Persuasion Principles Test 1

Dillard maintains the most important environment, in terms of the evolution of human beings, has been:

Social Enviroment

Dillard also maintains the nature of our emotional behaviors has evolved in the presence and service of:

Social Interaction

Reactance theory was proposed by _________.

Jack Williams Brehm

What are the 3 problems with relying on effects criterion?

1.) An effects criterion emphasizes persuasion as a product, or outcome, rather than a process. 2.) An effects criterion entails a linear view of the persuasion, from source to receiver. In face to face conversations there isn't simply a source and a receiver 3.) It is often difficult, if not impossible, to measure persuasive effects.

Festinger's first hypothesis states that there are two major sources of cognition, namely:

A persons own experience, and communication from other people

Some consequences of psychological reactance are:

A threatened freedom can increase in attractiveness The target may attempt to perform the threatened behaivors.

Miller & Quick (2007) assert, "trait reactance" (i.e., reactance as a personality attribute) refers to:

A unique personality characteristic people exhibit across situations

Dillard asserts the __________ evolved because it enabled successful interaction with the environment.

Affective Processing

According to ELM, the primary impact of persuasion communication depends upon the:

Amount of elaboration in which the individual will engage Amount of issue-relevant thinking about an issue the individual will do.

According to the text, all of the following are problems with relying on an "effects" criterion to define persuasion except:

An effects criterion emphasizes the process of persuasion, not the outcome

Dillard notes that accurate evaluations and judgements of environmental changes are not simple tasks. There is the basic problem of how we are to respond, and essentially, we have only two behavioral options (and thus, only two corresponding motivations) which are:

Approach or Withdrawal

Vested interest defines A-B-C as:

Attitude Behavior Consistency

Bream initially conceptualized restoration of freedom as a means of restoring a receiver's injured feeling(s) of:

Autonomy and Self-Determination

Brehm's theory of psychological reactance asserts that, with regard tot certain limited and specifiable areas of behavior, people have a distinct and strong preference to perceive themselves as masters of their own fate. This motivational force produces a need for:

Autonomy and Self-Determination

Concerning Maslow's Hierarchy of needs:

Basic physical needs will generally be protected before safety, esteem, and belonging needs.

To deal with anticipated social interactions, we rely primarily on:

Cognitions

Festinger further expands on his 3rd hypothesis by stating that the stronger the attraction on the recipient toward the association with the communicator, the greater will be the impact of the communication on cognition. This is illustrated by the fact that recipients tend to trust in:

Communicators perceived as impartial

Festinger's second hypothesis states that the impact of direct experience will exert pressure on a person's cognitions to:

Conform to that experience

Festinger 4th hypothesis gets to the heart of his theory by asserting that there exists a tendency to make ones cognition and behavior ______________.

Consonant

Explicit commands that frequently use forceful adverbs such as "you ought," "you must," or "you should," tell a person clearly and directly what to do, therefore, such a highly explicit, directive language is often viewed as:

Controlling and may contribute to a sense of threatened freedom

Fabian, a world famous brain surgeon, is highly regarded for her skill and precision in the operating room, yet she knows nothing about bull fighting or basketball. This best illustrates that:

Credibility is situational or contextual

If you appeal to people's sense of tradition, and their values about following rules and playing it by the book, etc., then you are appealing to _______________ tendencies.

Dogmatic

To deal with unanticipated social interactions, we rely primarily on:

Emotions

You could argue that ___________ and ___________ have the greatest effect on referent power.

Expertise and Sociability

According to the text and lecture, ______ & _______ make up the two primary dimensions of source credibility:

Expertise and Trustworthiness

Better educated people tend to be more critical of unsupported messages and harder to charm or fool, thus, they are generally less persuadable than less educated people.

False

Despite any criticism, many argue that the ELM is a particularly strong model of persuasion because is stipulates that message processing is only possible by one of two methods

False

High-Anxiety targets are persuaded by anxiety producing messages because they are easily distracted by their anxiety, and thus less likely to scrutinize weak arguments?

False

If a person considers an attitude object important (e.g., hurricane relief efforts or good arithmetic) than that attitude object must have hedonic consequences for that person:

False

Less educated people are easily confused by complex messages, thus, they are generally more persuadable than better educated people.

False

Messaris asserts that indexicality cannot be faked

False

One potential weakness of the ELM is that is assumes the amount and type of topic-relevant thinking varies by receiver, i.e., messages focusing on issues of high relevance for a particular receiver may not necessarily be scrutinized any differently from messages concerning issues of low importance to the receiver.

