10/26/2021

Chapter 8

TOPIC OUTLINE

▪ What is persuasion?
➢ Types of appeal in persuasion

▪ What paths lead to persuasion?

➢ Routes to persuasion

▪ What are the elements of persuasion?

▪ Obedience to Authority

▪ How can persuasion be resisted?

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PERSUASION

▪ A process by which a message induces change in

beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors.

▪ act of persuading or seeking to persuade; state or

fact of being persuaded or convinced

TYPES OF APPEAL IN PERSUASION

People can convince or persuade others through:

1. Logical arguments – argument that is based
on facts, statistics and research or expert
opinion

2. Emotional arguments – getting an emotional

response is another way to convince

3. Moral arguments – appealing to people’s

morals; appealing to the people to do the right
thing (the right thing is to believe the
argument given by another person)

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ROUTES TO PERSUASION

Different routes for different purposes

▪ Peripheral route
➢ superficial and temporary attitude change
▪ Central route
➢ more durable and more likely to influence
behavior

ROUTES TO PERSUASION

1. Central route
▪ occurs when interested people focus on the
arguments and respond with favorable thoughts
▪ It is effective when:
✓ people find message personally relevant and
involving
✓ people are high in the need for cognition
✓ people are in a neutral or mildly negative mood
✓ communicator speaks at normal speed

Eg. After hearing a political debate, you may decide to vote

for a candidate because you found the candidate’s views
and arguments very convincing.

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ROUTES TO PERSUASION

2. 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
▪ It is effective when:
✓ people find message irrelevant and non-involving
✓ people are low in need for cognition
✓ people are in a positive mood
✓ communicator speaks rapidly

Eg. After reading a political debate, you may decide to vote

for a candidate because you like the sound of the persons
voice, or the person went to the same university as you did.

ELEMENTS OF PERSUASION

1. The Communicator (Who says?)

The person who sends a communication.

2. The Message (What is said?)

The content of a piece of communication.

3. The Channel of Communication (How it is said?)

The medium used to send the message.

4. The Audience (To whom is it said?

The target of a persuasive message.

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ELEMENTS OF PERSUASION

1. The Communicator (Who says?)

▪ Credibility
➢ expertise and trustworthiness influences attitude change
➢ effects are short-lived, decaying after a month or so
➢ credible source forgotten and dissociated from the message
➢ message produced by non-credible source may become
more persuasive over time

▪ Attractiveness
➢ arguments are more persuasive when they come from
beautiful people
➢ liking promotes attention to the source’s arguments (i.e.
central route processing)
➢ triggers positive associations when we see the product alter
(i.e. peripheral route processing)

ELEMENTS OF PERSUASION

2. The Message (What is said?)

▪ Persuasive communications differ dramatically in
their content.
a. detail and complexity (simple vs. complex arguments)
b. strength of presentation (strong vs. weak arguments)
c. balance of presentation (one sided or two sided)

▪ discrepancy
➢ depends on the communicator’s credibility

▪ one-sided versus two-sided appeals

❖ Which one is more effective?
➢ One-sided – emphasize only those facts that explicitly
support the position advocated by the source
➢ Two-sided – presents not only the position advocated by
the source but also opposing viewpoints

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ELEMENTS OF PERSUASION

2. The Message (What is said?)

▪ Primacy versus recency
❖ Primacy effect – information presented first usually has the
most influence
❖ Recency effect – information presented last sometimes has
the most influence. Recency effects are less common than
primacy effects

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ELEMENTS OF PERSUASION

3. The Channel of Communication (How is it said?)

▪ Active experience or passive reception?
➢ active experience strengthens attitudes
➢ repetition and rhyming of a statement serves to increase its
fluency and believability

▪ Personal vs. media influence

❖ Media influence: The two-step flow communication
➢ process by which media influence often occurs through
opinion leaders, who in turn influence others
❖ Comparing media
➢ The more lifelike the medium, the more persuasive its
message.

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ELEMENTS OF PERSUASION

4. The Audience (To whom is it said?)

▪ How old are they?
❖ According to life cycle explanation:
➢ Attitudes change as people grow older.
❖ According to generational explanation
➢ Attitudes do not change; older people largely hold onto
the attitudes they adopted when they were young.

▪ What are they thinking?

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OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY

▪ AUTHORITY
➢ refers to the capacity of one member to issue orders to
others – that is, to direct or regulate the behavior of other
members by invoking rights that are vested in his or her
role.

▪ Milgram Experiment
➢ 40 male volunteers
➢ Phony “shock generator”
➢ 30 switches
➢ 30 volts up to 450 volts

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The hoax subject (“learner”) The real subject (“teacher”)

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Whenever a participant (teacher) expressed concern or

dismay about the procedure, the experimenter urged him to
persist by telling:

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OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY

▪ Results of Milgram’s experiment:

➢ About two-thirds of participants (teachers) ended up
delivering the maximum 450 volt shock.
➢ All the volunteers continued to at least 300 volts.
➢ Despite the tortured reaction of the confederate (learner),
most participants (teacher) followed the experimenter’s
orders.

▪ Factors affecting obedience to authority

➢ Milgram’s show that obedience was highest when the
person giving the orders was nearby and was perceived as
an authority figure, especially if they were from a
prestigious institution.

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Inoculation
Forewarning
Reactance

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HOW CAN PERSUASION BE RESISTED?

▪ Inoculation
➢ Medical inoculations work by giving you a little of the
disease so that your body can get used to it and fend off a
full attack in the future. Psychological inoculations against
persuasion work the same way.
➢ When people have already been prepared with counter-
arguments, they find it easier to fend of persuasion
attempts.
❖ When persuading: avoid the ‘usual’ arguments in your
persuasion attempt, instead, use a new angle they haven’t
thought about before.
❖ When resisting persuasion: expose yourself to different
types of arguments and counter-arguments you will likely
face. When you know what’s coming it’s easier to defend
yourself psychologically. Look for indirect persuasion
attempts: perhaps it’s the same old argument made in a
slightly different way.

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HOW CAN PERSUASION BE RESISTED?

▪ Forewarning
➢ It is simply warning people that they are about to be
exposed to persuasion attempt.
➢ When we can see the persuasion attempt coming, it’s
much easier to marshal our defenses.

❖ When persuading: don’t signal your attempt in advance. Try

to divert attention from the persuasion attempt by hiding it
within an apparently harmless message. Emphasize how you
are ‘just talking’ or ‘only discussing’ something.

❖ When resisting persuasion: try to spot persuasion

attempts that are wrapped up in social pressure or as
entertainment

E.g. “A little won’t hurt. Come on, we’re all doing it!”
"Find out more about [insert politician here]’s secret love
child! Tonight on [insert TV network here]”.

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HOW CAN PERSUASION BE RESISTED?

▪ Reactance
➢ It refers to the negative reaction people have to someone
else telling them what to think or do.
➢ Reactance is resistance to the influence attempt itself.
➢ People don’t like being told what to do or having their
freedom restricted. It can even lead to a ‘boomerang
effect’ where telling people not to do something makes
them want to do it more.

❖ When persuading: avoid restricting people’s freedom;

instead make them feel they have options and room for
maneuver and this can work to your advantage

❖ When resisting persuasion: think about whether the

persuasion attempt is restricting your freedom. If it is, then
should you go along with it? Alternatively, is the person
emphasizing how free you are in order to persuade you?

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