Persuasion

The necessary art of persuasion

Dr. Mukami Njoroge | 1

Introduction

• Persuasion is neither good nor bad.

• It is a message’s purpose and content that elicit
judgments of good or bad
– Educational-considered good
– Propaganda-considered bad

Dr. Mukami Njoroge | 2

persuasion

• Efforts to change others’ attitudes

through the use of various kinds of
messages.

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• There is a difference between persuasion and coercion,
– persuasion gains influence through use of understanding
message sources and recipients, arguments, data, and
mediums.
– coercion uses manipulation, bribery, incentives and
flattery in order to achieve its goals.

Dr. Mukami Njoroge | 4

What Paths Lead to Persuasion?

• Central Route – (Explicit)

– Occurs when interested people focus on the
arguments and respond with favorable thoughts
• Peripheral Route (implicit)
– 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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• Factors related to:
– Communicator
– Message
– Channel
– Audience

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Persuasion Elements

• The Communicator
– Credibility
• Believability
–Sleeper effect
»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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Communicator
– Credibility
• Perceived expertise
–Knowledgeable
–Speak confidently
• Perceived trustworthiness
–Eye contact
–Arguing against own self-interest
–Speak quickly

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Communicator

– Attractiveness and liking

• Physical attractiveness
• Perceived Similarity
–In values, attitudes, group identification
• Mimicry and attractiveness?

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What Is Said? (Message Content)

– Reason versus emotion (depends on the audience)

– Reason works with more educated, analytical people
• Effect of good feelings
• Effect of arousing fear
–Scare audience
–Saliency is important
–Provide a solution

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The Message itself

Discrepancy
• Depends on the communicator’s credibility
• And the range of the audience’s “acceptability”
– A credible source
• Is more persuasive for a highly discrepant message

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The Message Content
– One-sided versus two-sided appeals
• Which one is more effective?
–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
–If they already oppose it, give both sides
–…Or if they already know the opposing view
–…Or if you know they will hear it
–E.g. now so and so will tell you about it…

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The message content
– Primacy versus recency
• Primacy effect
–Other things being equal, information presented first usually
has the most influence
»E.g. “..intelligent…..to envious” (S. Asch, ‘46)
• Recency effect
–Information presented last sometimes has the most
influence. Recency effects are less common than primacy
effects
–But it works when there is:
»1. sufficient time between for forgetting the first
»2. And the audience commits itself soon after the
second message

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How Is It Said? The Channel of Communication

Face to face/sign/media ad
• Must be:
–Attention getting, understandable, memorable,
compelling
Active experience or passive reception?
• Active experience strengthens attitudes
• Repetition and rhyming of a statement serves to
increase its fluency and believability

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The Channel of Communication
– Personal versus media influence
• Media influence: The two-step flow
–Process by which media influence often occurs
through opinion leaders who, in turn, influence
others
–Media -> Opinion leaders & “trend setters” (the
“influentials”)

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To Whom Is It Said? - The Audience

Age and thoughtfulness

– How old are they?
• Life cycle explanation
–Attitudes change as people grow older
• Generational explanation (more supporting
evidence )
–Attitudes do not change; older people largely
hold onto the attitudes they adopted when they
were young

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The Audience
– What are they thinking? (central route)
• Forewarned is forearmed—If you care
enough to counter argue
–Steal the opponent’s thunder!
• Distraction disarms counter arguing
–Words are used to promote
candidate/product…while
–Visual images keep us occupied so we
don’t analyze the words

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The audience
– What are they thinking?
• Analytical people …need cognition (use central
route)
• Uninvolved audiences use peripheral cues
–Ways to stimulate people’s thinking
»Use rhetorical questions (“can’t you do
anything right?”)
»Present multiple speakers
»Make people feel responsible
»Repeat the message
»Get people’s undistracted attention

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Extreme Persuasion: How Do Cults
Indoctrinate?
• Cult
– “New religious movement”
• In Kenya?
– Group typically characterized by
• Distinctive ritual and beliefs related to its devotion
to a god or a person
• Isolation from the surrounding “evil” culture
• Charismatic leader

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Extreme Persuasion

• Attitudes Follow Behavior (Behavior -> Attitude)

• Voluntarily (perceived free choice)
• Publically
• repeatedly
– Compliance breeds acceptance
• Initiates become active members of the group
– Foot-in-the-door phenomenon
• Gradual induction – one step at a time-
–Jim Jones “People’s Temple” example

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Extreme Persuasion

• Persuasive Elements
– Communicator
• Charisma --How did Jim Jones establish his “credibility?
– Message
• The “one way” to solve your problems…
• Direct appeal, small group discussions, social pressure
– The recruits’ need for approval and to belong
– Audience
• 25 and younger….more malleable attitudes
• Educated, middle class, idealistic
• In crisis

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Extreme Persuasion
• Group Effects
– Social implosion
• Isolation of members with like minded groups
– External ties weaken until the group collapses inward
socially
» Military organizations
» Fraternities and sororities
» Therapeutic communities for recovering drug and
alcohol abusers
– Strong social group norms prevail (conformity, obedience)
» Through need for information or group approval? (S.
Asch)
– Is all group indoctrination bad?

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How Can Persuasion Be Resisted?
• Challenging authority:
– Dogmatic authority v. expert authority
• Strengthening Personal Commitment
– Make a public commitment to your argument
• Challenging beliefs
– A mild challenge (not strong enough to persuade)
–Causes them to become even more committed to
their positon
– Developing counterarguments
• Attitude inoculation
• 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:
• Peer pressure to smoke
–Role playing on how to resist – give them
ammunition
–Elicit a public commitment not to smoke
• The influence of advertising
–Are there two sides to this?
»Harmful v. beneficial
»Can you think of any beneficial uses of ads?

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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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Theories of persuasion

• Theories are reasoned, empirically tested ways

of explaining the world, and can be valuable
tools for understanding the how and why of
persuasion

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Persuasion theories

• Information-Integration theory
• Consistency theories
• Elaboration-Likelihood theory
• Social Judgement theory

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Information-Integration theory

• Accumulation and organization of information

and attitude change
• Valiance – whether information supports or
refutes previous beliefs
• Weight – credibility assigned to the information
• Respected theorist Martin Fishbein

Copyright Cengage © 2011 | 28

Consistency theories

• People prefer consistency and feel threatened

by inconsistency
• Theories
– Cognitive Dissonance (Leon Festinger)
– Attitude beliefs and values (Milton Rokeach)

Copyright Cengage © 2011 | 29

Elaboration Likelihood Model

• The elaboration likelihood model (ELM), created

by Petty and Cacioppo, focuses on receivers of
the message (Reinard, 1988).
– Central route
– Peripheral route

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Elaboration Likelihood theory

• Probability listeners will evaluate arguments

critically
• Respected theorists – Richard Petty and John
Cacioppo
– People use Central Route (elaborate carefully
and critically)
– People use Peripheral Route and decide
quickly

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Social Judgment theory

• People use past experience (internal anchors)

when making judgments
• Ego involvement determines latitude of
acceptance or latitude of rejection of a
message
• Respected theories – Mazafer Sherif

Copyright Cengage © 2011 | 32

• According to the elaboration likelihood model (ELM),
persuasion can occur in one of two ways.
• First, we can be persuaded by systematically processing
the information contained in the persuasive messages
(the central route),
• or second, by use of heuristics or mental one word
shortcuts (the peripheral route).
• Systematic processing occurs when the message is
important to us and we have the cognitive resources
available to think about it carefully.
• Heuristic processing is most likely when the message is
not important to us or we do not have the cognitive
resources (or time) to engage in careful thought

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