Persuasion

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Persuasion

• June 18th

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Todays Agenda

• Questions from Last time?
• Persuasion
• Dual-Process Models
• Source
• Message
• Receiver
• Resistance
• Fear appeals

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Persuasion

• Communication intended to induce belief or
  action
• persuasion. (n.d.). WordNet 3.0. Retrieved June
  13, 2007, from Dictionary.com website
  http//dictionary.reference.com/browse/persuasion
  
• Persuasion is ubiquitous
• Discussion
• Lectures
• Speeches
• Advertisements

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Persuasion

• Current theories posit two processes in
  perception
• Elaboration-Likelihood
• Heuristic-Systematic
• System 1
• Peripheral or Heuristic
• the person primarily attends to superficial
  aspects of the message
• System 2
• Central or Systematic
• the person thinks carefully and deliberately
  about the content of the message

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The Yale School

• Hovland, Janis, Kelley
• Influential framework for studying persuasion
• WHO
• Says WHAT
• To WHOM
• to what EFFECT (on the targets attitude)
• Field was busy, but there were some inconsistent
  findings

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Persuasion Theories in a nutshell
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Persuasion Situation
Who
says
What
to
Whom
to what
Effect?
John T. Cacioppo
Thomas Gilovich
The Elaboration Likelihood Model is better that
anything Bob Zajonc ever did
Message
Source
Target
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ELM and the Receiver

• Elaboration
• The extent to which a person thinks about the
  arguments in the message
• Sometimes we elaborate, sometimes we do not
• Necessary conditions
• Motivation
• Whether the message is personally relevant
• Ability
• Distraction, etc.

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Representative research on ELM

• Participants read an essay with 8 arguments in
  favor of a comp exam
• Strong or weak
• Next year or ten years
• High school class or Carnegie Commission

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Results
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Source Characteristics

• Who delivers the messages can important
• Attractiveness
• Credibility
• Sleeper effect
• When a message from an unreliable source
  initially exerts little influence but later
  causes attitudes to shift
• Oppenheimer vs. Pravda

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Message Characteristics

• Is the message clear?
• Are the conclusions of the argument implicit or
  explicit?
• Does it refute the other position?
• Is the message in the sources self-interest?
• Is the information vivid?
• Identifiable victim effect
• This is Johnny

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Receiver Characteristics

• Characteristics of the person who receives the
  message, such as sage, mood, and motivation to
  attend to the message
• Need for cognition
• Mood
• Age

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Resistance to Persuasion

• Attentional Biases
• Selective attention
• Selective evaluation

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Resistance to Persuasion

• Previous Commitments
• Public statements make attitudes more stable
• Thought polarization hypothesis
• Extended thought produces more extreme,
  entrenched attitudes
• Similar to group persuasive arguments

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Resistance to Persuasion

• Knowledge about topic
• Counterargument
• Attitude inoculation
• Small attack will defend against later persuasion
  attempts
• Typical for military

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Evidence for Innoculation
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Fear Appeals

• Often PSAs tell us to do something (or not)
• Often they use fear appeals (scare tactics)
• Do they work?

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Questions?

• Next time Attitudes Behavior consistent or
  inconsistent?