Persuasion: Source, Message and Target Audience

Persuasion

• Persuasion is defined as the process by which a message changes a person's attitudes or behavior.
• Persuasion can be used for negative purposes like radicalization and advertising.
• Persuasion can also be used for positive purposes such as health messaging.

Successful Persuasion Recipe - Yale Approach

• Persuasion success depends on the source, message, and target audience.
• The Yale approach communication and persuasion considers these three factors.
• The source refers to who is trying to persuade.
• The message is what is being said and how. The Target is who is receiving the message.

Source - Attractiveness, Likeability, and Similarity

• More attractive sources are often more persuasive. For Example: Celebrities in advertising
• Similarity leads to likeability, and in turn, persuasion.
• Conformity to in-groups enhances recall and persuasiveness.
• People are more easily persuaded by people they like.
• Familiarity is influential in generating persuasiveness. It is stronger within groups and weaker between groups.
• Persuasiveness is improved when people act in a similar way to us, for example, mirroring gestures.

Source - Expertise and Trustworthiness

• The source's perceived expertise and trustworthiness affect persuasiveness.
• Expert sources are more persuasive than non-experts.
• Dentists advertising toothpaste is an example of expertise providing authority that results in believability.
• Trust is undermined by the perception of an ulterior motive.
• Perceived untrustworthiness decreases persuasion.
• Fast talkers are more likely to be seen as trustworthy.
• Credibility and trustworthiness are improved by recent exposure to non-credible messages.

Source - Perceived Credibility

• The perceived credibility of a source affects how likely we are to be persuaded by them
• A source/persuader's perceived credibility can increase with repeated exposure.
• Repetition can make a message appear truer.
• Repetition makes a brand seem more famous and credible.

Sleeper Effect

• A message is not persuasive initially due to source credibility concerns, but becomes persuasive over time as the source is forgotten.
• Persuasion is determined by the features of the message as time moves on and recall of the message source reduces.
• There is an diminished reliance on source creditability.
• Hovland and Weiss first discovered this effect in 1951.
• When student participants were reminded of the source after four weeks, the sleeper effect disappears.

Message - What and How

• Important features that determine how persuasive one finds a message are what information is included in a persuasive attempt and how the information is presented.
• Factors that determine how persuasive an attempt is, include length, consistence with audience opinion, factual and emotional content, and fear arousal.

Message Length

• Longer is not always better; stronger complex variables provide impact.
• "Strong" long messages are more effective- they contain objective facts.
• "Weak" long messages are less effective, providing peripheral information.
• Short, strong messages are more impactful than long, weak ones.
• Persuasiveness is improved with shorter, more concise messages that have a few key points
• Lengthy messages with many details are more prone to having main points lost.

Message Consistency

• The consistency between a message and a target's original attitude is an important indicator of persuasiveness.
• People are more likely to reject a message that is far from their original attitude.
• Coffee drinkers were more likely to reject a message highlighting health risks compared to non-coffee drinkers, highlighting the Liberman and Chaiken effect.
• A rejection of messaging incongruent with original opinions results in extreme attitudes and behavior over time.
• Agreement with everything heard results in extremes in beliefs.
• Congruent information strengthens original attitudes, even if disconfirming information is presented.

Message Consistency - Lord, Ross, and Lepper (1979)

• Participant groups both for and agains the death penalty were used in the Lord, Ross and Lepper (1979) study.
• Participants were asked to read two fictional studies that showed conflicting information on whether the death penalty reduces homicides.
• Results showed that at the end of the study, those against the penalty were more opposed to it and those for the death penalty became more in favor.
• The articles "convincingness" ratings were influenced by participants prior attitudes towards the topic.
• People do not always become impartial viewing both sides of an argument.

Message Repetition

• Repetition is used in advertisements to consolidate memory, and improve messaging effectiveness.
• Advertisements are most effective when seen two or three times a week.
• Repetition of information can make it seem more true.
• As with all things in social psychology the link between credibility and repetition are not that simple
• Repetition works best when people already have a positive view and are familiar with that is being advertised.
• Repetition of new products that people are unfamiliar with are not as effective.
• A certain level of familiarity is important if repeat advertising is going to work.
• Evidence suggests that advertising campaigns effectiveness "wear off" with repeated exposure.
• Messaging is more effective if there are varieties in edits and versions.

Message - Fear Arousal

• Persuasive attempts are sometimes designed to evoke fear for the recipients.
• Health messaging extensively uses fear campaigns.

