Emotional and Non-Emotional Persuasion

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Emotional and Non-Emotional Persuasion

• Maria Miceli Fiorella de Rosis Isabella
  Poggi
• ISTC-CNR, Roma University of Bari
  University Roma Tre
• Humaine - WP8 Workshop
• Trento, November 17-18, 2005

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Persuasion

• Persuasion is a case of Social influence
• Social influence (Conte Castelfranchi 1995)
  the fact that P increases the likeliness for R to
  have / not to have the goal p
• Goal of social influence P has the goal that R
  has the goal p
• In Persuasion, Persuader P has the goal that
  Recipient R has the goal p
• Ex. P has the goal that R has the goal to vote P
  for president

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Possible Criteria for a Definition of Persuasion

• Success Persuading R may imply succeeding or not
  in influencing R but we are interested in Ps
  persuasive strategies, independent of their
  effects thus, by persuasion we mean a persuasive
  intention and attempt.
• Ps intentional stance P should want that R has
  the goal p Ps accidental influencing R is
  outside our notion of persuasion. (R does what P
  wants, but just because he accidentally decides
  to do what P is doing)
• Intended change of Rs mental state For a
  persuasive attempt to occur, P should
  intentionally try to change Rs mental attitudes.
  (Ex. Persuading you to get out of the room vs.
  kicking you out)
• Communication P should try to change Rs
  attitudes through communication (rather than,
  say, the mere creation of physical conditions).
  (Ex., Saying Get out of the room instead of
  starting smoking to have him get out)
• Non-Coercion P should use communication to
  change Rs mental attitudes in a non-coercive
  way R should intend to pursue goal p freely,
  i.e., independent of Ps exercising his power
  over R at least, R should intend p not only
  because P wants her to do so. (your purse or
  your life is not persuasion)
• Manipulation P may act either in good faith or
  not 1) both in his own interest and in the
  interest of R 2) both deceiving and not
  deceiving R. Persuasion in our sense can be both
  manipulative and non-manipulative persuasion.

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Persuasion in general

• Ps intention to modify, through communication,
  Rs beliefs or their strength, as a means for Ps
  goal to have R freely generate, activate, or
  increase the strength of, a certain goal, and, as
  a consequence, to produce an intention
  instrumental to it (and possibly to have R pursue
  this intention).
• Example

Generation of Rs intention To lose weight
Activation/generation/increased value of Rs
goal Being in good health
Change of Rs beliefs (about her cholesterol
level/her need to lose weight)
Ps Communication Your cholesterol level is
high maybe you are overweight
Ps MIND
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Goal hooking

• In order to have R intend goal p, P must hook
  goal p to some goal q that P assumes R already
  has of her own
• Hook R believes that there is a
  means end link between goal p and goal q

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The goals of Persuasion (1)

• P has the goal w that R intend p
• P assumes that R has the goal q to be thin and
  pretty
• If P manages to convince R that p (to go on a
  diet) is a means to q (to be thin and pretty),
  then R will intend goal p

Rs intention p To go on a diet
Rs goal q Being thin and pretty
Rs beliefs (about her look)
Ps Communication You are a bit too overweight
to be pretty
Ps goal w R goes on a diet
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The goals of Persuasion (2)

• P has the goal w that R is in good health
• P assumes that R has the goal q to be thin and
  pretty
• If P manages to convince R that p (to go on a
  diet) is a means to q (being thin and pretty),
  then R will intend goal p

Rs intention p To go on a diet
Rs goal q Being thin and pretty
Rs beliefs (about her look)
Ps Communication You are a bit too overweight
to be pretty
Ps goal w R is in good health
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The goals of Persuasion (3)

• P has the goal w that R intend p
• P assumes that R has the goal q to have freedom
• If P manages to convince R that p (voting for P)
  is a means to q (to have freedom), then R will
  intend goal p

Rs intention p To vote for P
Rs goal q To have freedom
Rs believes about freedom and P
Ps Communication If you want freedom, you must
vote for me
Ps goal w P is elected Premier
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Three links between Emotions and goals

• Emotions monitor and signal the destiny of goals
  they signal the actual or possible achievement or
  thwarting of goals.
  (Ex. Shame signals the thwarting of the
  goal of image or self-image indignation signals
  the thwarting of the goal of equity)
• Emotions generate goals. Once an emotion has
  signalled the achievement or failure of a certain
  goal, usually some goal is generated that is
  generally functional to achieving or avoid
  thwarting that goal (Ex., the emotion of fear
  signals the presence of a possible danger, and
  generates the goal to avoid it)
• ? Persuasion through arousal of emotions
• Emotions become goals. Agents may perform (or
  avoid performing) an action in order (not) to
  feel a certain emotion.
  (Ex. I give
  you a gift to feel the joy of making you happy
  or do my own duty not to feel guilty).
• ? Persuasion through appeal to expected emotions

