29
CHAPTER 7

Chapter 7 social influence and persuasion

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

CHAPTER 7

Page 2: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

Social Influence

-occurs when one person (the source) engages in some

behavior (such as persuading, threatening or promising, or

issuing orders) that causes another person (the target) to

behave differently from how he or she would otherwise

behave.

Various outcomes can result when social influence is attempted:

•Attitude Change

•Compliance

Page 3: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

Forms of Social Influence

Influence attempts can be either open or covertly

manipulative:

• Open Influence, the attempt is readily apparent to the

target.

•Manipulative Influence, the attempt is hidden from the

target.

There are many forms of open influence.

(1)The use of persuasive communication to change the target’s

attitudes or beliefs

(2)The use of threats or promises to gain compliance

(3)The use of orders based on legitimate authority to gain

compliance.

Page 4: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

Attitude Change via Persuasion

•Persuasion, may be defined as changing the beliefs,

attitudes, or behaviors of a target through the use of

information or argument.

•Persuasion is widespread in social interaction and

assumes many different forms.

Page 5: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

Communication-Persuasion

Paradigm

SOURCE

- EXPERTISE

-TRUSTWORTHINESS

-ATTRACTIVENESS

MESSAGES

-DISCREPANCY

-FEAR APPEAL

- 1-SIDED OR 2 SIDED

TARGET

-INTELLIGENCE

-INVOLVEMENT

-FOREWARNED

EFFECT

- CHANGE ATTITUDE

- REJECT MESSAGE

- COUNTERARGUE

- SUSPEND JUDGMENT

- DEROGATE RESOURCE

Page 6: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

The Source

The identity of the source provides the target with information

above and beyond the content of the message itself.

COMMUNICATOR CREDIBILITY

Denotes the extent to which the communicator’s credibility is

“in the eye of the beholder” – a given resource may be credible for

some audience but not for others.

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE EXTENT TO WHICH A SOURCE IS CREDIBLE:

•Expertise

•Trustworthiness

•Attractiveness and likability

Page 7: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

EFFECT OF MULTIPLE SOURCES.

factors other than the source’s expertise and

trustworthiness can affect whether a message is persuasive.

SOCIAL IMPACT THEORY

-The general framework applicable to both persuasion and

obedience, states that the impact of an influence attempt is a direct

function of strength (social status or power), immediacy (physical or

psychological distance), and number of influencing sources.

-predicts that a message will be more persuasive when a

target receives it from multiple sources

Page 8: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

The Message

Persuasive communications differ dramatically in their

content.

Messages differ in their:

•detail and complexity (simple versus complex

arguments),

•their strength of presentation (strong versus weak

arguments),

•and their balance of presentation (one sided or two

sided).

Page 9: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

MESSAGE DISCREPANCYA discrepant message is one advocating a position that

is different from what the target believes. Discrepancy is a

matter of degree; some messages are highly discrepant, others

less so.

“The greater the levels of discrepancy, the greater change in

attitude.”

There is an important interaction between message

discrepancy and source credibility. Sources with high credibility

produces maximum attitude change at higher levels of

discrepancy than do sources with low credibility.

Highly discrepant messages from low-credibility sources

are ineffective, because the target will quickly derogate the

source.

Page 10: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

FEAR AROUSALMost messages intended to persuade incorporate

either RATIONAL APPEALS or EMOTIONAL APPEALS.

Perhaps the most common emotional appeal are

those involving FEAR.

FEAR-AROUSING COMMUNICATION

Fear-arousing messages are types of messages

that direct the target to some negative or undesired

outcome that is likely to occur unless the target takes

certain actions advocated by the source.

Page 11: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

ONE-SIDED VERSUS TWO-SIDED MESSAGES

One-sided messages emphasize only those facts that

explicitly support the position the position advocated by the

source.

Two-sided messages presents not only the position

advocated by the source but also opposing viewpoints.

