Persuasion: Two Theories

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Persuasion Two Theories

• Dissonance and Elaboration Likelihood Model

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Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• Focus dissonance and response strategies
• Assumes we want to be consistent
• Actions w/attitudes, w/beliefs, w/values
• Internally in our own minds
• Externally as perceived by others
• Experience inconsistencies ? feel dissonance
• psychological discomfort, unease, tension
• like jarring music

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Levels of Dissonance

• Level of dissonance can vary
• Greater the discrepancy, more dissonance
• More important the issue, more dissonance
• More dissonant thoughts, more dissonance
• We seek to prevent/reduce/eliminate dissonance
• The more dissonance, the more motivation to deal
  with it
• Several strategies for dealing with dissonance

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Dealing with Dissonance

• Avoidance (attempt to prevent)
• selective exposure
• selective attention to what were exposed to
• selective interpretation of what we attend to
• selective retention of what weve interpreted
• Rationalizations (attempt to reduce)
• devalue initial attitude (persuasion)
• post-decision reassurance (persuasion)
• Change attitude/behavior! (elimination)

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Dissonance as Persuasion Tool

• Minimal Reward Approach
• Goal Get other to do something s/he doesnt want
  to do
• Large or small incentive?
• Intuition suggests larger incentive needed
• DT Smaller incentive more effective
• Large reward ? NO DISSONANCE
• Im doing it for the money, its still boring!
  (no attitude change)
• Actions end when incentive ends

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Dissonance as Persuasion Tool

• Trivial reward ? DISSONANCE
• Trivial incentive provides no motivation
• Rationalization needed to reduce dissonance of
  doing boring task
• This isnt so boring after all (which is why Im
  doing it for so little)! (attitude change)
• Attitude can endure after incentive gone
• Can generate the most lasting attitude change

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Elaboration Likelihood Model

• What types of messages are persuasive?
• Lots of evidence? Lots of arguments
• Emotional appeals? Soft arguments?
• Different processes import for persuasion?
• Sometimes persuasion weak, temporary
• Sometimes persuasion strong, enduring
• Sometimes persuasion boomerangs
• ELM We process persuasive mssgs differently
• Sometimes we elaborate
• Sometimes were on autopilot
• Difference may account for different outcomes

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Routes to Persuasion

• Peripheral Route Engaged when
• Low personal involvement
• Target unable to process messages
• Neutral arguments
• Prompts use of cognitive shortcuts
• Reciprocation, consistency, social proof, liking,
  authority, scarcity
• Leads to weak, temporary persuasion

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Routes to Persuasion

• Central Route Engaged when...
• High personal involvement (affect me?)
• Target able to process messages
• Leads to elaboration of arguments
• Close examination of rationale
• Close examination of evidence
• Only way to strong, enduring persuasion!
• Not necessarily in preferred direction
• Can be positive or negative persuasion

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Key to Route Involvement

• If issue is personally involving
• and strong arguments, recipient will ...
• elaborate supportive messages, which
• leads to positive, enduring persuasion
• If issue is personally involving
• and weak arguments, recipient will ...
• counterargue against message, which
• leads to negative, enduring persuasion (also
  known as a boomerang effect)

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