Persuasive Communication - Final Exam

Understand the different historical periods and their connection to persuasion

1) 400 BC Sophistic Tradition -Sophomore (Wise Fool) -Sophisticated (Classy, High Society) -Sophomoric (low maturity) -Sophists were hired by the wealthy elite in Greece, who taught people how to use communication effectively (courts, public speaking, etc). -Wealthy landowners were looking to hire Sophists to achieve what they needed. -Sophists is similar to a lawyer today. They would help people develop skills to win their argument. -Sophists= Spin Doctors 2) Plato and Aristotle -Philosophers: philosophy is defined as lover of wisdom/truth. So what dominated the word of discourse was trying to get to the truth. -Their position to sophistry was looked down upon from them because it had no regard for the truth. The notion behind being a sophist was being able to throw truth to the side and some up with whatever message was needed to win. -Plato's Dialogue- truth was discovered through question and answer. 3) St. Augustine -St. Augustine was a teacher of rhetoric for a while. 4) Mass Communication -Printing Press 5) Psychological (intrapersonal) -Communicating with yourself. -Influencing based on emotions- 6) Interpersonal -The way that you talk to certain people has different communicative guidelines- 7) Contextual Specialization -Depending on the context, the persuasion is specific. Health, political, school, etc

Report on Katz's attitude functions

1) Ego- Defensive Function 2) Value- Expressive Function, Knowledge Function, Utilitarian Function 3) Ego-Defensive Function attitudes that are held because they help people protect themselves from unflattering truths about themselves or about others who are important to them. i.e. Such as hating homosexuals increases ones masculinity level 4) Value-Expressive Function occurs when holding a certain attitude allows the person to express a certain value. i.e. The person who like solar hot water heaters because their use demonstrates an important concern about energy conservation 5) Knowledge Function Such attitudes allow people to better understand events and people around them. i.e. If your dislike of President Nixon helps you to understand his participation in the Watergate cover up. 6) Utilitarian Function Attitudes that help people gain rewards and avoid punishments. i.e. When an employee adopts the attitudes of the boss prior to asking for in increase in salary.

Explain Aristotle's 3 persuasive appeals and point to examples of them in action

1) Ethos - ethics (defined by Aristotle as the good man speaking well, indications of being a good person)• 2) Pathos - emotions (how can people emotionally connect to the topic that is being represented) 3) Logos - logic (use facts to back up reasoning)

Identify Clark and Delia's goals

1) Instrumental - Task related; Ex. Trying to get a promotion- 2) Relational - Relational function; Ex. Growing relationships, terminating relationships, etc. 3) Identity - Reinforce the notion of self; Ex. Seeing yourself as handy, in the context of fixing a car, I would participate

Distinguish between propaganda and persuasion

1) Propoganda: - The goal of propaganda is to change other people's views in order to further one's own cause or damage an opposing one. - A communication presenting propaganda is designed so that one conclusion appears more reasonable than another, and thus is may sometimes involve withholding material favorable to the opposing side. 2) Persuasion -The term persuasion refers to any instance in which an active attempt is made to change a person's mind because the word is relatively neutral and because one person's propaganda may be another person's education.

Report on the factors that influence our ability to influence

1) WE can not achieve our goals unless we recognize the needs of the "other(s)" in the context 2) Role-taking is the ability to predict the thoughts and objections others might have to your goals and needs 3) The more cognitively complex the better one is at role taking 4) One's ability to create multiple response and use many different persuasive techniques (theories) improves ones goal competence

Explain the ELM/HSM

1. ELM (the elaboration likelihood) is the central route or systematic route: consists of having high message elaboration; going through thinking about adding additional info with regards to the message; high amounts of cognitive energy -Careful consideration of information -Using logos, stats, data, attention to details, rational HSM (Heuristic-Ststematic Model) has peripheral or heuristic track: consists of low message elaboration and use of quick decision rules -Source attractiveness, credibility of source -Essentially the same model -Can be convinced both ways TWO ROUTES TO PERSUASION 1. Central Route/Systematic: consists of high message elaboration, longer lasting 2. Peripheral Route/Heuristic: consists of low message elaboration and use quick rules, easy to change

Understand the importance of message comprehensibility

1. For a message to be persuasive, it first must be attended to and comprehended 2. People with good comprehensibility condition were the most persuaded and recalled the most message 3. People with poor comprehensibility conditions were least persuaded and recalled fewest arguments.

