2. PERSUASION
Persuasion is the process by which a message induces change in beliefs,
attitudes, or behaviors.
Persuasion is everywhere; at the heart of politics, marketing, courtship,
parenting, negotiation, evangelism, and courtroom decision making.
3. Efforts to persuade are sometimes devilish, sometimes
controversial, and sometimes beneficial.
Persuasion is neither inherently good nor bad. It is a
message’s purpose and content that elicit judgments of
good or bad. The bad we call “propaganda.” The good we
call “education.”
Education is more factually based and less forcible than
propaganda. Yet generally we call it “education” when we
believe it, “propaganda” when we don’t.
5. Who Can Easily Persuade Us?
■ Communicators:
Credibility
Expertise
Trustworthiness
Attractiveness
6. Who Can Easily Persuade Us?
■ Message Content:
Apparently Non-persuasive
Fear Appeals
Positively Framed Messages
Primacy Versus Recency
7. FEAR APPEAL
■ Appeals—messages
■ that are intended to arouse fear in the recipient.
■ For example, Janis and Feshbach (1953) gave people one of three messages about
the tooth decay that can result from not brushing one’s teeth. They found that the
mild fear-inducing message resulted in the greatest subsequent tooth brushing,
while the most fear-inducing message resulted in the least increase in brushing.
■ RELIGION
8. Positively Framed Messages
■ Positively framed messages are often more effective persuasion devices than fear
appeals.
■ Consider how message framing and perceived risk of having a serious outcome befall the self can affect
persuasion following exposure to a message designed to encourage low-income ethnic minority women
to be tested for HIV (Apanovitch, McCarthy, & Salovey, 2003). Those women who perceived themselves
as unlikely to test positive for HIV were more likely to be persuaded to be tested (and they actually got
tested) when the message was framed in terms of the gains to be had by doing so (e.g., “The peace of
mind you’ll get or you won’t have to worry that you could spread the virus”) than when the message was
framed in terms of potential losses they would otherwise experience (e.g., “You won’t have peace of mind
or you could spread the virus unknowingly to those you care about”). Positive framing can be effective in
inducing change— especially when individuals fail to perceive themselves as especially at risk.
9. Primacy Versus Recency
■ Primacy effect:
■ Information presented early is most persuasive. First impressions are important.
■ For example, can you sense a difference between these two descriptions?
■ • John is intelligent, industrious, impulsive, critical, stubborn, and envious.
■ • John is envious, stubborn, critical, impulsive, industrious, and intelligent
10. Who Can Easily Persuade Us?
■ Channel of Communication:
Active Versus Passive
Personal Versus Media
■ Audience:
Analytical Versus Emotional
Age
11. The Cognitive Process Underlying
Persuasion
– According to a cognitive theory of persuasion, persuasion
can occur in one of two ways, depending upon the
requirement of the amount of cognitive effort or
elaboration.
– First, we can be persuaded by systematically processing
the information contained in the persuasive messages
(The Central Route), or second, by use of heuristics or
mental one word shortcuts (The Peripheral Route).
12. Persuasion channels
Persuasion
channels
The central route
when interested
people focus on the
arguments and respond with
favorable thoughts
The peripheral route when
people are
influenced by incidental
cues, such as a speaker’s
attractiveness.
13. Systematic Processing
Central Route to Persuasion
– Systematic Processing occurs when
the message is important to us and
we have the cognitive resources
available to think about it carefully.
• Careful consideration of content and
ideas
• Absorbs great deal of information
processing capacity
• Effortful
Heuristic Processing
Peripheral Route to Persuasion
– Heuristic Processing is most likely
when the message is not important
to us or we do not have the cognitive
resources (or time) to engage in
careful thought.
• Use of simple rules of thumb or
mental shortcuts
• Automatic
• Effortless
• “Experts statements can be trusted”
• “If it makes me feel good, I’m in it’s
favor”
14.
15. Resisting Persuasion Attempts
Reactance: Doing opposite to protect personal freedom
Forewarning: Getting alarmed of being persuaded
Selective Avoidance: Avoiding persuasive information
Counter Arguing: Defending our attitude via argument
Some people are resistant because;
Either they are motivated to engage in a counter-argument
Or, they are eager to strengthen/support their initial attitude
17. Foot in the door
■ if you want people to do a big favor for you, an effective strategy is to get them to do
a small favor first
■ E.g. displaying drive carefully signs first in windows and then on front yard
18. Door in the face
■ A strategy for gaining a concession. After someone first turns down a large request
(the door-in-the face), the same requester counteroffers with a more reasonable
request.
■ When Robert Cialdini and colleagues (1975) asked some of their Arizona State
University students to chaperone delinquent children on a zoo trip, only 32 percent
agreed to do so. With other students the questioner first made a very large
request—that the students commit 2 years as volunteer counselors to delinquent
children. After getting the door-in-the-face in response to this request (all
refused), the questioner then counter offered with the chaperoning request, saying,
in effect, “OK, if you won’t do that, would you do just this much?” With this
technique, nearly twice as many—56 percent—agreed to help.