False

Reactance theory predicts that the more explicit the intent of a persuasive message (i.e., the more it is spelled out in clear, straightforward language), the more receptive the subject will be to its influence

False

Research has found that behaviors are almost always consistent with attitudes:

False

Since highly vested attitudes will be experienced as ego-involving, ego-involved attitudes will always be perceived as highly vested:

False

Studies indicate that throughout the human life cycle, reactance peaks briefly during adolescence, then gradually declines until it reaches its lowest level during old age:

False

The theory of psychological reactance predicts that when an individual's perceived freedom is threatened by a proscribed attitude or behavior, the individual will experience a motivating pressure toward conforming with the position advocated in the proscriptive message:

False

When we engage in "peripheral route" processing we will likely reflect on issue-relevant concerns associated with eh topic of the persuasive message.

False

Within the ELM, if the target is known to be involved in the issues, then quantity and quality of arguments are of equal importance.

False

If you appeal to people's sense of sympathy, reciprocity, empathy, then you are appealing to ____________ tendencies.

Feminine

Miller et al. (2007) suggest that boomerang effects risk the prospect of having the source of a persuasive message (such as a parent or a school teacher) violate the Hippocratic Oath, which says:

First doing no harm

In central-route processing, receivers often tend to use decision rules:

Focusing closely on careful attention to message attributes. Requiring careful information processing to determine message acceptance or rejection.

According to James Dillard, the primary function of affect is to?

Guide behavior in the present

Vested interest infers to the extent to which an attitude object is _______ for the attitude holder

Hedonically Relevant

The tendencies to exhibit individualism, practicality, and high degree of attitude behavior consistency are attributes associated with:

High Self-Esteem and Low Self-Monitors

A desire for facts, evidence, proof, and strong arguments is typically associated with:

High need for cognition

According to Messaris, an ______ function of images is that they can make something look real even though it isn't, as with he example of the housewife being picture with four arms rather than two because she must cook dinner, take care of the kids, do the laundry, and clean the house.

Iconic

Messaris notes that "If there is one property that most clearly distinguishes picture from language and other modes of communication, that property is ____________" A good illustration of they scan be found in Phillip Morris's use of the Marlboro Man.

Iconicity

According to the text, Paul Messaris's (1997) conceptualization of visual persuasion assumes that images persuade in three basic ways; these being through:

Iconicity, Indexicality, and syntactic indeterminacy

Advertisers can use words when they want to make a point explicitly, and rely on _________ when they want to use images to make a point implicitly.

Iconicity, indexicality, and syntactic indeterminacy

Messaris asserts that the main way that images persuade is by functioning as ________ , which simply means that they resemble the things they represent.

Icons

________ is a temporal consideration involving the amount of time between an action compelled by an attitude and the consequences of that action:

Immediacy

A photo of rotting teeth can offer ________ information as to how too much sugar and not enough oral hygiene can affect one's smile.

Indexical

Prior to meeting a person, ______ is your perception of that person based on their reputation, on their status and on what you have heard about them, if anything:

Initial Credibility

If you appeal to people's sense of reason and logic, and their need for evidence, and sound judgment, etc., then you are appealing to their ________________ tendencies.

Intellectual

Affect:

Is a valanced state arising from the effects of instrumental reinforcing stimuli. Applies to bipolar, positive/negative constructs

Cognition:

Is best represented as (=) or (=/=) rather than (+) or (-)

A desire to conform and a particularly strong and socially sensitive need to be accepted by others, along with an appreciation for social proof are attributes associated with:

Low Self-Esteem and High Self-Monitors

Peripheral Processing is a tendency especially typical of people with:

Low need for cognition

Psychological reactance is conceived as a(an) ______ directed toward the reestablishment of the free behaviors. Similar to the idea of psychological motivation, which theory is driven by motivation?:

Motivational state

Vested interest is primarily (i.e., first and foremost) concerned with:

Outcome-Relevant involvement (behaviors with personal consequences)

According to Miller et al. (2007) and reactance theory, persuasive message with these two sentences following, "The choice is yours. It is up to," can serve to restore the receiver's:

Perceived Freedom

According to Crano, among the five components of vested interest, ________ is based on how actively conscious one is in thinking about a particular attitude object:

Salience

According to lecture and readings the elements required for a reactance to occur are:

Perceived free behaviors Awareness of threatened freedoms The ability to perform the perceived behaviors The belief one may engage in the behavior at any moment

The term "proscribed" means ______, whereas the term "prescribed" means _______

Prohibited; Advocated

According to Miller & Quick (2007), reactance theory posits that individual become ______ aroused when their perceived behavioral _______ are threatened or reduced, and the resulting reactance _______ attempts to restore the threatened freedoms:

Psychologically; Freedoms; Motivates

What is the most economical (costs you the least resources and effort) form of power?

