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Thanks to the pervasiveness of television and other
mass media, it is possible to reach millions of viewers
with a single message that can have strong intended
or unintended effects
The Day After (1983): a made-for-TV movie about the
aftermath of a nuclear attack
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More than 40 million viewers watched
After the movie aired, even those who did not watch it
became more frightened of nuclear war, thought nuclear
war was more likely, and thought survival as less positive
So just 2 hours of TV can have a major impact on individual
Americans, which can influence our political lives as well
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Television can also unintentionally have a very
negative impact:
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After Cry Rape was aired depicting the struggles of a young
rape victim who chose to press charges against her attacker,
there was a sharp decline in the number of rapes reported
to police
Thus, even when not intentional, the media can have
a strong influence, for good or bad
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Sometimes the influence of media is subtle and
unintentional – for example, what television news chooses
to broadcast can be shaped according to what is most
entertaining; however, this can really impact the way
viewers understand the world
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We think of the news as objective and not as trying to
convince us of something
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However, it often exerts a powerful influence on our
opinions by choosing which events to cover, how much
time to give them, and whether they are portrayed in a
particular light
The news does not provide a balanced view of what is
going on – often good news or even news that is less sexy
but has pervasive impact on our daily life is not discussed!
Other issues are discussed so frequently that they seem
more common than they actually are, and the world seems
like a more dangerous place
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How does our exposure to mass media shape our
attitudes and behavior?
May make us less likely to visit certain areas that we think
are violent (the “bad” neighborhoods in the city)
 May influence our attitudes about other nations
 May affect our voting decisions
 May cause people actually to behave more violently
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 Watching aggression on TV is associated with more violent
behavior – for example, repeated broadcasting of the collapse
of the Twin Towers and repetition of the slogan, “The War on
Terror,” contributed to the arousal of intense emotions in
viewers and reduced the possibility of any real debate
regarding going to war against Iraq
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Emotional contagion is the rapid transmission of emotions or
behaviors through a crowd
Examples of emotional contagion:
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In 1982, several people in Chicago died after taking Tylenol laced with
cyanide
 After this was covered by the news, similar poisonings were reported all
over the US, but many of the suspected “copycat” poisonings were actually
false alarms
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Copycat suicides
 The more coverage devoted by major TV networks to suicide, the greater the
subsequent increase in suicides (Phillips, 1986, 1989, 1990, 1992)
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Sometimes the coverage can be more newsworthy and influential
than the event itself
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Beirut Hostage Crisis in 1985
 The media may have prolonged the ordeal by providing free publicity for the
Shiite cause
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It can be difficult to tell the difference between
education and propaganda
According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the
English Language:
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Propaganda is “the systematic propagation of a given
doctrine”
Education is “the act of imparting knowledge or skill”
Whether we regard a particular course of instruction
as educational or propagandistic depends on our
values
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For example, teaching creationism in schools is seen by
some as education and by others as propaganda
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Persuasion is the process by which attitudes are
changed (Brehm et al., 2002)
There are two ways to persuade people according to
the Elaboration Likelihood Model ~
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The Central Route: when people think critically about the
contents of the message and are influenced by the strength
and quality of the message
The Peripheral Route: when people do not think critically
about the contents of a message but instead focus on other
cues
The Central Route:
 Involves weighing arguments, considering relevant
facts/figures, thinking about the issues in a systematic fashion,
and coming to a decision
 When we take this route, we are persuaded by the content of
the message
 For example, in Obama’s State of the Union Address, he
attempted to rationally persuade Americans to support his
policies
 This is most effective when:
 The receiver cares about the issue
 The receiver is able to think about the message
 There are compelling arguments
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The Peripheral Route:
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Involves responding to simple, often irrelevant (peripheral)
cues that suggest the rightness, wrongness, or
attractiveness of an argument without giving it much
thought
This is when you are persuaded in a manner that is not
based on content
Peripheral communication strategies include:
 Associating the advocated position with other positive things
(e.g., money, food, sex), using an expert appeal, contrasting it
to other terrible options
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These strategies are most useful when:
 The receiver is unmotivated or unable to listen to the message
 The available arguments are weak
WHICH ROUTE TO PERSUASION ARE THE CANDIDATES
TRYING TO USE IN EACH PICTURE?