Report on the effects of trustworthiness

1. Greater trustworthiness produces greater attitude changes 2. Whether or not a source is arguing for personal gain DOES make a difference. 3. Sources arguing against their vested interests are persuasive than ones arguing for their vested interested for their vested interests 4. Someone with persuasive intent is presumed to be less trustworthy than one who simply want to communicate some messages to the audience. 5. Foreknowledge of persuasive intent reduced the effectiveness of the message -Humor, physical appearance cues, expertise position centered all at a part of this topic.

Discern the relative importance of source and message factors in persuasion

1. Message Comprehensibility - for a message to be persuasive it must be attended and comprehended 2. Number of arguments - side having the most arguments for their case was most persuasive. Expert source is more persuasive than a physically attractive source. 3. Rewards within the message: Message is more effective when the message arguments are separated from the conclusion but little, rather than a lot of neutral material neutral material. 4. Arousal and reduction of fear: low-fear messages are most effective. 5. One-Sided vs. Two-Sided Messages: One sided- persuasive approach - presenting only those arguments favoring the recommended conclusion. Two sided- discussing also arguments apposed to the position advocated and then refuting them. 6. Conclusion-Drawing - conclusion is helpful or necessary for the audience to understand and remember fully the message arguments and advocacy. 7. Identifying the source first or last - manipulation of source expertise may affect how a person thinks about the message but that a manipulation of source attractiveness does not. 8. Ordering message presentations - Position presented first is usually more effective, especially when there is a gap between positions. Speaking second would be more effective than speaking first if measurement occurred after the first message was forgotten but while the second was still fresh in memory. 9. Message Repetition - repetition should enhance the total attention to comprehension of and retention of a message. 10. Style of presentation - the way the message is delivered with speed, tone, credibility, and humor

Report on the factors that influence motivation to think about an issue

1. Motivation and Ability 2.Motivation to think about a message is not enough, the must also have the ability to process the message. 3. If both motivation and ability are present, then message elaboration will occur. 4. Following sequence will occur -Attention -Comprehension -Elaboration-Integration -Enduring Attitude Change

Communicate O'Keefe's factors for why DITF works from lecture

1. Reciprocal Concession - when someone gives some ground, the natural reaction is to give a little ground too. 2. Perceptual Contrasts - in relationship to first, request, it seems a little more do-able and easier 3. Self-Presentation 4. Prosicaliness of request 5. Guilt - relief from saying no first

Identify and differentiate between communicator attractiveness and similarity

Attractiveness - physically attractive people are more persuasive than unattractive communicators. -More attractive =higher gpa/SAT, positive self-concepts better communication skills. Similarity - more customers bought the advocated brand of paint when the salesman seemed similar rather than dissimilar to the customer - Similar sources that agree with a subject engender more cofidence in the subject's opinion than dissimilar sources (Ex: people have different opinions on what's attractive)

Distinguish the TRA from TRB

Components: Attitude: what you think about the behavior is critical; positive attitude will result in positive intentions. 1. In order to generate intentions, you need to find people that already have a positive attitude about OR engage in message work and get people to have positive attitude about it. 2. BUT just having a positive attitude about something isn't enough; there has to be more Subjective Norms: What do valued others think of the behavior? Not just whether or not you like it. 1. Social persuasion component of it 2. Factors: NORMATIVE BELIEFS - what valued others believe beliefs you think are normal too. MOTIVATION TO COMPLY: engage in a behavior your valued other are advocating Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC): Do you feel like the behavior is something you can do? is it within your means of availability? 1. Factors: CONTROL BELIEFS - do you believe you have the ability to have influence of this; control over perceived power. PERCEIVED CONTROLS - of you lack the notion that you can do it and that it will lead to the desire outcome regardless of subjective norms and attitudes, then follow it up with target request 2. Door in the face: make a large initial request that you know ill be rejected, then follow it up with target request 3. Intention to comply: (people who said they would comply [donate]): A. Target only 36% B. Small Difference 29% C. Moderate Difference 17% D. Large Difference 40% 4. Actual Compliance: A. Target only 15% B. Small Difference 37% C. Moderate diff 14% D. Large diff 8% 5. PBC differs by condition (How "doable" was the $5 request) TRA (Theory of Reasoned Action) is the original theory but is no known as TPD (Theory of Planned Behavior) and only has attitude and subjective norms! TPB only predicts for the small DIFTl so you do not want to engage in making such a large request that people engage in reasoning. (Needs to make the largest REASONABLE request possible)

