Effective persuasion requires establishing credibility with the audience, making the message attractive, and addressing the audience's reasoning and emotions. Different techniques work better depending on factors like the audience's level of involvement, their existing views, and whether the message is presented actively or passively. The most important aspect of persuasion may be what thoughts and feelings the message evokes in the recipient's mind rather than just the content of the message itself.

1. Effective persuasion

2.  Communication intended to influence or
induce a belief or an action

3. Communicator
Audience Persuasion Message
Channel

4. • Expert
• Trustworthy
Credibility • Confident
• Straightforward
• Physical appeal
• Similarity (Opposites generally do not
attract)
Attractiveness • Objective reality – dissimilar person
preferred
• Subjective preference – similar is preferred

5. Reason Vs. • Highly involved audience listens to reason
• Less involved audience listens to the communicator they like
Emotion • Association of good feelings
• Evoking negative associations/ fear
• Disagreement prompts change in opinions but might backfire as
Discrepancy well
• Discrepancy and credibility interact: Low credibility means high
discomfort
One sided Vs. • Acknowledging opposite arguments might cause confusion or it
Two sided might make the message seem fair.
Primacy Vs. • Primacy effect: Initial bits of information are more effective
• Recency effect: Later bits of information are more effective if
Recency • Sufficient time separates two messages
• Audience is not convinced by the first message.

6. Personal • Direct communication with people
versus is more effective
• Media is more effective in terms
Media of mass issues.
Influence
Passive • On radical and important issues,
active persuasion doesn’t work
Vs Active • On more personal issue specially
those which can project a positive
Msg. image, active persuasion helps

7. What the • The message is not as crucial as the
audience response it evokes in a recipient’s mind
• Announcing the persuasive intent reduces
is the persuasion factor
• Persuasion can be increased by distracting
thinking? the audience from counter arguing.
• Life cycle explanation – People become
more conservative with growing age.
• Generational explanation – Attitude
Age developed in young age, remain largely
unchanged and are different from what
upcoming generations adopt, hence the
generation gap.