OB Module 2.pptx

Module - 2
Individual Processes
and
Behavior

Contents of the Module
• Personality: Personality Determinants,
• Trait Theory, Big Five, The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI);
• Perception: Process of Perception, Barriers to Perception;
• Attitude: Attribution Theory;
• Persuasion:
• Theories of Persuasion – Yale Attitude Change Approach – Elaboration Likelihood Model
– Foot in the Door Technique.

Personality
• Personality - All our behaviour is somewhat shaped by our personalities.
• Personality a dynamic concept describing the growth and development of a
person’s whole psychological system. It is the sum total of ways in which an
individual reacts and interacts with others.
• “The dynamic organization within an individual of those
psychological systems that determine his unique adjustments to his
environment.” Gordon Allport
• Personality tests are useful in hiring decisions and help managers forecast who
is best for a job.
• The most common means of measuring personality is through self report
surveys. The weakness with self report survey is that the respondent might lie or
practice impression management to create a good impression.

Personality Determinants contd…
• An adult’s personality is generally considered to be made up of both hereditary and
environmental factors, moderated by situational conditions.
• Heredity: refers to factors determined at conception/by birth. Physical stature, facial
attractiveness, health, temperament, muscle composition and reflexes, energy level are
considered to be either completely and substantially influenced by parents. The
heredity approach says that the ultimate explanation of an individual’s personality is
the molecular structure of the genes, located in the chromosomes.
• Research among twins – separated at birth and brought up separately – one set of twins separated
39 yrs ago and raised 45 miles apart were found to drive the same model and color car, chain-
smoked the same brand of cigarette, owned dogs with the same name, and regularly vacationed
within 3 blocks of each other in a beach community 1500 miles away. Genetics accounts for 50%
of the personality differences and more than 30% of the variation in occupational and leisure
interests.
• “Studies over the past 20 years on twins and adopted children have firmly established that there is
a genetic component to just about every human trait and behavior, including personality, general
intelligence and behavior disorders.

• Environment: Both heredity and environment are important. Heredity sets the
parameters or outer limits, but an individual’s full potential will be determined by how
well he or she adjusts to the demands and requirements of the environment.
• Culture : Culture is sum total of learned believes, values and customs. Culture in
which one is raised, early conditioning, the norms among our family, friends, social
groups, and other influences the personality. Culture establishes norms, attitudes and
values that are passed along from generation to generation.
• Family : Families influence the behaviour of a person especially in the early stages.
The nature of such influence will depend upon the following factors :
• Socio-economic level of the family
• Family size
• Birth order
• Race
• Religion
• Parent's educational level and Geographic location.

• Situation: Influences the effects of environment on personality, which changes
in different situations.
• An individual's personality, while generally stable and consistent, does change
in different situations.
• The different demands of different situations call forth different aspects of one's
personality.

Theories of Personality
• The Big Five Model.
• The Myers-Briggs type indicator.

The Big Five Model
• The Big Five personality traits, also known as the Five-Factor Model (FFM) and
the OCEAN model, is a taxonomy for personality traits.
• When factor analysis is applied to personality survey data, some words used to
describe aspects of personality are often applied to the same person.
• Human resources professionals often use the Big Five personality dimensions to
help place employees. That is because these dimensions are considered to be the
underlying traits that make up an individual’s overall personality.

The Big Five Model
• Openness to experience: This dimension addresses range of interests and fascination
with novelty. Extremely open person is creative, curious and artistically sensitive.
Those at the other end of the category are conventional and find comfort in the
familiarity.
• Conscientiousness: This dimension is a measure of reliability. A highly conscientious
person is responsible, organized, dependable and determined. Those who score low on
this dimension are easily distracted, disorganized and unreliable.
• Extraversions: This dimension captures one’s comfort level with relationships.
Extraverts tend to be outgoing, assertive and sociable. Introverts tend to be reserved,
shy and quiet.
• Agreeableness: This dimension refers to an individual's tendency to defer to others.
Highly agreeable people are cooperative, warm and trusting. People who score low are
agreeableness are cold, disagreeable and antagonistic.
• Neuroticism/ Emotional Stability: This dimension is a person’s ability to withstand
stress. People with positive emotional stability tend to be calm, self-confident and
secure. Those with high negative scores tend to be nervous, anxious, depressed and
insecure.

Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBTI)
• The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator is a self-report
inventory designed to identify a person's personality type, strengths, and
preferences.
• The questionnaire was developed by Isabel Myers and her mother Katherine
Briggs based on their work with Carl Jung's theory of personality types.
• Based on the answers to the questions on the inventory, people are identified as
having one of 16 personality types. The goal of the MBTI is to allow
respondents to further explore and understand their own personalities including
their likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, possible career preferences, and
compatibility with other people.
• No one personality type is "best" or "better" than any other one. It isn't a tool
designed to look for dysfunction or abnormality. Instead, its goal is simply to
help one learn more about self.

Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator (MBTI) contd…
• Rules to take this test:
• 93 questions.
• Answer as you are, not as you hope to be.
• No right or wrong answers.
• If you get stuck on a question, skip and come back to it.
• The answer to some questions will be “it depends.” If this is the case, answer as
you are most of the time, in a relaxed setting.
• When you are finished, score the test and you will come up with your 4-letter
type.

Formation of Attitudes
• Psychological factors
• Family factors
• Social factors
• Organizational factors
• Economic factors
• Political factors

• The questionnaire itself is made up of four different scales.
• Extraversion (E) - Introversion (I)
• While these terms are familiar to most people, the way in which they are used
here differs somewhat from their popular usage.
• This scale involves knowing from where and how people get energy.
• Extraverts (also often spelled extroverts) are "outward-turning" and tend to be
action-oriented, enjoy more frequent social interaction, and feel energized after
spending time with other people. Introverts are "inward-turning" and tend to be
thought-oriented, enjoy deep and meaningful social interactions, and feel
recharged after spending time alone. Everyone exhibits extraversion and
introversion to some degree, but most of the time people tend to have an overall
preference for one or the other.

Extraverts (E) Introverts (I)
Energized by being with others Energized by spending time alone
Sometimes enjoy being the center
of attention
Sometimes avoid being the center
of attention
Tend to think out loud Think things through before
communicating
Communicate with enthusiasm More low key
Expressive and Sociable Reserved

• Sensing (S) - Intuition (N)
• This scale involves looking at how people gather information from the world
around them.
• Just like with extraversion and introversion, all people spend some time sensing
and intuiting depending on the situation.
• According to the MBTI, people tend be dominant in one area or the other.
• People who prefer sensing tend to pay a great deal of attention to reality,
particularly to what they can learn from their own senses. They tend to focus on
facts and details and enjoy getting hands-on experience.
• Those who prefer intuition pay more attention to things like patterns and
impressions. Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without conscious
reasoning. They enjoy thinking about possibilities, imagining the future, and
abstract theories.

Sensing (S) Intuition (N)
Taking in information through
senses, and focus on the here and
now
Future-focused
Trust in the certain and real Trust inspiration and inference
Value realism and common sense Value imagination and innovation
Like to use and improve
established skills
Bored easily after mastering tasks
Present information in a step-by-
step fashion
Present information in a
roundabout manner

• Thinking (T) - Feeling (F)
• This scale focuses on how people make decisions based on the information that
they gathered from their sensing or intuition functions.
• People who prefer thinking place a greater emphasis on facts and objective data.
They tend to be consistent, logical, and impersonal when weighing a decision.
• Those who prefer feeling are more likely to consider people and emotions when
arriving at a conclusion.

Thinker (T) Feeler (F)
Step back and apply impersonal
analysis to problem solve
People and situation focused-
subjective context
Value logic, justice and fairness Value empathy and harmony
Truth over perception As important to be tactful as it is to
be truthful
Motivated by desire for
achievement and accomplishment
Motivated by a desire to be
appreciated

• - The final scale involves how people tend to deal with the outside world. Those
who lean toward judging prefer structure and firm decisions.
• People who lean toward perceiving are more open, flexible, and adaptable.
These two tendencies interact with the other scales. Remember, all people at
least spend some time extroverting. The judging-perceiving scale helps describe
whether you extravert when you are taking in new information (sensing and
intuiting) or when you are making decisions (thinking and feeling).

