Persuasion

Fall 2023
Turana A. Aliyeva, MA,
MSW, PhD
Boys and girls should play all sports
in mixed teams.
 Persuasion and Attitude change

• Weak connections between attitude & behavior

• Cognitive dissonance research

• Attitude change & the psychology of persuasion

(more than one thousands studies done)
 Questions
 What leads to effective, long-lasting attitude change?

What factors affect persuasion?

 How can we most effectively “educate” others?

 What could you do to make yourself and your message

persuasive?

 If you are wary of being influenced, to what tactics

should you be alert?
 Persuasion

Persuasion is everywhere
Politics
Marketing
Parenting
Negotiation
Courtroom decision, etc.
Input factors & Output
 The elements of persuasion

(1)The communicator
(2)The message
(3)How the message is
communicated
(4)The audience
Who says what, by what
method, to whom?
 The communicator (who says?)

Credibility (reliability of the source) &

the sleeper effect

 Attractiveness (physical
attractiveness & similarity)
 The message content (what is
said?)
 Is a logical message more persuasive – or one
that arouses emotion?
 Is advocating a position only slightly discrepant
from the listeners’ existing opinions or an
extreme point of view will be more persuasive?
 Should the message express your side only, or
should it acknowledge the opposing views?
 Is there an advantage to going first or last?
 Question

Reason is more influential than emotion

when trying to persuade people

True or False?
 Question

lse
Reason is moreainfluential than
F
emotion when trying to persuade
people

True or False?
 The message content (what is
said?)
 Well-educated or analytical people are responsive to
rational appeals

 Thoughtful, involved audiences often travel the central

route

 Uninterested audiences more often travel the

peripheral route

 Uninterested people are more affected by their liking of

the communicator
 Question

Good feelings enhance persuasion

True or False
 The audience (to whom is it said?)

 Age
 Thoughtfulness

 Generational explanation: attitudes do not

change; older people largely hold onto the
attitudes they adopted when they were young
If you want to be persuasive, is it
good to …

1.Discuss counter-arguments to your

position?
2.Use a central (fact-filled) or peripheral
route to persuasion?
3.Scare the receiver with a fear-based
appeal?
 Discuss counter-arguments to
your position
It’s better to discuss counter-arguments:
When the counter-arguments are
salient
When the receiver is highly intelligent
or opposed to your position

 In such cases, it’s best to

present a two-sided appeal
 Discuss counter-arguments to your
position?

Counter-arguments can also build

resistance
If you mildly criticize the position people
hold, it’s like immunizing them with a
low-dose vaccine
This technique is known as “attitude inoculation”
 In a two-sided appeal, you raise counter-arguments and then explain why they’re not
convincing, whereas in attitude inoculation, the receiver generates reasons why the
objection isn’t persuasive.
 Central or peripheral route to
persuasion?
Central : Based on facts, statistics,
and arguments. Works best when receiver
is highly involved

Peripheral : Uses beautiful music, idyllic settings,

attractive models, or other incidental
cues
Works better when receiver isn’t
too involved or critical
 The two routes
In choosing tactics, you must first decide:

 Should you focus mostly on building strong central

arguments?

 Or should you make your message appealing by

associating it with favorable peripheral cues, such as sex
appeal?
Central & peripheral routes
Which route was used in this video?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Noo0lzJILaM
 Scare receivers with a fear appeal?

 Fear appeals can be very effective as long as you give people

specific steps they can take to avoid whatever the threat is
 If you just scare people without
saying how to avoid the threat,
fear appeals can backfire and
lead to denial of the threat
 In the case of political ads, the action to take is clear: vote for
the candidate, or else!
Principles of compliance (Robert
Cialdini)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFdCzN7RYbw&t=4s
 The Psychology of Color

McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC (red color – to stimulate hunger)

 The Psychology of Color

Chanel, Prada, Michael Kors (black, white, silver and gold

- to enhance the feeling of sophistication)
 REFERENCES

Myers, D.G. (2011). Exploring Social

Psychology. (6th ed). McGraw-Hill
Higher Education. (Module 15)
QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS,
QUESTIONS