WHICH ROUTE TO PERSUASION ARE THE CANDIDATES
TRYING TO USE IN EACH PICTURE?
The Peripheral Route
The Central Route
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Few persuasive appeals are purely
central or peripheral
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For example, the Mac vs. PC ads use
both techniques
Peripheral route appeals can be
surprisingly subtle
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A study showed that college students
were more persuaded when
unfamiliar ideas were presented in
rhyme than in regular speech
(McGlone et al., 2000)
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Factor 1: Source of the communication (who says it)
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Our opinions are influenced more by communicators who
are expert and trustworthy because they have credibility
For example, which salesman would you be more likely to
buy from??
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Source of the communication, cont.
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Whether we believe a source is credible is somewhat
subjective – people can differ on this
 For example, I find a scientist credible enough to persuade me
that evolution is true. However, others find conservative
clergy more credible, so they are persuaded more by
creationism.
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Peripheral attributes of the communicator may play a role
 In the last slide, the first salesman was more credible because
he was wearing a suit – which is a peripheral trait
 Studies have shown that if a person is racially prejudiced, he or
she will find African-Americans less persuasive than
Caucasians, even if the African-American says the exact same
thing, and race has nothing to do with what they are
discussing
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A communicator can increase trustworthiness and
effectiveness by:
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Arguing against his or her own self-interest
 For example, if a convicted felon argued that the justice system
was too lenient, that would be more convincing than if he or
she argued it was too harsh
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Not seeming as though he or she is trying to influence our
opinion
 For example, if you overhear a stock broker talking highly
about a certain stock, it is more persuasive than if he or she
directly tries to talk us into it
Our opinions are also influenced
by the attractiveness and likability
of the communicator (regardless of
their expertise or trustworthiness)
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For example, the Kardashian credit
card got a lot of interest (despite the Kardashian’s lack of
banking expertise!) until it became widely known that they
were charging outrageous interest fees
Studies have shown that beautiful women can have a major
impact on opinions on a topic irrelevant to her beauty
(Mills & Aronson, 1965) – perhaps this explains some of
Sarah Palin’s appeal?
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Factor 2: the nature of the communication – it matters
how we say things
Appeals that are primarily emotional tend to be more
effective than primarily informational/rational appeals
 Appeals involving fear are also highly effective
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 Leventhal (1970) found that the more frightened a person is by
a communication, the more likely he or she is to take positive
preventative action – this is one reason that countries who put
graphic images of cancer-ridden lungs on cigarette packages
have lower smoking rates
But this can backfire – linking something
pleasurable (like sex) with something
frightening (like AIDS) can cause the person
to avoid thinking of the negative
consequences altogether!
 Messages that arouse fear and are
accompanied by specific instructions about
what to do are more effective in changing
behavior than those without instructions
(Leventhal, 1970)
 In this case, the person will just convince him
or herself that the dangers contained in the
message were overstated (Uberman &
Chaiken, 1992)
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Fear-based appeals that are vague in terms
of the source of danger or recommendations
for action are effective only in raising
anxiety levels but not in producing action
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For example, raising the terrorist threat level
makes people nervous, but they don’t have
anything concrete they can do about it!
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People tend to be more persuaded by personal examples
that are vivid than by logical statistical arguments
(Nisbett et al., 1976)
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For example, even though Toyotas tend to be very reliable cars,
after they were widely publicized for having the gas pedal stick
and creating very frightening situations, their sales went down
even after this problem was fixed.
