting it
    • perceived expertise is achieved when someone is seen as knowledgeable about a topic, such as someone in the Canadian Dental Association discussing the best toothpaste
      • celebrities are more persuasive when they’re perceived as expert users of a product
      • expertise can also be achieved through agreement; a speaker who says things the audiences agrees with comes across as smart
    • speaking confidently and fluently raises credibility
    • trustworthiness is higher when the audience believes the communicator is not trying to persuade them
    • liking and attractiveness: having qualities that appeal to an audience (often similar to the audience)
    • physical attractiveness is one form; arguments are often more influential when coming from people we consider beautiful
    • similarity makes for attractiveness; we tend to like people who are like us
    • people who act as we do (mimicry) are more influential
  • the message content
    • reason versus emotion
    • well-educated or analytical people are responsive to rational appeals
    • When people’s initial attitudes are formed primarily through the peripheral route, they are more persuaded by later peripheral, emotional appeals; when their initial attitudes are formed primarily through the central route, they are more persuaded by later information-based, central route arguments
    • happy people make faster, more impulsive decisions
    • fear
    • Playing on fear works best if a message leads people not only to fear but also to perceive a solution and feel capable of implementing it
    • foot in the door phenomenon: the tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
    • lowball technique: tactic for getting people to agree to something; people who agree to an initial request will often still comply when the requester ups the ante instead of receiving only the costly request
    • door in the face technique: after someone first turns down a large request, the same requester counteroffers with a more reasonable request
    • two-sided appeals (addressing both sides)
    • if your audience will be exposed to opposing views, offer a two-sided appeal. Two-sided appeals have another advantage: They can make the communicator seem more honest.
    • primacy effect: information presented first usually has more influence
    • recency effect: info presented last sometimes has the most influence, but recency effects are less common than primacy effects
    • Forgetting creates the recency effect (1) when enough time separates the two messages and (2) when the audience commits itself soon after the second message
    • When the two messages are back-to-back, followed by a time gap, the primacy effect usually occurs
    • the best advice for persuasion is the following:
    • Use logic or emotion, depending on the audience and the message.
    • Ask a small favor before making a big request.
    • Offer two-sided messages that challenge arguments against your message.
    • Go first or last — not in the middle — for best results
  • channel of communication
    • channel of communication: the way the message is delivered; face to face, in writing, on film, etc.
    • mere repetition can make statements more believable
    • The more familiar and recognizable a statement is, the more likely people will come to believe it’s true even if it is not
    • retractions of previously provided information rarely work; people tend to remember the original story, not the retraction
    • repetition of a statement also serves to increase its fluency — the ease with which it spills off our tongue — which increases believability
    • The more familiar people are with an issue, the less persuadable they are
    • the major influence on us is not the media but our contact with people
    • media influence → two step flow of communication: the process by which media influence often occurs through opinion leaders/trendsetters, who in turn influence others
    • order of influence: live (face-to-face), video, audio, and written.
    • If you want to persuade someone who disagrees with you, it’s better to speak than to write to them
  • the audience
    • age
    • life cycle explanation: attitudes change as people grow older
    • generational explanation: attitudes don’t change; older people largely hold onto the attitudes they adopted when they were young; a generational gap develops
      • research mostly supports this explanation
    • thoughtfulness
    • The crucial aspect of central route persuasion is not the message but the responses it evokes in a person’s mind. If a message summons favorable thoughts, it persuades us. If it provokes us to think of contrary arguments, we remain unpersuaded.
    • forewarned is forearmed → knowing someone is going to try to persuade you allows you to think of counterarguments
    • distraction disarms counterarguing, especially when the message is simple
    • uninvolved audiences use peripheral cues
      • need for cognition: the motivation to think and analyze. assessed by agreement with items such as “the notion of thinking abstractly is appealing to me” and disagreement with items such as “I only think as hard as I have to”
    • ways to stimulate people’s thinking:
    • by using rhetorical questions
    • by presenting multiple speakers
    • by making people feel responsible for evaluating or passing along the message
    • by repeating the message
    • by getting people’s undistracted attention.
      • finding for all of these: Stimulating thinking makes strong messages more persuasive and (because of counterarguing) weak messages less persuasive
      • the best instructors get students to think actively which foster the central route to persuasion

How can persuasion be resisted?

  • It is easier to accept persuasive messages than to doubt them
  • attitude inoculation: exposing people to weak attacks upon their attitudes so that when stronger attacks come, they’ll have refutations available
  • counterarguments: reasons why a persuasive message might be wrong
    • people who learned detailed counterarguments (rather than simply hearing the information was wrong) were less likely to believe false claims
  • People who live amid diverse views become more discerning and more likely to modify their views only in response to credible arguments