LECTURE 6 Persuasion

1
LECTURE 6 Persuasion

• Administration
• First Exam
• Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)
• Break
• The Effectiveness of the Persuasion depends on
• the communicator
• the message
• the audience
• 6) Cialdinis 6 Principles of Persuasion
• 7) Next Class

2
Exam 1 Marks are posted on the website
3
Questions?
4
Persuasion
The process by which a message induces change in
beliefs, attitudes, or behaviours. How do we
get people to think, believe, and do what we want
them to think, believe, and do?
5
Elaboration Likelihood Model

• Persuasion via the Central Route
• A focus on the actual content of the arguments
  that stimulates thinking in favour of the new
  attitude (also known as systematic processing)
• Persuasion via the Peripheral Route
• Acceptance is triggered by incidental cues (i.e.,
  attractiveness of the speaker) without much
  thinking (also known as heuristic-based
  processing)

6
Increasing Minimum Wage

• Central Route Peripheral Route

Great arguments. Im convinced!
He sounds smart. Im convinced!
7
Motivation x Ability

• Motivation
• Factors that influence the likelihood that you
  want to pay attention to the arguments and that
  you will elaborate on the issues are related to
  motivation
• Personal relevance
• Responsibility for evaluating message
• Need for cognition/Need for Closure
• Incongruent information

8
Motivation x Ability

• Ability
• Factors that influence if you can process the
  information in the arguments are related to
  ability
• Message clarity
• Repeating the message
• Distraction/time pressure
• Channel of communication (print)
• Individual differences in intelligence

9
Motivation x Ability

• Motivated
• Yes No
• Yes central
• Ability to
• Process
• No

10
Argument quality is important to the Central
Route

• Strong Arguments make you more favourable
  toward the object/issue
• Weak Arguments make you less favourable toward
  the object/issue

11
Attitudes changed via the Central Route are

• longer lasting
• more predictive of behavior
• more resistant to change

12
Motivation x Ability

• Motivated
• Yes No
• Yes peripheral
• Ability to
• Process
• No peripheral peripheral

13
Argument quality is less important to the
Peripheral Route

• Strong Arguments and Weak arguments can have the
  same effect.
• Weak arguments are less damaging

14
Attitudes changed via the Peripheral Route are

• less longer lasting, more temporary
• less predictive of behavior
• less resistant to other people trying to
  influence our attitudes

15
Ingredients of Persuasive AppealMeyers and
Spencer

• Communicator (who said it?)
• Message (what was said?)
• Audience (to whom?)

16
1) Communicator

• Credibility
• Expertise
• Trustworthiness/Self-Interest
• Likeability
• Attractiveness
• Physical appeal
• Similarity

17
2) Message

• Two-sided versus one-sided arguments
• Two-sided are better if you can refute the other
  side
• Emotion
• positive feelings (peripheral processing)
• fear (motivation especially if have plan)
• Discrepancy
• source credibility
• Involvement
• Primacy versus recency
• Primacy normally better

18
Message Primacy/Recency

• Primacy Effects Information presented first has
  the most influence
• Message1Message2..Response
• Recency Effects Information presented last has
  the most influence
• Message 1Message2Response

19
3) Audience

• What are they thinking?
• The ability and motivation to counterargue is the
  key to whether persuasion works or not.
• Forewarned
• Distraction
• Involvement
• Need for Cognition/Need for Closure
• Etc.

20

• NEED FOR COGNITION
• A personality variable reflecting the extent to
  which people engage in and enjoy effortful
  cognitive activities.
• Sample Items
• I usually end up deliberating about issues even
  when they do not affect me personally
• I only think as hard as I have to (R)

21

• NEED FOR CLOSURE
• A personality variable reflecting the desire to
  possess some knowledge on a given topic, any
  definite knowledge as opposed to confusion and
  ambiguity.
• Sample Items
• I usually make important decisions quickly and
  confidently.
• I feel uncomfortable when someones meaning or
  intention is unclear to me.

22
Resisting Persuasion

• Attitude Inoculation the process of making
  people immune to attempts to change their
  attitudes by initially exposing them to small
  doses of the arguments against their position.

23
Six Persuasion PrinciplesRobert Cialdini (2000)

• Consistency
• foot-in-the door
• bait and switch
• low-ball
• legitimizing paltry favors
• how are you feeling technique

24
Six Persuasion PrinciplesRobert Cialdini (2000)

• 2. Social Validation
• List technique
• Littering studies (Cialdini, Reno Kallgren,
  1990)

25
Six Persuasion PrinciplesRobert Cialdini (2000)

• 3. Reciprocity
• Reciprocation of favours
• Name stickers, flower seeds,
• Reciprocation of concessions
• Door in face
• Delinquent kids study (Cialdini, Vincent, Lewis,
  Catalan, Wheeler, Darby, 1975)

26
Door-in-the-face

• Presented with a LARGE request (expected to
  refuse), followed by a smaller, more reasonable
  request (expected to accept)
• Operates due to the reciprocity norm (if I do
  something nice for you, you should do something
  nice for me)
• Not to be confused with foot-in-the-door

27
Six Persuasion PrinciplesRobert Cialdini (2000)

• 4. Friendship/Liking
• Tupperware and Lingerie Parties
• Neighbourhood Breast Cancer Garage Sale
• Save the Children Campaign

28
Six Persuasion PrinciplesRobert Cialdini (2000)

• 5. Scarcity
• Dwaze Dagen
• Only This Weekend!
• Gone is gone

29
Six Persuasion PrinciplesRobert Cialdini (2000)

• Authority
• Milgram Studies next week, military, etc

30
Six Persuasion PrinciplesRobert Cialdini (2000)

• If you wanted to get some money from your
  parents, would you first
• a) ask for 20 and then ask for 100? (start
  small)
• or would you
• b) ask for 100 and then ask for 20? (start big)
• Principle of reciprocity of concessions

31
Six Persuasion PrinciplesRobert Cialdini (2000)

• If you ask want to get someone to help you move,
  would you first
• a) tell them that you didn't have too much stuff
  to move and then they see that you have a lot of
  stuff? (start small)
• or would you
• b) tell them that you had a lot of stuff to move
  and then they see that you only have a little bit
  of stuff? (start big)
• Principle of Consistency

32
Questions?
33
Next Class

• Class 7 Wednesday, May 30th
• Conformity
• Reading material
• Chapter 6 Conformity
• pp. 170-201.