Judging (J) Perceiving (P)
Need structure Need spontaneity
Happiest after making decisions Happiest leaving options open
Work first- play later Enjoy life now- work later
Prefer knowing what they are
getting into
Like adapting to new situations
Goal and deadline oriented Change goals as new information
becomes available
Like finishing projects Like starting new projects
Take deadlines seriously View deadlines as elastic

MBTI-Framework
Extraverts-(who try things out, focus on the outer world of people) or
introverts (who think things through, focus on the inner world of ideas)
Sensors- (who are practical, detail-orientated, focus on facts and procedures)
intuition (who are imaginative, concept-orientated, focus on meanings and possibilities)
Thinkers (who are sceptical, tend to make decisions based on logic and rules) or
Feelers (who are appreciative, tend to make decisions based on personal and humanistic considerations)
Judging (who set and follow agendas, seek closure even with incomplete data)
Perceivers (who adapt to changing circumstances, resist closure to obtain more data).

Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator
• The MBTI is widely used by organizations including Apple, Citigroup, GE,
many hospitals and educational institutions. Evidence is mixed about its validity
as a measure of personality.
• This is a valuable tool for increasing self-awareness and providing career
guidance.
• But Managers should not use this test to select a candidate appearing for the
interview.

Attitude
• Attitudes are evaluative statements – favorable or unfavorable – concerning
objects, people or events.
• An attitude is a hypothetical construct that represents an individual's degree of
like or dislike for something.
• A predisposition to respond in a positive or negative way to someone or
something in one’s environment such as a person, place, thing, or event this is
often referred to as the attitude object.
• The reasons underlying the particular attitude are probably complicated.

Understanding attitudes
• Attitudes are complex in nature.
• Six questions to be answered to understand attitude:
1. What are the main components of attitude?
2. How consistent are attitudes?
3. Does behavior always follow from attitude?
4. How employee’s attitude is measured?
5. What is the importance of attitude to workplace diversity?

© 2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All 3–29
Attitudes
Attitudes
Evaluative
statements or
judgments
concerning
objects,
people, or
events.
Affective Component
The emotional or feeling segment
of an attitude.
Cognitive component
The opinion or belief segment
of an attitude.
Behavioral Component
An intention to behave in a certain
way toward someone or something.

Components of Attitudes
• Cognitive Component – belief segment
• Affective Component – feeling / emotional segment
• Behavioral Component – intention to behave in a certain way toward someone
or something

Components of attitude
• Cognitive component: a description of or belief in the way things are.
• For example: My pay is low or my boss is unfair.
• Affective component: It is the emotions or feelings triggered by something or a
situation.
• For example: I am angry over how little I’m paid or I dislike my supervisor.
• Behavioral component: Reaction towards something.
• For example: I am going to look for another job that pays better or I am quitting
this job.

Features of Attitudes
• Attitudes affects behavior
• Invisible
• Acquired
• Ubiquitous

Sources of Attitudes
• Parents
• Teachers
• Peer Group Members
• Role Models
• Personal Experiences

Major Job Attitudes
• There are many types of attitudes. But here we limit to only to the work related
issues.
• The job related attitudes are classified as :
• Job Satisfaction
• Job involvement
• Organizational Commitment

Major Job Attitudes contd…
• Job involvement: It is a degree to which a person identifies with a job, actively
participates in it, and considers performance important to self-worth.
• Performance of the employees is directly related to the amount of job involvement.
• Job Satisfaction: It is a positive feeling about one’s job resulting from an
evaluation of its characteristics.
• The level of the satisfaction differs from one job to another and also from one individual
to other.

• Organizational Commitment: It’s a degree to which an employee identifies with
a particular organization and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the
organization.
• It depicts the level of attachment of the individual towards the organization.
• Affective commitment.
• Continuance commitment.
• Normative commitment.