Differentiate between conditioned and unconditioned responses

Conditioned (manipulated) Unconditioned (natural) responses

Inform others about DITF and FITD

DITF (Door in the Face) - A large request is made that one knows will be rejected an the rejection is followed by the goal request (what they actually want) FITD (Foot in the Door): a small request is made (that you will be) accepted and is followed by the second goal request

Explain impression management

Deals with how people present an image to others in order to achieve a particular goal, most commonly, social approval

Examine the "sleeper effect"

Delayed action effect: the attitude change a video created appeared to be greater six months later than immediately after its showing. (Ex: Why we fight video - positive regard in American soldiers for their British allies. - Immediate reaction was positive, but the delayed reaction was even greater. Delayed action effect of attitude change is the sleeper effect.

Report on how channel factors impact influence

F2f vs. Mass Media - people are persuaded by the arguments that other in a group discussion generate 1. Results of F2F = group polarization A. Peopl'e attitudes after group discussion are often more extreme than the attitudes help prior to discussion. B. Likely to occur when members are on the same side, and have different reasons for liking the same issues. -Face-to-face communications generally have more impact than media communications. 1. Mass medias channels are popular because of the large number of people that can be reached. Channel Attributes: No one form of transmission is "best" 1. The most effective channel depends on a variety of factors. -Audience one wishes to reach -interest value, comprehensibility, and personal relevance or the message -Characteristics of the source

Explain how inoculation theory functions

Inoculation Theory: Explains more about how attitudes and beliefs change, and more importantly, how to keep existing attitudes and beliefs consistent in the face of persuasion attempts. 1. Threat 2. Refutation Preemption (Being aware of potential threats but thinking of the positives 3. Attack 4. Resistance 5. Express Corporate Brand/vulnerabilities 6. Address the measures taken to refute concerns 7. More affective than image enhancement

Identify and differentiate between learning theories

Learning theories argue people are motivated by the need to gain rewards and avoid punishment. 1) Classical Conditioning: is learning through association and was discovered by Pavlov 2) Operant Conditioning: is a method of learning that occurs through rewards and punishments for behavior. 3) Social Learning Theory: learning through the observation of other people's behaviors

List the factors that induce attitude change with fear arousal.

Low-fear messages are most effective.Messages Describe: 1. The un-favorableness of the consequences 2. The liklihood that these consequences will occur if the actions are not adopted 3. The likelihood that the consequences will NOT occur if the recommended actions are adopted.

Distinguish between one-sided and two sided messages and their impacts

One Sided: Persuasive Approach 1. Presenting only those arguments favoring the recommended conclusion. 2. Shoving your side down their throats Two Sided Messages (Refutionional/nonrefutational) 1. Discussing also arguments apposed to the position advocated and then refuting them. 2. Initial exposure to two-sided messages appears to make people better able to argue against the later counter propaganda message. A one sided appeal is more effective with people who agree with appeal. A two-sided appeal is more effective with people who disagree with he appeal. I f people are aware of opposing arguments, two sided appeals are more effective.

Identify the content of various sections of published persuasion studies

Pfau (nuances about the role and Impact of Affect in Inoculation) - examined the role and impact of affect in resistance. -Results indicated inoculation treatments conferred resistance and exerted nuanced outcomes involving cognitive and affect responses to counter-arguments and affect Also compared the effectiveness of cognitive, affective-positive, and affective-negative treatments 1. Results revealed that affective negative messages were superior in electing threat, issue involvement, and cognition counter arguing output and in enhancing cognitive content of associative networks Inoculation treatments contribute to greater threat and elicited issue involvement levels, promote greater attitude certainty and attitude strength, and confer resistance to counter attitudinal persuasive attacks

Differentiate between the various persuasion models

Recognize Parts: Extended: Severity, succeptability Deal Process L heuristic, systematic. centra/peripheral... similarity between the model parts. Contingencies, types of audiences... what type of message might be more appropriate for one opposed to the other... high involved public vs. low involved. -How they'll perceive it -These are the models with minor difference between the routes. Identifying the concepts - is that notion that this example would actually work.

