Persuasion Techniques and Audience Impact

Central Route to Persuasion

• Messages are more persuasive when they appeal to the audience's core values, are straightforward, logical, and clear.
• Sources arguing against their own self-interest are seen as more sincere, making the message more persuasive.
• Explicit conclusions in messages lead to greater attitude change.
• Vivid information, like scary and memorable content, is often more effective and persuasive.
• Fear-eliciting messages are persuasive, especially when they include information on how to address the fear.
• Identifiable Victim Effect - People are more moved by the plight of a single, identifiable individual than by larger, more abstract numbers. This is less effective when the victim is blamed for the situation.
• Tailoring messages to match the cultural norms and values of the intended audience is important.

Audience Characteristics & Persuasion

• Need for Cognition:
  • Individuals with a high need for cognition are persuaded by the central route and through high-quality arguments.
  • Individuals with a low need for cognition are persuaded by the peripheral route and messages that are easy to process.
• Mood:
  • Persuasive messages are more effective when matching the audience's mood.
  • Guilt can increase compliance with persuasive messages, especially if the message provides a way to alleviate the guilt.
• Age:
  • Younger people are generally more persuadable than older people, particularly with controlled processing.

Information Processing

• Automatic Processing:
  • Fast, nonconscious, involuntary.
  • Leads to implicit attitudes and beliefs.
• Controlled Processing:
  • Slow, conscious, and can override automatic responses.
  • Leads to explicit attitudes and beliefs.

Cultural Differences & Persuasion

• Interdependent Cultures:
  • Concept of self is linked to others, with attributes depending on the situation.
  • Preference for collective action and harmonious relationships.
  • Acceptance of hierarchy and ascribed status.
  • Value rules that consider context and relationships.
  • Value group activities.
• Independent Cultures:
  • Concept of self is distinct from others, with consistent attributes.
  • Emphasis on individual action.
  • Preference for achieved status and universal rules.
  • Value solitary activities.

Tight vs. Loose Societies

• Tight Societies:
  • Have strict rules emphasizing conformity.
  • Often more interdependent.
• Loose Societies:
  • Have fewer rules, enforced less strictly.
  • Often more independent.
• Societies become tighter when facing threats.

Cultural Differences & Persuasion (Continued)

• Independent cultures are more persuaded by positive outcomes (promotion focus), while interdependent cultures are more persuaded by avoiding negative outcomes (prevention focus).

Conformity & Culture

• Conformity:
  • Higher in interdependent cultures.
  • Lower in independent cultures.
  • Interdependent cultures are more susceptible to informational and normative social influence.
• Tight vs. Loose Cultures:
  • Conformity is higher in tight societies.
  • Conformity is lower in loose societies.
  • This is because norms are less strong in loose societies, allowing for greater tolerance of deviance.

Factors that Decrease Conformity

• Understanding the reasons for others' behavior.
• Having a clear explanation for a deviant opinion

Conformity & Construals

• Conformity is affected by our subjective interpretations of situations, not objective realities.

Minority Influence

• Minority opinions can change majority opinions when:
  • They are consistent and clear.
  • The influence is through informational social influence.
  • The minority is not seen as acting out of self-interest.
  • The minority is believed to have a reason for diverging from the majority opinion.

Conformity & Identity

• Informational Social Influence:
  • Internalised, leading to intrinsic conformity (ex: "I'm masculine because I like to act this way").
• Normative Social Influence:
  • Not internalised, leading to extrinsic conformity (ex: "I'm masculine because that's how other people think I should act").
  • Extrinsic conformity leads to more efforts to prove one's conformity if group membership is threatened.

Compliance & Techniques

• Compliance: Responding favorably to an explicit request, regardless of the requester's status.
• Door-in-the-Face Technique:
  • Requesting a large favor that will be refused, followed by a smaller request (seen as a compromise, increasing compliance).
  • Works because the smaller request seems more reasonable, people want to avoid being disagreeable, and because of the norm of reciprocity.
  • Less effective when the two requests are made by different people.
• Foot-in-the-Door Technique:
  • Making a small request, followed by a larger request involving the desired behavior.
  • Works because compliance with the small request changes self-image, making it easier to agree to the larger request.
• Norm-Based Compliance:
  • Informing people about social norms, especially when the information is surprising and contradicts a misconception.
  • Pluralistic Ignorance: Misperception of a group norm resulting from observing behavior that conflicts with private beliefs, reinforcing the erroneous norm.
• Norm of Reciprocity:
  • Providing benefits to those who have benefited us, making them more likely to agree to a request.

Obedience

• Obedience: Submitting to the demands of an authority figure in an unequal power relationship.
• Milgram Obedience Study:
  • Showed that people are surprisingly willing to obey authority figures, even when those instructions are unethical.
  • Participants, believing they were administering electric shocks to a learner, were more likely to follow the experimenter's instructions to continue, even when the learner screamed in pain.
  • This suggests the power of the situation and the influence of authority figures.

Principles of Persuasion

• Principle of Consistency: People are more likely to stick to their prior commitments.
• Principle of Scarcity: Items that are rare or difficult to obtain are more desirable.
• Principle of Reciprocity: People feel obligated to return favors or kindness.
• Principle of Authority: People defer to experts or authority figures.

Social Influence & Persuasion

• Social Influence: The effects of other people on our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
• Peripheral Route: Persuasion occurs when people are not attentive or lack the ability to process information thoroughly.
• Central Route: Persuasion occurs when people are motivated and able to engage in in-depth processing.
• Persuasion through the central route is more effective for long-lasting attitude change.

Elements of Persuasion

• Source: The person delivering the message.

  • Attractiveness: Attractive sources are influential through the peripheral route, particularly when the message is not personally important or the audience lacks knowledge.
  • Credibility: Credible sources influence through both the peripheral and central routes. People are more likely to believe sources who are perceived as knowledgeable and trustworthy.
    • Sleeper Effect: Over time, people may disassociate a message from an unreliable source, making the message more influential.
  • Certainty: Sources who express certainty (confidence) are seen as more credible and persuasive.

• Message: The content of the persuasive message

  • Quality: High-quality arguments are more persuasive, especially when the central route is actively engaged.