• Affective commitment: How much an employee actually likes or feels as a part of an
organization has a tremendous effect on employee and organizational performance.
• Affective commitment of an employee is directly proportional to positive work experience
• Continuance commitment: It is a degree that you stay with the organization because
you believe you have to stay.
• Important organizational factors like employee loyalty and employee retention are components of
continuance commitment
• Normative commitment: Commitment of an employee towards his/her organization
when they feel that they “should” continue working in their organization.
• It's feeling that is different from the “want” and “need” feelings of Affective and
Continuous commitment, respectively.
• It builds upon duties and values, and the degree to which an employee stays

Why Might Attitudes Matter at Work?
• Attitudes at work might result in knowing:
• Whether a person seeks a new job
• How co-operative they are with others at work
• Whether they present a positive image of the Organization to clients or
customers
• How they react to change
• How hard they work (motivation)
• Their psychological or physical health

Which of the below is a straight row?

Perception
• Perception is a process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory
impressions in order to give meaning to their environment.
• Perception is substantially different from objective reality.
• Five senses acts as inputs and the process of perception is affected by : the
objects or events being perceived, the environment in which perception occurs
and the individual doing the perceiving.
• Perception may thus be described as a “Person’s view of reality”

Factors influencing Perception
Perception
Factors in the Perceiver:
• Attitudes
• Motives
• Interests
• Experiences
• Expectations
Factors in the
Situation:
• Times
• Work setting
• Social Setting
Factors in the Target:
• Novelty
• Motion
• Sounds
• Size
• Background
• Proximity
• Similarity

Nature of perception
• Perception is the intellectual process by which a person selects data from the
environment, organizes it and obtains meaning from it.
• Perception is a basic cognitive process which triggers people’s emotions,
thoughts or feelings.
• Perception is a subjective process and different people may perceive the same
environmental event differently.

RECEIVING STIMULI
• These stimuli enter our organism through our sensory organs
• Stimuli are received by us through these organs
• Stimuli can be external or internal
• External stimuli : light waves , sound waves ,mechanical energy or pressure etc
• Internal stimuli : energy generated by muscles , food passing through digestive
system etc

SELECTING STIMULI
Selection of stimuli is influenced by Internal Factors & External Factors
External Factors influencing selection of stimuli
1. Nature
• Object is visual or auditory, whether it involves pictures, people or
animals.
• Pictures attract attention more than words
2. Location
• The best location of a visual stimulus for attracting attention is directly in
front of the eyes and in the centre of a page.
3 .Colour
Colour has a psychological impact on the individual

3. Size
• Objects of larger size attract more attention than the smaller.
4. Contrast
• The external stimuli which stand against the background or
which people are not expecting receive more attention.
• It is a kind of uniqueness that can be used for attention
getting.
• E.g. White lettering on a red background or black lettering on
a yellow background.
• Training managers conduct training program away from
workplace to create contrast atmosphere.

5. Movement
• The principle of motion states that a moving object receives
more attention than a stationary object.
• Workers give more attention on items on the conveyor belt
than on a important notice pasted on the notice board.
6. Repetition
• Repeated external stimulus is more attention catching than a
non- repetitive one.
• Superiors HAVE to give directions over and over again even
for simple tasks.

7. Novelty & Familiarity
• Either a New object in a Familiar external situation or
Familiar objects in New situations draw more attention

Internal Factors Influencing Selecting the stimuli
1. Learning
Learning has considerable influence on perception. It creates expectancy in
people. Past experiences influences the decisions taken by the employees.
2. Age difference
Senior executives complain about the inability of the young staff to take
decisions and young managers complain about the ‘old guards’ resisting
change.
3. Interest
Perception is always influenced by the interest of the perceiver. Architect will
notice the details of buildings though he passed by only once. Someone else
may pass the same building for years without observing such details

PERCEPTUAL ORGANISATION
It deals with the manner in which selected stimuli are organised in order
to make sense out of them. People do not perceive a stimulus in pieces
but would like to take it as whole.
The various principles are
1. Figure- ground
• Tendency to keep certain phenomenon in focus and others in the background.
• More attention is kept to the factors which are kept as the figure (in focus) and
less attention to the factors in the background.
• Perception may change if certain stimuli are changed from figure to ground

3. Perceptual Grouping
The principle of grouping first defined by Gestalt Psychologists.
Gestalt is a psychology term which means unified whole.
It refers to theories of visual perception. It attempt to describe how
people tend to organise visual elements into groups when
certain principles are applied. These principles are Similarity,
Proximity, Closure, Continuity.