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Activation vs. Generationof goals

• Goal activation
• Goal generation

• An existing goal is included in the Agents goal
  balance, where its value can be compared to
  other goals, and the goal can be chosen against
  others for possible pursuit (give rise to an
  intention)
• A new regulatory state comes to be represented in
  the Agents mind as a means to some pre-existing
  goal (The means-end relationship may be either
  consciously planned and hence internally
  represented or unaware and external to Rs mind).
  

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Beliefs and Emotions in goal activation and
generation

• A belief can only activate a pre-existing goal,
  which in turn, in interaction with the belief,
  can generate a sub-goal.
• An emotion can directly generate a goal, without
  the Agent necessarily being aware of a means-end
  relationship between that goal and another
  pre-existing goal

• Ex., I learn that tomorrow there will be shortage
  of water. This belief activates my pre-existing
  goal to have water, which generates my goal to
  stock up on water as a means for it.
• Ex. the belief that John is more intelligent than
  I am arouses my envy towards John. This emotion
  may generate the goal that John suffers some
  harm. This goal is functional to my goal of not
  being less than John, but the means-end relation
  is not (necessarily) represented in my mind

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Conditions forgenerating intentions by acting on
Non-emotional goals

R believes that p (going on a diet) is a means
for q (being in good health)
Goal q (being in good health) is active for R
R believes that R can do p (objective possibility
and subjective capacity of going on a diet)
Goal q (being in good health) is a highly
valued goal for R
R intends p (going on a diet)
Your cholesterol level is high a diet would do
to lower it
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Generating intentions by acting on Emotional
goals

R believes that p (going on a diet) is a means
for feeling e
Goal of feeling emotion e (pride) is active for R
R believes that R can do p
To feel emotion e (pride) is a highly valued
goal for R
R intends p (going on a diet)
If you go on a diet, you will be proud of yourself
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Emotional Persuasion

• Emotional persuasion is a sub-case of general
  persuasion.
• Its specificity lies in the means used
• When using an emotional strategy, P tries to
  generate, activate, strengthen Rs goals through
  the medium of either Rs emotions or Rs beliefs
  and goals about her emotions.
• Two possible ways
• Persuasion through arousal of emotions
• Persuasion through appeal to expected emotions

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Persuasion Through Arousal of Emotions

• Ps intention to modify Rs beliefs or their
  strength is a means for Ps super-goal to arouse
  an emotion in R, which in turn is a means for Ps
  further super-goal to generate a goal in R, and
  then an intention instrumental to it.
• Example P says to R How disgustingly fat you
  are! to provoke Rs shame, which should
  generate Rs goal of not losing her face, and
  induce, as a means for it, her intention to go on
  a diet.

Generation of Rs intention p To go on a diet
Generation of Rs goal q Not to lose face
Elicitation of Rs emotion SHAME
Change of Rs beliefs (about her
shape/attractiveness)
Ps message How disgustingly fat you are!
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Persuasion Through Appeal to Expected Emotions

• Ps intention to modify Rs beliefs or their
  strength is a means for Ps super-goal to
  activate or strengthen Rs goal of (not) feeling
  a certain emotion, and to induce in R an
  intention instrumental to this goal.
• Example P says to R If you are kind to John,
  you will not feel guilty to activate Rs goal
  not to feel guilty, in order to induce in R the
  intention to be kind to John as a means for it.

Generation of Rs intention p To be kind to John
Activation of Rs goal q Not to feel guilty
Change of Rs beliefs (about the means-end
relation between being kind and feeling
guilty)
Ps message If you are kind to John, you will
not feel guilty
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Arousal of emotions vs. Appeal to expected
emotions

• Appeal to expected emotions is structurally not
  distinct from any other argument from
  consequences or, in our terms, intention
• generation by acting on pre-existing goals.
  The only difference
• resides in the content of the goal on which
  P acts feeling a certain emotion rather than
  having a certain state of the world true.
  
• Ex. Compare If you go on a diet, you will
  be in good health with
• If you go on a diet, you will be proud of
  yourself.
• Persuasion through arousal of emotions works in a
  very different way the aroused emotion (say,
  shame) can directly produce a
• certain goal (say, to save ones face),
  independent of Rreasoning and planning about
  means-ends relationships.