Fear Arousal - Appropriate Amount

• Fear can be ineffective because people become to enter into a state of denial
• Tangible solutions are suggested because they can avoid the state of denial within messaging.
• A moderate amount of fear is ideal for influencing attitudinal change.
• People are unmotivated to process non-threatening messages with too little fear.
• People become anxious and fall into a state of denial because there is too much fear given.

Message - Scarcity Technique

• Attractiveness for the target is increased when persuasiveness emphasizes that a item is rare - truthful or not.
• Worchel, Lee, & Adewole gave participants a chocolate chip cookie, and asked them to rate it on scales like tastiness.
• In one condition there were 2 cookies in a jar when there were 10 in the other.
• In the first condition the scarcity made cookies more desirable.
• Participants rated the cookie as more desirable when the cookie was a scarce resource from the jar of 2.

Factual vs. Emotional Appeals

• Factual advertising is advertising that persuades the consumer using objective facts.
• Evaluative advertising that uses subjective opinions and evaluations.
• The factual vs. emotional appeal effectiveness depends on the target
• Analytical and educated people are persuaded by rational appeals.
• Disinterested and disengaged audiences are swayed by delivery.
• Attitude acquired through emotion is more susceptible to emotional appeals.
• Attitude acquired through facts are more susceptible to factual appeals.

Message - Method

• Some are more easily persuaded when considering ways a message is sent.
• Two-sided messages present both sides of an argument.
• Presenting the for and against for a argument can positively effect the outcome.
• Persuasiveness is improved by pre-emptively providing a counterargument.
• The defense appears more credible if they pre-empt information in a court of law.
• Damage is somewhat controlled in presenting conflicting information before the damage is intended. Known as stealing the thunder.

Message - Framing

• The framing can influence the message's meaning and reception.

• "Reverse discrimination" is more appealing than "equal opportunities".

• Company success is improved by advertising having equal opportunities than advertising a quota for a minority group.

• Smoother, healthier skin in 4 weeks are messages with gain.

• Look less old and tired in 4 weeks are messages with negative terms.

• Messages presented with gains tend to be more effective than message presented in negative terms.

Message - Primacy and Recency

• Primacy effect results in enhanced memory, making items presented first likely persuasive.
• People tend to agree to arguments they hear first in speeches.
• Top ballot listing improves candidate votes.
• Impression importance highlighted with primacy effects.
• Recency effect results in stronger item memorization due to the last items presented being the most recently.
• Primacy effects occur when all items are presented in succession.
• Memory of recent information is improved when there is a delay mid-way in presentation.

Message - Channel

• Persuasiveness hinges on the mode of information presentation (e.g., video, text, or face-to-face).
• There is power in visual advertising (web-based videos and images, TV)
• Images are more powerful than text due to brain processing.
• Written communication makes complex information the most persuasive.
• Visual advertising promotes attitudinal change effectively.

Target or Audience

• Message persuasiveness is strongly influenced by the audience.
• Individual differences such as age, gender, personality can all effect how persuasive message is too.
• Advertisements for young people often differ from advertisements for older people.
• Men and women also have different advertisements targeted at them.

Target - Gender

• Women are generally more susceptible to persuasion than men.
• Women are more persuaded by face-to-face appeals than other types of messaging, and men show no difference.
• Gender differences were largely dependent on the salience of gender roles.
• By making genders aware that they are priming female sex roles they reduce the attitude strength.
• Nature of the persuader, as well as the gender of the audience, impact persuasion.
• Male targets are more susceptible to persuasion when the speaker is female and tentative.
• Male speakers are commonly persuasive regardless of speaking style.

Target - Age

• Late adolescence and young adulthood have seen most susceptible to persuasive messages.
• Younger demographics are impressionable, have less stable attitudes, and show less resistance to authority.
• Those in early and late adulthood are more receptive to persuasive messages than those in middle adulthood.
• Persuasion susceptibility was argues to be high in early adulthood reducing as getting older.
• Openness to attitude argued to be achieved by people across the life span.

Personalities and Individual Differences

• An individual's will to think is determined by their need for cognition (NFC).
• High NFC individuals are influenced by message strength.
• People with lower NFC are also impacted by weaker messages.
• Inidividuals who require quick and certain answers and are more resistant to ambiguity are cognitively closed - determined by need for cognitive closure (NFCC).
• Individuals with a high NFCC are susceptible to persuasion.

Target - Mood

• Current mood influences how persuasive messaging is when encountered.
• Sad moods encourage peripheral processing, depending on information ambiguity.
• Good moods enhance elaboration.
• Persuasive messaging elaboration are affected by variable impact, attitutudes, beliefs, credibility, and topic relevance.