• Principle of similarity – When objects of similar shape, size or
colour tend to be grouped together. E.g. Visitors to a company
wear yellow hats and employees have their prescribed uniform.

• Principle of proximity / nearness – Tendency to perceive stimuli which are near
one another is taken as belonging together.
E.g. Several workers working on a machine are perceived as one group and this
group is responsible for any failure in the machine.

• Principle of closure – It is a tendency that a person has to perceive a
whole when none exist. The persons perceptual process will close the
gap or missing parts of the stimuli. The closure principle
demonstrates the perceivers ability to perceive a whole object even
though only a part of the object is seen

• Principle of continuity – It is tendency to perceive objects as continuing
patterns. This tendency may result in ability to perceive uniqueness and detect
change.
Principle of closure is related to missing stimuli
Principle of continuity is related to perceiving continuous patterns

PERCEPTION AND ITS APPLICATION IN ORGANISATION : MANAGEMENT
PERSPECTIVE
• Recruitment and selection of employee
• Performance Appraisal
• Assessment of level of efforts
• Assessment of Loyalty
• Productivity
• Job satisfaction
• Absenteeism and turnover
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Perceptual Errors
• Selective perception: It is the process by which individuals perceive what they want
to hear in a message while ignoring opposing viewpoints. It is the process by which
people filter out irrelevant or less significant information so that they can deal with the
most important matters. The tendency to selectively interpret what one sees on the
basis of one’s interests, background, experience and attitude is Selective Perception.
• Any characteristics that makes a person, an object or an event stand out will increase the
probability we will perceive it. This is because it is impossible for anyone to assimilate everything
they see, anyone can take only certain stimuli.
• For example, a manager may have a favorite team member because they are biased by in-group
favoritism. The manager ignores the employee's poor attainment. Conversely, they might not
notice the progress of their least favorite employee.
• Halo effect/Halo error: The tendency to draw a general impression about an
individual on the basis of a single characteristic.
• A simplified example of the halo effect is when an individual noticing that the person in the
photograph is attractive, well groomed, and properly attired, assumes that the person in the
photograph is a good person.

Perceptual Errors
• Contrast effect: Evaluation of a person’s characteristics that is affected by
comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher or lower on the
same characteristics.
• A neutral gray target will appear lighter or darker than it does in isolation when immediately
preceded by, or simultaneously compared to, respectively, a dark gray or light gray target.
Cognition example: A person will appear more or less attractive than that person does in isolation
when immediately preceded by, or simultaneously compared to, respectively, a less or more
attractive person.
• Projection: Projection refers to the tendency of the people to see their own traits in
other people. It means that, when a person makes a judgment about others, they
project their own characteristics into others. It is a defense mechanism in which the
human ego defends itself against unconscious impulses or qualities (both positive and
negative) by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others
• For example, a person who is habitually rude may constantly accuse other people of being rude.
• Stereotyping: Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which
that person belongs.

Attribution Theory of Perception contd…
• Fritz Heider, a Gestalt psychologist, is referred to as the father of attribution
theory.
• The theory was further advanced by Harold Kelley and Bernard Weiner.
• Attribution theory is a concept that discusses how human beings determine and
evaluate the reasons behind others’ behaviors and activities.
• It suggests that when we observe an individual’s behavior, we attempt to
determine whether it was internally or externally caused.
• That determination, however, depends largely on three factors:
• Distinctiveness: refers to whether an individual displays different behaviors in different
situations.
• Consensus: is the degree to which other people react similarly in the same situation.
• Consistency: is the degree to which the actor behaves the same way in other situations.