Referent

The reading and lecture noted how psychological reactance theory predicts that the more directive and controlling a persuasive message is perceived to be, the more likely it is to be:

Rejected

Festinger's third hypothesis states that the strength of the impact of a communication to make other cognitions conform to that communication will vary with the:

Relationship between the recipient and the communicator

________ refers to the perceived presence, prominence, or conspicuousness of the effects of an attitude on the holder of that attitude, not just its accessibility:

Salience

Reactance is motivated by the individual's basic need for interdependence and affiliation:

Self determination

A retail sales clerk reads a book entitled, "Smile Your Way To Success." Applying this technique to selling would involve which dimension of credibility?

Sociability

According to what the text says about self-esteem and persuasion who is the easiest to persuade?

Someone who's self-esteem is somewhere in between neither too strong nor too weak.

Reactance in response to certain messages may often be followed by:

Source Derogation Boomerang Effect Increase in the attractiveness of the threatened freedom

One of Dillard's major assumptions is that, for better or for worse, human beings _____________ their affective states.

Strategically Manage

Pictures can imply an association without one having to actually and/or explicitly state the association. In other words, images can never state the precise nature of a relationship between two objects; it is up to the observer to make an interpretation. This notion is embodied in the concept of ____________.

Syntactic Indeterminacy

Unlike words, pictures cannot convey precise relationships between things. This is to say that images cannot explicitly state if-then casual relationships, which illustrates the concept of ___________.

Syntactic Indeterminacy

How you feel at the end of the transaction based on what occurred during the transaction creates:

Terminal Credibility

This kind of credibility functions to produce initial credibility for the next time you interact:

Terminal Credibility

Bream hypothesized that the strength of psychological reactance is greatest when:

The importance of the free behaviors to an individual is high the degree of threat is high

Dillard Maintains that our tonic (or baseline) state as a physical organism is determined by:

The resources available to us (e.g, a nourished and rested body) at the time an action is required.

This kind of credibility fluctuates during the conversation or presentation from higher to lower than initial, from reaction and reevaluation based on their performance and your expectations:

Transactional Credibility

Although highly vested attitudes will always be experienced as important, attitude involving important objects will not always be perceived as highly vested:

True

Crano asserts that it is the potential subjective importance of an issue, not its objective significance that drives attitude-consistent action:

True

Persuaders should use anxiety-producing messages to appeal to low-anxiety targets, because low-anxiety targets will scrutinize an anxiety-producing message to find our why it makes them feel anxious, and they'll look for information useful in lowering their anxiety to its normal level.

True

Studies indicate reactance is a trip-model throughout the human life cycle, i.e., briefly peaking during three life phases, with the highest level occurring during adolescence:

True

The ELM's focus on argument strength is a problem for the model because it is not always clear precisely what should constitute a weak versus a strong argument.

True

When we engage in "central route" processing, we attend very carefully to the persuasion message and carefully examine the arguments contained within the message.

True

If you appeal to people's desire for vividness, and stimulating images, color, and sound, etc., then you are appealing to their __________ tendencies.

Youthful

Festinger expands on his 4th hypothesis by stating that: Given a dissonance between an item of cognition and an item of behavior, there will be a tendency to change the:

cognition so as to make it consonant with the behavior behavior so as to make it consonant with the cognition

Festinger's 5th hypothesis state that if a consonance exists there will be resistance to changes in behavior or ______________ which would introduce ______________.

cognition; dissonance

According to Festinger, there are three possible relations with can exist between items of behavior and items of cognition namely:

dissonance, consonance, and irrelevance

Messaris suggests that images--particularly shots and video-- have the ability to document or leave a sign that some action or event has taken place. Thus one way images persuade is through___________.

indexicality

Festinger refers to communication as being ________________ and its effects on ______________.

indirect experience; cognition

According to lecture who is the most vulnerable to being persuaded, and thus willing to settle for a less compelling argument?

lower self-esteem

Festinger expands further on his 3rd hypothesis by stating that the greater the "trustworthiness: of a communicator, the greater will be the impact of his or her communication on:

the recipient's relevant cognitions

When engaged in central-route processing, an individuals motivation to elaborate is such that:

thinking about the persuasive message typically will be guide by focusing on argument strength