Central vs Systematic + Peripheral vs Heuristic

• Cues are processed uniquely depending on motivation and abilities.
• Peripheral/heuristic route is usually not as effective in the central/systematic route for long lasting behaviour and attitude changes.
• Peripheral route/heuristic results in shorter and superficial attitude.

Persuasion Theories: Elaboration Likelihood Model, and Heuristic Systematic Model

• The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and Heuristic Systematic Model (HSM) asserts the variations in persuasion are resultant.
• The recipient is engaged in elaboration of arguments to evaluate persuasion.
• Persuade recipients through one of the two routes of Cialdini's six principles of persuasion.

ELM Route - Central Cues

• Central cues are message features requiring significant effort elaboration.
• This persuasion is based on message quality and scientific arguments.
• Whether the route is successful depends on people's ability and motivation to process.
• When people are more able, or have motivation, attitudes are changed.
• Persuaded people are influenced via a central route of persuasion to attend and carefully evaluate then leading to a persuasion.

ELM Route - Peripheral Cues

• Peripherical cues come from superficial characteristics of a messaging instead of messaging quality.
• It requires not any processing.
• Persuasion is seen in people persuaded by peripheral cues and do not attend to the message carefully.
• The persuade individual process with the peripheral route of persuasion.
• When elaboration of the message is low they are persuaded by peripheral cues.

Route Determination

• When someone is preoccupied, interrupted, or under pressure it is hard for them to concentrate with central cues.
• Limited cognitive resources lead to peripheral route persuasion.
• Focus is more likely targeted towards peripheral cues when there is less focus.
• Being in a standing position creates resistant to persuasion because it facilitiates generation of negative responses.
• Being in a lyng position causes susseptibility to persuasion by inhibiting the negaitive messages.
• Low heart rates create difficulty in the targets processing and rejection of messaging/argument.
• The amount of investment you put in depends on motivation to process.
• Higher involvement increases a person's motivation.
• Cognitive closure influences the motivation to process (NFC) .
• Higher levels of NFC tend to be more influenced through central/systematically in the route persuasion.

Interpersonal Perusasion - Ingratiation

• Ingratiation is a techniques to make the target that you have intentions to persuade like you first.
• This can backfire if it is to obvious.

Interpersonal Perusasion - Reciprocity

• Reciprocity: "doing a favour" before asking them for something
• Powerful tool of persuasion as you are seen as a "freeloader" or a "sponge".
• This is a major social consequence of feeling obligated for the favor that was given.

"Door in the Face" perusasion

• The persuader makes a large unreal request before small realistic request.
• Making a concession makes you feel obligated to make a concession.
• Capitalises contrast between requests - making your request more reasonable.
• This only works when the request is made by the same person.

"That's not all" Persuasion

• This request persuade a person making adding extras to reciprocate.
• A control condition offer more better deal than the greater compliance.
• Only occur when the offer is being considered instinctively.

Foot-in-the-Door Persuasion

• Making a small request first before making the larger request of interest.
• This works if people commit smaller act increase change for bigger request with second request.
• Making it more like that they will succeed
• This does not work.
• If the request is to small and too large this will not work, and it will be broken
• A build up will make it better for larger requests

Lowball

• Persuader changes terms introducing hidden cost.
• The target accepts because they have already committed to the action.
• Lowball tactic is when persuader changes their terms with hidden coast as the target accepts the commitment to the action.
• If not asked then it would of not been as much to show up

Reactance

• Threatening personal freedom is negative attitude change.
• An increases in freedom resistance to persuasion.
• Make the change to the completely opposite of the persuasion.

Prior Knowledge

• Before knowing what persuasion attempt leads to
• Forewarning gives us the the power of trying to persuade.
• We are more protected against persuasion

Counter Arguing

• People can directly resist arguments by arguing against them.
• Being protect and counter arguing are able to defuse the the attempt which leads it to be less effective.
• Those who align with beliefs generate supporting messages.
• Arguing can actively protect against persuassion

Attitude Inoculation

• A way of presenting people with weak actions helps people to resist the message because it is already known.

Avoidance

• People filter information that consist of their pre-existing ideas.
• People have a tendency to ignore or filter that may conflict with their pre existing attitudes

Resistance to persuasion

• Attitude polarization strengths the pre existing attitudes make them more extreme.
• Biased assimilation is a counter active information as biased reliable
• There is a hostile meda as it goes against media