Social Influence and Persuasion

7/27/2019 Social Influence and Persuasion

1/10

04.04.2012

1

Starting inter-personal processes

Chapter 8Social Influence and Persuasion

2

Attitudes are changed through various

means:

Mere exposure

Consistency theories

Cognitive dissonance

Balance theory

Persuasion

Can be a:

Big change: positive to negative or negative to positive.

Little change: negative to less negative or positive to more

positive

3

Persuasion: Involves the use of communications to change beliefs,

attitudes and behaviors of others.

Esp. Started with WW2. After the war, Hovland, the director

of the mass communication program in the U.S. Army

started a research program at Yale university and made

persuasion and attitude change one of the central areas in

social

Today especially associated with advertising.


2/10

04.04.2012

2

4

The Yale approach to communication and

persuasion

Investigated conditions necessary for successfulpersuasion

Focused on:

Who is doing the persuading? (communicator, source)

Content of the message (the communication, message)

Who is being persuaded? (audience, recipient)

Who Says what To whom

5

The Yale approach to communication and

persuasion

6

WHO says what to whom: The

communicator/source

Credibility/Expertise

Can induce the greatest amount of change, even with

extreme discrepancy

Trust

Attractiveness / Likeability

Familiarity/ Perceived similarity

Esp. For issues concerning decision (not facts)


3/10

04.04.2012

3

8

Who says WHAT to whom: The message

One or two sided Interacts with the audience characteristics

Repetition

Facts vs. Emotions

Framing the message

Order of presentation (when multiple messages are present)

Medium of communication

Interacts with ease/difficulty of info & audience motivation

9

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

One-sided Two-sided

Initially opposed

Initially agreed

The message

Opinion

change

%

(Hovland et al., 1949)

One-sided or Two-sided? The interaction of initial

opinion with one- versus two-sidedness

Message Repetition

Repetition is effective only when the initial response to

the message or product is neutral or positive

Repetition Familiarity Liking

We need not be aware of the repeated exposure for

repetition to have an effect.

Too much repetition can be harmful


4/10

04.04.2012

4

Emotions

One way is to grab peoples attention by playing to their

emotions.

Fear-arousingcommunications

Emotions as heuristics

12

Can people be scared into changing their

attitudes?

Fear can effectivelypersuade when the target isconvinced that the:

Danger is probable &serious,

Recommendations toavoid the dangers will beeffective, and

Individual cancompetently take therecommended action ---Self-esteem is important

13

A group of smokers who watched a graphic film depicting lung cancer and then read pamphletswith specific instructions about how to quit smoking reduced their smoking significantlymore than people who were shown only the film or only the pamphlet.


5/10

04.04.2012

5

Which of these messages is more effective?

Tobacco warning labels:

Smoking can kill you

Quitting smoking reduces your chances of having heartattack.

Framing messages for preventive behavior

Smoking increases your chances of premature death and illness

(loss-framed message)

Quitting smoking reduces your chances of premature death and

illness (gain-framed message)

Effectiveness depends on various factors, such as the

motivation of the respondent, level of self-efficacy.

Emotions can be used as heuristics

As a signal for how we feel about something.

The heuristic- systematic model: If we feel good, we must

have a positive attitude; if we feel bad, its thumbs down

E.g. Music in stores good mood positive evaluation of

the products. The positive attitude towards products is not because of

the caharcteristics of the products but because ofones

mood

Facts vs. Emotions If an attitude is cognitively

based, try to change itwith rational arguments.

vacuum cleaner: discussesits price, efficiency, andreliability.

If it is affectively based, tryto change it withemotional appeals.

Perfume: associate with

sex, beauty, andyouthfulness,


6/10

04.04.2012

6

Order of presentation

0

5

10

15

20

25

Immediate Three weeks

Time interval

%a

ttitude

change

Expert source

Nonexpert source

A persuasive message is most effective just after

it is presented: The sleeper effect

19

0

5

10

15

20

25

Immediate Three weeks

Time interval

%a

ttitudechange

When the source is reminded...

Expert source

Nonexpert source


7/10

04.04.2012

7

Who says what TO WHOM: The audience

Self-esteem Motivation

Education/ability

Gender

Age

Prior beliefs

Cognitive biases

Individual differences

Mood

Individual Differences

Need for cognition: A personality variable reflecting the extent to which people engage in

and enjoy effortful cognitive activities.

People high in the need for cognition are more likely to form their

attitudes by paying close attention to relevant arguments (i.e., via the

central route), whereas people low in the need for cognition are more

likely to rely on peripheral cues, such as how attractive or credible aspeaker is.

Preference for consistency

And others...

Copyright 2010 Pearson Education. All rights reserved.


8/10

04.04.2012

8

Source Content Target

medium

Credibility

Thrustworthiness

Prestige

Expertness

Attractiveness

Discrepancy

One/Two sided

Emotional/rational

Personality

Self-esteem

Sex

Commitment

Intelligence

Education

Situation reaching

Selective

perception

Group effects

To sum up: Model of persuasive communication

How to persuade

1. Think about an advertisement that has been effective

in drawing your attention.

2. What method(s) was (were) used by the advertisers to

draw your attention?

3. Which was spoken to more by the advertisement

your emotion or your reason?

4. What effect, if any, did the advertisement have in

altering your attitudes or behaviors?

The process of persuasion

The elaboration likelihood model: Assumes that attitude

change in response to persuasive communications can be

mediated by two different modes of information processing:

Central: People elaborate on what they hear, carefully

thninking about and processing the conent of

communication.

Peripheral: People they notice only the surface

characteristics of the message

The probability that a recipient will critically evaluate

arguments (the likelihood of elaboration)i is determined byboth motivation and ability


9/10

04.04.2012

9

Central processing usuallyoccurs for high involvement

productsAn ad using peripheral

cues

Message

Highmotivation

and ability tothink aboutthe message

Lowmotivationor ability tothink aboutthe message

Superficialprocessing, focusedon surface features,

e.g.: communicatorsattractiveness or

number of arguments

Deep processing,focused on the quality

of the message orarguments.

Lastingchange that

resists fadingand

counterattack

Temporarychange that

that issusceptible to

fading andcounterattack

Persuasion

Attempt

Audience

Factors

Processing/elaboration

Approach

Persuasion

Outcome


10/10

04.04.2012

Persuasion may sometimes fail: Resistance

to persuasion

Reactance:when people feel their freedom to perform a

certain behavior is threatened, an unpleasant state ofreactance is aroused, which they can reduce by performing

the threatened behavior.

Forewarning effect: Simply informing people that they are

about to hear a persuasive speech activates their resistance

and weakens the effect of the message on their attitudes

Inoculation Effect: A person is more likely to reject a

moderately good persuasive communication if the person

first heard a weaker argument as opposed to hearing no

prior argument

Documents

Social Influence and Persuasion