Social Psychology and Persuasion

Explaining Theories of Persuasion

• Persuasion is human communication designed to influence others by modifying their beliefs, values, or attitudes.
• The importance of understanding persuasive messages is greater than ever, with the average American exposed to at least 3,000 ads every day.

Persuasion Defined

• Persuasion involves a goal and the intent to achieve that goal on the part of the message sender.
• Communication is the means to achieve that goal.
• The message recipient must have free will.
• Persuasion is not accidental, nor is it coercive.

Attitudes

• An attitude is a relatively enduring predisposition to respond favorably or unfavorably toward something.
• Attitudes are learned evaluations, not something people are born with.
• Attitudes are changeable and influence behavior.

Social Judgment Theory

• Social judgment theory suggests that knowing a person's attitudes on subjects can provide clues about how to approach a persuasive effort.
• People make evaluations (judgments) about the content of messages based on their anchors or stance on a particular topic.
• An individual's attitude on a topic is a function of how ego-involved that individual is with the topic.

Social Judgment Theory Process

• Map receivers' attitudes toward a topic using an ordered alternatives questionnaire.
• Determine the latitude of acceptance, rejection, and noncommitment.
• Predict how the audience will respond to particular messages based on their attitudes.

Theories of Persuasion

• The chapter presents four theories of persuasion: social judgment theory, the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), cognitive dissonance, and the narrative paradigm.

Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)

• ELM views persuasion as a cognitive event.
• Persuasion depends on the way receivers make sense of the message.
• ELM presents two possible routes or methods of influence: centrally routed messages and peripherally routed messages.
• Centrally routed messages include a wealth of information, rational arguments, and evidence to support a particular conclusion.
• Centrally routed messages succeed in long-term change only when the target is highly motivated to process the information and has the ability to process it cognitively.### Understanding Audience and Persuasion
• Understanding the audience is critical in choosing the appropriate route to persuasion.
• The audience's motivation and ability to process information affect the effectiveness of persuasion.
• Elaborated arguments can be strong, neutral, or weak, and can create positive, negative, or no cognitive response.
• Strong arguments can create long-term attitude change and inoculate the audience against counter-persuasion.
• Repetition enhances the persuasive effect of strong arguments, while interruptions diminish it.

The Peripheral Route to Persuasion

• The peripheral route relies on emotional involvement and persuades through superficial means.
• This route is used when the audience is unmotivated or unable to process an elaborated message.
• The peripheral route leads to short-term change, if any change at all.
• Seven common cues that signal the use of a peripheral message are:
  • Authority
  • Commitment
  • Contrast
  • Liking
  • Reciprocation
  • Scarcity
  • Social proof

Types of Peripheral Messages

• Peripheral messages can be positive, neutral, or negative.
• Positive peripheral messages create a positive affective state and may yield weak, positive changes in attitude.
• Neutral peripheral messages leave the receivers feeling emotionally ambivalent.
• Negative peripheral messages produce negative or disapproving emotional responses.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• Cognitive dissonance theory predicts that influence is often an intrapersonal event, occurring when incongruence between attitudes and behavior creates a tension that is resolved by altering either beliefs or behaviors.
• Schemata are cognitive structures for organizing new information and creating familiarity or discomfort.
• Incongruence between beliefs and behaviors creates dissonance, which is uncomfortable and motivates individuals to change the situation to restore balance.

Relationships Between Beliefs and Behaviors

• Three possible relationships between beliefs and behaviors exist:
  • Irrelevance: beliefs and behaviors have no relation to each other.
  • Consonance: beliefs and behaviors are in balance or congruent.
  • Dissonance: beliefs and behaviors contradict each other.
• Individuals prefer consonant relationships and strive to feel consistency between actions and beliefs.
• Dissonance creates discomfort and motivates individuals to change their beliefs or behaviors to restore balance.### Cognitive Dissonance Theory (CDT)
• The dissonance ratio is the proportion of incongruent beliefs held in relation to consonant beliefs.
• When there is a greater number of incongruent beliefs, an individual experiences more discomfort.
• The ability to rationalize or justify the dissonance also affects the amount of discomfort experienced.
• The more one can justify the dissonance, the less discomfort they endure.
• Perceptual processes, such as selective exposure, attention, interpretation, and retention, can help minimize dissonance.
  • Selective exposure: an individual actively avoids information that is inconsistent with previously established beliefs or behaviors.
  • Selective attention: an individual only attends to information that reaffirms their beliefs, disregarding any information that fails to support their views.
  • Selective interpretation: an individual carefully deciphers ambiguous information to be consistent with established beliefs.
  • Selective retention: an individual selectively retains information that upholds their viewpoints, while conveniently forgetting or dismissing information that creates dissonance.

Persuasion Through Dissonance

• CDT assumes that humans prefer congruency between beliefs and behaviors.
• When an individual engages in an action that opposes their attitudes, they experience distress known as dissonance.
• Depending on the importance of the issue and the degree of discomfort, an individual is motivated to change their beliefs or behaviors to restore consonance.
• CDT is often considered a post-decision theory, meaning that individuals attempt to persuade themselves after a decision has been made or a course of action has been taken.
• Communicators can use CDT to persuade others by creating or exploiting dissonance while offering a solution to minimize the disparity.
• Examples of CDT in action include:
  • Buyer's remorse: sellers and real estate agents can capitalize on principles of CDT by reinforcing the wisdom of making certain choices.
  • Advertising: manufacturers can use CDT to convince consumers to buy their products by presenting an easy alternative to relieve dissonance.

Narrative Paradigm

• The narrative paradigm emphasizes the effectiveness of influence through narration, or persuasion through storytelling.
• Human beings are fundamentally storytelling creatures, and the most persuasive or influential message is not that of rational fact, but instead a narrative that convinces us of "good reasons" for engaging in a particular action or belief.
• Fisher's narrative paradigm contrasts with much of Western thought, which emphasizes rational decision making.
• The narrative paradigm assumes that what makes humans unique and distinct from other creatures is our ability and drive to tell stories.
• Five assumptions drive Fisher's explanation of the narrative paradigm:
  • Humans are storytellers.
  • Communication, persuasion, and decision making are based on the logic of good reasons.
  • What one accepts as "good reasons" is determined individually by a person's culture, character, experiences, and values.
  • Rationality is based on one's awareness of how consistent and truthful a story appears when compared with one's own (and others') lived experiences.
  • People experience the world as a series of stories from which we choose, and as we make these choices, we create and recreate reality.

Comparing Narrative and Rational Paradigms

• The narrative paradigm contrasts with the rational paradigm, which assumes that humans are rational beings.
• Table 5.2 presents a comparison of the narrative and rational paradigms, highlighting the differences in how humans are perceived, how communication and persuasion work, and how rationality is defined.
• The narrative paradigm does not exclude logic, but instead argues that mythos (narratives) and pathos (emotional appeals) are more meaningful to humans and, therefore, more persuasive.