The more vivid the example, the greater the persuasive
power
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In one study, homeowners were 4x more likely to buy weatherstripping (in order to improve the energy efficiency of their
homes) when they were told that if all of the cracks around their
doors were added up, they would equal a hole the size of a
basketball, than if all of the cracks were merely pointed out
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One-sided arguments work better when the receiver
is already predisposed to believe the communicator’s
argument
Two-sided arguments seem to work better when the
receiver is:
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Well-informed: they may know some counter-arguments
and you would lose credibility if you didn’t address them
Initially leaning in the opposite direction: then there is
more of a chance to convince them!
Politicians capitalize on this by presenting one-sided
arguments when talking to the party faithful and
two-sided arguments when talking to audiences of
mixed loyalties
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The order in which arguments are presented also
matters
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The primacy effect: people tend to remember and be most
persuaded by the first argument presented if several are
presented in a row
The recency effect: however, if many arguments are
presented, people also could be most persuaded by the last
argument presented – it was the one they heard most
recently; thus, they may remember it best
Arguments presented in the middle tend to be least
memorable
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The amount of discrepancy between the opinion of
the audience and that of the communicator also
matters
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Research has been mixed on this –
Some research shows that the more different the opinions
are between the communicator and the audience, the more
the opinions will change (Zimbardo, 1960)
However, other research shows a more complex
relationship – if the difference in opinion is too large, the
audience will discount the argument, and they won’t
change their opinion. If the difference is too small, there
also will be little opinion change. But if there is a moderate
difference in opinions, change is most likely (Hoveland,
Harvey, & Sherif, 1957)
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However, the communicator’s credibility also
matters
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If there is a large discrepancy between the beliefs of the
communicator and audience and the communicator’s
credibility is high, then this will be the most persuasive
But if the communicator’s credibility is low and there’s a
large discrepancy, the audience will question his or her
wisdom and be less likely to be influenced
 In this case, the moderate discrepancy between communicator
and audience is the most persuasive condition
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The audience also matters!
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Individuals with low self-esteem are more easily influenced
than those with high self esteem
 If people don’t like themselves, they don’t place a premium on
their own ideas, so they are more likely to believe others
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Audience members are more receptive to a communication
if:
 They are not hungry; they are in a good mood; they have had
their self-esteem boosted recently
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Audience members are less receptive to a communication if:
 They are forewarned that an attempt will be made to persuade
them; their sense of freedom is threatened (then we react by
trying to demonstrate our independence and resist being
persuaded)
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How can we help people resist attempts to influence
them?
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The Inoculation Effect (McGuire et al., 1961): by initially
exposing people to small doses of the argument against
their position, they become less likely to change their
opinion when others try to persuade them
 This is because we become motivated to defend our beliefs and
because we get practice defending our beliefs and more fully
think through why we hold them
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Changing others’ opinions is actually not so easy!
As an individual’s confidence weakens, he or she becomes less
likely to listen to arguments against their beliefs (Canon, 1964)
 The people whom you want to convince are least likely to expose
themselves to that type of communication – if I am a staunch
Democrat, I’m probably not tuning in to Rush Limbaugh every
day!
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People are most susceptible to influence when they are
unaware that we are trying to influence them; less
explicit attempts at persuasion are most effective but
may be unethical
Most of our beliefs develop gradually through repeated
contacts with people and information over time
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Opinion vs. Attitude:
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Opinion: what a person believes to be factually true
 These are rational and logical
 These may be changed by evidence to the contrary
 For example, it is my opinion that 16 Handles is the best frozen
yogurt shop, but I could be persuaded by a strong argument for
another shop and don’t have strong feelings about 16 Handles
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Attitude: an opinion that includes an evaluative and emotional
component
 Usually there will be a feeling of strong like or dislike associated with
an attitude
 These are difficult to change
 For example, I have a strong attitude that my daughter is adorable –
no rational argument could change that belief
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Human thinking is not always (or usually) logical;
people have many motivations to resist change that are
often not conscious!