Jim West/Alamy
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Persuasion
 Process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors
 Persuasion is a process that can be aimed to induce positive changes (such as toward healthier life style) or negative (such as the Nazi propaganda machine, described at the beginning of the chapter)
 The topic of persuasion was studied by Yale professor
Carl Hovland during World War II (1939-1945) in order to boost soldiers’ morale
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 The Communicator: Who delivers the message and what are his/her successful attributes?
 The Content of the message: For example, emotions vs. reason; the impact of raising fear; Primacy vs.
Recency
 The Channel of communication
 The Audience to who to message is conveyed

What Paths Lead to Persuasion?
 Central Route
 Occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts
 Peripheral Route
 Occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker’s attractiveness
 Focuses on cues that trigger automatic acceptance without much thinking
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What Paths Lead to Persuasion?
 Different Paths for Different Purposes
 Peripheral route
 Superficial and temporary attitude change
 Central route
 More durable and more likely to influence behavior
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Central and Peripheral
Routes to Persuasion
The Hurdles of the Persuasion Process
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What Are the Elements of
Persuasion?
 Who Says? The Communicator
 Credibility
 Believability
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Sleeper effect
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Delayed impact of a message that occurs when an initially discounted message becomes effective, as we remember the message but forget the reason for discounting it
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What Are the Elements of
Persuasion?
 Who Says? The Communicator
 Credibility
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Perceived expertise: begin by saying things the audience agrees with
Introduce someone who is knowledgeable on the topic
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Speaking Style: Speak confidently and fluently
Perceived trustworthiness
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Eye contact
The Communicator does not appear to try to persuade
Arguing against own self-interest
Speak quickly; the audience is less likely to evoke counterarguments
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What Are the Elements of
Persuasion?
 Who Says? The Communicator
 Attractiveness and Liking
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Physical attractiveness: There is an elements of being esthetically- rewarded; it pleases us to view something that or someone who is physically-appealing
Similarity: We tend to like people who resemble us (ads that had youth appealing tom other youth in an anti-smoking campaign were quite effective)
People who act as we do, mimicking our posture, are more influential in their persuasive attempts
People are more likely to responds to a message that comes from someone from their group.
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 When the choice concerns matters of personal value, taste, or way of life, similar communicators have more influence (e.g. in commercials who show people like us who bought a household item)
 On matter of judgment of facts, e.g. which fact is true, a dissimilar person may be more influential in attempts persuade

What Are the Elements of
Persuasion?
 What Is Said? The Message Content
 Reason versus Emotion:
 Is logical message more persuasive, or one that arouses emotion?
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Effect of good feelings
Effect of arousing fear
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 When soliciting donations to fight world hunger, should the message rely on statistics (logic) or on a picture of one starving child (emotion)?
 It depends on the audience; well-educated, analytical people respond to rational appeals
 Most audiences are uninvolved and are more likely to respond to an emotional message
 When people’s initial attitudes are formed via emotion they are more likely to respond to emotional messages

 Messages become more persuasive through associations with good feelings
 Subjects were more likely to be affected by a message if allowed to eat and drink while listening to it
 People who are in a good mood view the world more positively; they also make faster, more impulsive decisions and rely more on peripheral cues
 Unhappy people ruminate more and are less lilkely to be affected by weak arguments

 In general messages can be effective by arousing fear
 Including picture of the hazards of smoking on each pack of cigarettes affected smokers
 How much fear is effective? In general, the more frightened, the more people react in the direction of the message
 Fear-framed messages work better when trying to prevent a bad outcome than trying to promote bad outcomes (see textbook for examples)
Aronson claims that when fears relates to a pleasurable activity the response might be denial

What Are the Elements of
Persuasion?
 What Is Said? The Message Content
• Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon
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Tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later with a larger request
 Low-ball technique
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Tactic for getting people to agree to something. People who agree to an initial request will often still comply when the requester ups the ante
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Used by some car dealers
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What Are the Elements of
Persuasion?
 What Is Said? The Message Content
 One-sided versus two-sided appeals
 Which one is more effective?
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Depends on whether the audience already agrees with the message; if the audience is unaware of opposing arguments, it is unlikely later to consider the opposition
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What Are the Elements of
Persuasion?
 What Is Said? The Message Content
 Primacy versus recency
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Primacy effect
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Other things being equal, information presented first usually has the most influence
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Recency effect
Information presented last sometimes has the most influence.
Recency effects are less common than primacy effects
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What Are the Elements of
Persuasion?
 How Is It Said? The Channel of Communication
 Active experience or passive reception?
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Active experience strengthens attitudes
Repetition and rhyming of a statement serves to increase its fluency and believability
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What Are the Elements of
Persuasion?
 How Is It Said? The Channel of Communication
 Personal versus media influence
 Media influence: The two-step flow
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Process by which media influence often occurs through opinion leaders, who in turn influence others
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What Are the Elements of
Persuasion?
 How Is It Said? The Channel of Communication
 Personal versus media influence
 Comparing media
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The more lifelike the medium, the more persuasive its message
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What Are the Elements of
Persuasion?
 To Whom Is It Said? The Audience
 How old are they?
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Life cycle explanation
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Attitudes change as people grow older
Generational explanation
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Attitudes do not change; older people largely hold onto the attitudes they adopted when they were young
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What Are the Elements of
Persuasion?
 To Whom Is It Said? The Audience
 What are they thinking?
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Forewarned is forearmed—If you care enough to counterargue
Distraction disarms counterarguing
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Words can promote candidate/product
Visual images keep us occupied so we don’t analyze the words
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What Are the Elements of
Persuasion?
 To Whom Is It Said? The Audience
 What are they thinking?
 Uninvolved audiences use peripheral cues
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Ways to stimulate people’s thinking
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Use rhetorical questions
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Present multiple speakers
Make people feel responsible
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Repeat the message
Get people’s undistracted attention
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How Can Persuasion Be Resisted?
 Strengthening Personal Commitment
 Challenging beliefs
 Developing counterarguments
 Attitude inoculation
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Exposing people to weak attacks upon their attitudes so that when stronger attacks come, they will have refutations available
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How Can Persuasion Be Resisted?
 Real-Life Applications: Inoculation Programs
 Inoculating children against:
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Peer pressure to smoke
The influence of advertising
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How Can Persuasion Be Resisted?
 Prepare others to counter persuasive appeals
 An ineffective appeal can be worse than none
 A way to strengthen existing attitudes is to weakly challenge them
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