Differentiate the elements of reliably and validity

Reliability a. Reliability is primarily an issue of consistency and repetition. i. High degree of internal consistency....α (the Greek symbol Alpha) Validity -Validity is primarily an issue of reality. - Construct: From the research. Do the concepts that we deal with match the concept that we defined through research. - Face: How people define in real life the concept. Alcoholism on face looks much different than alcoholism through research (based on the class survey) - External: A combination approach. Really goes, take that scale and lets take it outside of the lab and questionnaire universe and bring it to the real world. Does it add up? Do these responses still make sense?

Identify the major findings of Householder and Wong

Significant different intentions compliance, based on request type. (Objective was to determine impact that deceived persons emotional state and level of relation closeness to the receiver have on their ability to perceive deceptive messages) 1. Emotional state of person being deceived plays big role in deceptive contexts 2. As happiness level increases, perceived deceptiveness decreases 3. As sadness increases, perceptions of deceptiveness increase 4. Happy interviewers choose not to cognitively process deceptive messages and deceivers were perceived to be more honest than dishonest. 5. People in negative affect state are looking for any information that might help them get out of the negative state. 6. Two different models for predicting deception detection A. Based on relational closeness B. based of affect.

Identify source factors in persuasion

Source Factors - Factors of characteristics of the source of persuasive message that affect the persuasiveness of that message and the attitude change that occurs in a person. - Sources may include a group (ex: your family), and institution (ex: Stanford University), etc. -However, the issue of personal relevance in a message needs to be taken into consideration —> if a person feels highly involved in the message, sources factors might not have as much of an effect on the persuasiveness of a message than if a person does not feel involved in the message and therefore doesn't devote much attention to it. Types of Source Factors - Communicator credibility —> messages given by a highly credible sources (an expert) are more persuasive than messages given by a low credibility source. (Ex: a message about the practicality of building an atomic-powered submarine is more persuasive when given by an engineer than by a drug dealer.) Intent to Persuade —> a source who has persuasive intent (recipients are told that the source wants to persuade them) is presumed to be less trustworthy than one who simply wants to communicate some messages to the audience. However, attitudinal effects of persuasive intent appear to depend upon the involvement or personal importance of the the issue to the recipient. - Knowledge of a sources intent to persuade inhibits attitude change/persuasiveness of the message more when the issue is personally important to the recipient rather than unimportant. (Ex: You're less likely to agree with a persuasive message advocating for seniors having to take a comprehensive test before graduation if you are a senior of if this rule will be put in place when your a senior (high personal relevance) than if this rule will be put in place at another school or after you've graduated already (Low personal relevance) Communicator Attractiveness —> messages given by attractive/likeable sources are more persuasive than messages given by unattractive/dislikable sources (Ex: The televised debates between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy: Nth men were articulate, experienced debaters and knowledgeable about the issues in the campaign, however, JFK was considered by many to be a more likable communicator as well as an overall more attractive person, making his side of the debate more persuasive than Nixon's who was not a great communicator and not as likable/attractive. Communicator Similarity —> a source's similarity to the message's recipients increase that person's likeability and persuasiveness. However, similar communicators don't always mean more impact pop;e than dissimilar communicators. - For issues dealing primarily with values or opinions where there is no verifiable "correct" answer, similar sources that agree with a subject engender more confidence in the subjects opinion than dissimilar sources. (ExL there is no correct answer for what makes a person attractive, however if you believe that slenderness makes a person attractive, then you might be even more confident in that opinion if your friend agreed with you (similar) than if a foreign exchange student (dissimilar) agreed with you. -When the issue concerns verifiable facts, agreement from dissimilar sources results in more confidence in the truthfulness of the facts than agreement from similar sources. - When the issue concerns verifiable facts, agreements from dissimilar sources results in more confidence in the truthfulness of the facts than agreement from similar sources. (Ex: If you believe that the Queen of England is 5'5" tall, you might become more confident in this belief if a foreign exchange student (dissimilar) verifies this than if a friend (similar) verifies this, probably because verification is more meaningful if it comes from a person who has different sources of info than you do. Communicator Power —> a Powerful source (someone who can administer rewards or punishment; ex: a parent) is more persuasive than a powerless source (someone who cannot administer rewards or punishment. EX: a stranger). -However, this attitude change is not internalized, who means that people don't really privately agree more with the powerful source than with the powerless source; they simply report more agreement to maximize rewards and minimize punishments. - people express more public agreement/compliance to a powerful communicator than to a powerless communicator, at least in then presence of the powerful source.