Attribution Theory of Perception contd…
• Internally caused behaviors are those we believe to be under the personal control of
the individual.
• Externally caused behavior is what we imagine the situation forced the individual to
do.
• One of the most interesting findings from attribution theory research is that errors or
biases distort attributions. When we make judgments about the behavior of other
people, we tend to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the
influence of internal or personal factors.
• This fundamental attribution error can explain why a sales manager is prone to
attribute the poor performance of her sales agents to laziness rather than to the
innovative product line introduced by a competitor.
• Individuals and organizations also tend to attribute their own successes to internal factors such as
ability or effort, while blaming failure on external factors such as bad luck or unproductive co-
workers.
• People also tend to attribute ambiguous information as relatively flattering and accept
positive feedback while rejecting negative feedback. This is the self-serving bias.

Attribution Theory of Perception contd….
Individual Behaviour
Distinctiveness
Consensus
Consistency
External
Internal
External
External
Internal
Internal
Observation Interpretation Attribution of cause

Persuasion
• Persuasion is a process in which one person or entity tries to influence another
person or group of people to change their beliefs or behaviors.
• It is distinct from coercion, in that the people receiving the message have a
choice about whether to act on it.
• Persuasion can be a powerful force that affects the decisions and actions that
people take. Persuasive messages are symbolic (using words, images, and
sounds) and may be transmitted verbally or nonverbally, via media or face-to-
face communication.
• Persuasion may be overt or subtle.

Principles of Persuasion
• Psychologists recognize six characteristics of persuasion, originally identified by
Robert Cialdini in 1984.
• Reciprocity: As humans, we tend to want to repay others when they have done
something for us. You might easily persuade a friend to do a favor for you if you have
already done one for them. In a business context, reciprocity could mean being willing
to provide your email address in order to receive a discount on your purchase.
• Scarcity: You might be persuaded to change your behavior if you are convinced that
you will lose access to something, or that there isn't enough of it to go around. You can
see this principle in action when an airline alerts you that there are only a few seats
left on a flight you're considering, or a retailer advertises a limited-time sale.
• Authority: If you believe that a person or other entity has expert knowledge, you may
be more likely to be persuaded by their message. An advertiser or political candidate
might use an authority figure, such as a physician, historian, or scientist, to support
their argument.

Principles of Persuasion contd…
• Consistency or Commitment: People have a tendency to continue their previous
behavior or stick with a decision they have made. In an interview, Cialdini gave a
example of this involving a restaurant that struggled with no-shows. When a patron
made a reservation, if the receptionist asked them to call if they needed to cancel (and
got an affirmative reply), they were much less likely to miss their reservation. The
patrons were effectively making a promise, and were committed to keeping it.
• Social Proof: This is the "safety in numbers" principle. If we see that our friends or
peers have made a purchase, supported a political candidate, or otherwise agreed with
a persuasive message, we may be more likely to agree with it too.
• Liking: If you know and like the person (or even business, political party, or
government agency) trying to persuade you of something, you will be more inclined to
agree with their argument. This is similar to the "social proof" principle, but is more
about the quality of the relationship, where social proof is about quantity.

Yale Attitude Change Approach
• In social psychology, the Yale attitude change approach (also known as the Yale attitude
change model) is the study of the conditions under which people are most likely to change
their attitudes in response to persuasive messages.
• This approach to persuasive communications was first studied by Carl Hovland and his
colleagues at Yale University during World War II.
• According to the Yale Attitude Change Model, attitude change is most likely to occur when
three conditions are met:
• Source credibility: refers to the perceived expertise and trustworthiness of the person or
organization delivering the message. Features of the source of the persuasive message include
the credibility of the speaker and the physical attractiveness of the speaker. The use of famous
actors and athletes to advertise products on television and in print relies on this principle.
• Message content: refers to the content of the message itself, including its clarity, relevance,
and emotional appeal. Features of the message itself that affect persuasion include
• subtlety (the quality of being important, but not obvious)
• sidedness (that is, having more than one side)
• Timing
• Audience characteristics: Features of the audience that affect persuasion are attention,
intelligence, self-esteem and age.