Page 12: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

The Target

Involvement with the issue. One important attribute of targets is the extent

of their involvement with a particular issue.

Involvement with the issue fundamentally

affects the way the target processes a message. When

highly involved, a target will want to scrutinize the

message closely and think carefully about its content.

In contrast, the target who is uninvolved will have less

motivation to think carefully about the message.

Page 13: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

NEED FOR COGNITION

Beyond involvement with the issue, there are some

personality traits that affect the persuasion process. In

particular, how much an individual enjoys puzzling through

problems and thinking about issues plays an important role

in persuasion attempts. Those who do enjoy these thinking

tasks are said to have high need for cognition.

DISTRACTORS

Anything that prevents the target from giving full

attention to the argument will affect the persuasion attempt.

Page 14: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

Compliance with Threats and

Promises

Influence based on promises and threats differ

from persuasion attempts in a fundamental way. When

using persuasion, the source tries to change the way a

target views the situation.

Page 15: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

Effectiveness of Threats and Promises

Threat is a communication from one person (the source)

to another (the target) that takes the general form,

“If you don’t do X (which I want), then I will do Y (which you don’t

want)”

For a threat to be effective the target must want to avoid the

sanction.

Promise is similar to a threat, except that it involves

contingent rewards, not punishment. A person using a promise

says,

“If you do X (which I want), then I will do Y (which you want)”

Page 16: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

Magnitude of Threats and Promises

In promises, the greater the magnitude of the reward offered

by a source, the greater the probability of compliance by the

target.

A similar principle holds for threats. Compliance with threats

varies directly with the magnitude of the punishment involved.

Credibility of Threats and Promises

To judge the credibility of a threat, targets gauge the cost to the

source of carrying out the threat. Threats that cost a lot to carry

out are less credible than those costing less. Targets also

estimate the credibility of a threat from the social identity of the

source.

Page 17: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

The SEV Model

A threat’s subjective expected value (SEV) is a measure

of the pressure that the target feels from the threat.

The level of SEV depends on several factors:

• SEV increases as the threat’s credibility increases and

as ,magnitude of punishments threatened increases.

•When both credibility and punishment magnitude are

high.

•When both credibility and punishment magnitude are low.

•When one is high and the other is low.

Page 18: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

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.

Page 19: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

Experimental Study of Obedience

Page 20: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Milgram Experiment

Page 21: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

The hoax subject is actually a confederate of the

experimenter, while the real subject is accompanied by an

actor playing as the experimenter/authority.

Page 22: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

Page 23: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Whenever a participant (teacher) expressed concern or

dismay about the procedure, the experimenter (actor)

urged him to persist by telling him:

Page 24: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

RESULTS:

About two-thirds of participants (teachers) ended up

delivering the maximum 450 volt shock.

All the volunteers continued to at least 300 volts.

Despite of the tortured reaction of the learner

(confederate),

most participants followed the experimenter’s orders.

Page 25: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

Factors Affecting Obedience to Authority

Milgram’s results 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.

Other factors:

overt display of symbols

Person in authority can back up his or her demands with

punishment

Direct surveillance

Physical proximity

Page 26: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

Resisting Influence and Persuasion

InoculationMcGuire (1964) proposed that a target can be

inoculated against persuasion. He specified attitude

inoculation treatments that would enable target t defend

their beliefs against persuasion attempts.

- one such treatment is called a refutational

defense, is analogous to medical inoculation, in which a

patient receives a small dose of a pathogen so that he or

she can develop anti-bodies.

Page 27: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

Forewarning

a second aid to resisting influence is simply

warning people that they are about to be exposed to a

persuasion attempt.

-the more advance notice people have that the

persuasion attempt is coming, the more resistant they are

to the persuasion attempt.

Page 28: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion

Social Psychology

Reactance

Occurs when the target of the persuasion attempt

begins to feel that their independence and freedom are

being threatened.

Page 29: Chapter 7   social influence and persuasion