Explain how methods of knowing link to persuasion

The common sense way of knowing things is not applicable to this class. This class deals with explaining and predicting persuasive behavior, and looking at a more theoretical approach instead of a priori approach. Getting away from the idea of knowing things in a non-sensible way and thinking about dealing with persuasion in a theoretical way (the scientific way) of knowing things

Inform others about what goals are important to persuasion scientist

a. Explore b. Describe c. Explain d. Predict e. Goals are guided by systems (Paradigms)

Identify the beliefs of consistency theories and various related theories and function

o Balance Theory: Holds people will match opinions with values others and do not match with disliked others towards and attitude object. o Congruity Theory holds that whenever the attitude towards a persuader and attitude toward a position advocated by that persuader are different, we feel incongruity. Changing out attitude towards both the persuader and the position reduces incongruity. o Cognitive Dissonance Theory: Holds to the notion that people like to be consistent with their attitudes and behavior. Not being consistent creates an uncomfortable psychological state. ex) I smoke and I value my health.

Report on insufficient and effort justification

o Insufficient Justification: Reduction of dissonance by internally justifying one's behavior when external justification is insufficient Ex. Experimenter asks a participant to lie to next participant in waiting room in wy out Group 1 pd $1 had no sufficient justification to lie o Free-choice: Post decisional doubts and justification "buyers remorse" o Belief Disconfirmation: Confronted by information that's inconsistent with held position (Selective exposure, Superordinate principles) o Forced-choice: Behaviors are easier to accept if rewarded or choice of freewill, when counter attitudinal. Insufficient Justification o Effort Justification: Occurs when one has volitional exposer to unpleasant activity to reach a goal. Aronson & Mills (1956)

Report on how the wheel of science impact persuasion study

• helps us to operationalize our concepts and ground them into tangible things. • Deductive is the preferred method • Most communication research is atheoretical and/or inductive • (DD)Theory → Hypothesis → Observation (ID) → Generalization • Inductive- starts with observation, make generalizations, which then formulate your theory • Deductive- starts with theory, form a hypothesis and then make observations and generalizations

List the factors that make a good theory

• Broad Scope • Appropriate • Heuristic Value - other theories have spun out of it • Validity - value or worth; correspondence or fit; generalizability. • Parsimony - logically simplistic • Openness or Falsifiable - admits to diversity and opens a dialogue with other perspectives.

Explain the 3 confounds to the experimental study of persuasion

• Demand Characteristics a. This occurs when the experimental treatment gives the subject a hint about the "correct" response or the response that the experimenter would like the subject to make. • Evaluation Apprehension a. This occurs when the experimental treatment makes the subjects concerned about being evaluated by the experimenter. This makes the subjects more likely to engage in a socially desirable response, a response that makes them look good (but not necessarily a response that would confirm the experimenters hypothesis). • Experimenter Bias a. This occurs when the experimenter's behavior, rather than the experimental manipulation, influences the subjects' responses. For example, if the experimenter were to nod his head in agreement when subjects listened to the expert source but not when they listened to the anonymous source, this could produce the observed difference between conditions.

Identify physiological indictors of attitude

• Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) a. minor electrical changes in the skin that result from sweating b. Because people perspire more when emotionally aroused, it was thought that the GSR could be used to assess a person's emotional response to a stimulus. c. Because the GSR correlates with the intensity of an emotion, but not the direction, its use for assessing attitudes is rather limited. • Pupillary Response a. Suggested that pupillary expansion would accompany the repeated presentations of stimuli that the person liked; whereas pupillary constriction would accompany the repeated presentations of stimuli that the person disliked. b. Pupils expand and constrict based on light. Therefore, there is presently no evidence that the pupils are successful in predicting attitudes for nonvisual stimuli. • Facial EMG a. a measure of the contractions of major facial muscles. b. Able to measure happy or sad responses to stimuli and can also measure their intensity. The changes in face are not noticeable by the human eye, but the machine can pick up the small or minute changes in facial muscles.

Examine the different types of measurement

• Nominal- Used w/ qualitative data (Brands of shoes), Male/female, small/medium/large• Ordinal- Rank order (1st, 2nd etc...) • Interval- Equal intervals but no absolute 0 (Temperature), how far was the person in second place behind the person in first • Ratio- Has absolute zero and equal intervals (Kelvin scale)