Elaboration Likelihood Model
• The elaboration likelihood model, first devised by Richard E. Petty and John T.
Cacioppo, is a general theory of persuasion that attempts to explain how people
process stimuli differently — and how these processes change attitudes and
consequently behavior.
• According to the elaboration likelihood model, when a persuader presents
information to an audience, some level of elaboration results.
• This elaboration refers to the amount of effort that any audience member of a
message has to use to process and evaluate a message, remember it, and
subsequently accept or reject it.
• When someone faces a message, the elaboration likelihood model posits that
people react using one of two channels: the high or the low elaboration channel.
• The level of someone’s elaboration can predict the likelihood that that person
will then use central or peripheral route processing to assess the contents of the
message.

Elaboration Likelihood Model contd….

• Central Route Processing: The central route is the message that is important.
The central route is logic driven and uses data and facts to convince people of an
argument’s worthiness.
• These messages require an audience to really think about the message, perhaps
because the message is personally important to them. Also, some people enjoy
analyzing arguments and creating a deep understanding of the issues; they have
a high need for cognition.
• Central route processing requires a high level of elaboration. This high
elaboration can result from, say, someone knowing what is important to them
and therefore investing a substantial amount of effort in examining an
argument’s message.
• When people are persuaded via central route processing, they have focused on
the message’s strengths. On the virtue of the amount of effort that the person
being persuaded has made in deciphering what the message is telling them, they
will make a decision based on their thoughts.

• Peripheral Route Processing: Peripheral route processing is an indirect route, which
involves a low level of elaboration, and uses peripheral cues to associate positivity
with the message.
• On the other hand, some people do not want to spend time and effort to consider
issues, or the message is not personally important/relevant to them, so they tend not to
process the information in-depth – they are cognitive misers.
• This means that the receiver of the message is not scrutinizing the message for its
effectiveness, and other factors, such as distractions, can influence them. They take
shortcuts and jump to conclusions on the basis of limited information.
• With the peripheral route, the focus is more on the context than on the message itself.
The audience is not required to think deeply about the meaning of the message. This
creates a short-lived attitude change.
• Peripheral route processing can often come from people who know what they want but
do not know much about the details of that item.
• For example, someone who wants a career that involves travel but also pays well is
more likely to process via the peripheral route than someone who is knowledgeable
about the specifics of careers

• Example:
• Consider someone who has been stopped by a political canvasser to sign a petition to
increase the tax on candy and sugary beverages.
• The extent to which someone is likely to scrutinize the canvasser’s argument depends
on a number of factors. One of these is time.
• Someone who is hurriedly running to work is less likely to seriously scrutinize the
argument than someone who is motivated and able to do thorough research and carry
out discussions on the implications of a soda task.
• Bias can also impact how someone processes an argument. Using the example from
before, a soda drinker (who would personally be affected by the tax) would likely
scrutinize the argument in a negative way, while a health-obsessed fitness guru may
process the canvasser’s argument in a way that is positively biased.
• Meanwhile, someone who has little to do with soda on a day-to-day basis may be
more likely to evaluate the canvasser’s argument objectively, given that they have few
ties to the issue.

Foot in the Door Technique
• Foot-in-the-door (FITD) technique is a compliance tactic that aims at getting a person
to agree to a large request by having him or her agree to a modest request first.
• The Foot in The Door Technique (FITD) was first coined by Johnathan Freedman and
Scott Fraser of Stanford University in 1966, when they conducted a study to try and
prove this theory of granting smaller requests can lead to agreeing to larger requests.
Their findings supported what they had thought was to be true.
• The persuader gets a person to agree to bestow a small favor or to buy a small item,
only to later request a larger favor or purchase of a bigger item.
• For example, say that you are buying the latest model smartphone, and the salesperson
suggests you purchase the best data plan You agree to this The salesperson then
suggests a bigger purchase the three year extended warranty After agreeing to the
smaller request, you are more likely to also agree to the larger request You may have
encountered this if you have bought a car When salespeople realize that a buyer
intends to purchase a certain model, they might try to get the customer to pay for
many or most available options on the car.

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