Chapter 9 Persuasion

Distraction and Persuasion

When distracted by a highly credible source, we tend to be more persuaded; when distracted by a less-credible source, we tend to be less persuaded.

Psychological Reactance

When people feel that their freedom to behave or think in a certain way is restricted, they experience *psychological reactance* and attempt to restore their freedom. Ex. We like to feel free to laugh or be persuaded, and if we feel that freedom is in jeopardy, we experience psychological reactance; we don't laugh or we resist persuasion.

Pyramidical Order

When strong arguments are placed in the middle. Research suggests that putting your strong arguments either first or last is the best strategy.

Anticlimax Order

When strong arguments come first

Climax Order

When strong arguments come last.

Gain-Framed Vs. Loss-Framed messages: Keep on the sunny side?

*Ex*: Action 1: guarantees that 200 of the 600 will be saved. Action 2: gives a 33.3% chance that 600 people will be saved and a 66.6% chance that no one will be saved. __________________________________________ *Action 1*: Guarantees that 400 of the 600 will die. *Action 2*: Gives a 33.3% chance that no one will die and a 66.6% change that everyone will die. ___________________________________________ **The first pair of actions look on the brighter side by focusing on how many lives will be saved, while the second pair of actions portray the glass half empty by focusing on how many will die**.

Chunked Vs Unchunked Arguments

-chunked: with clearly defined pro and con segments -unchunked: with pros and cons coming in an uninterrupted and uncategorized stream of information. -chunking is better because signals that there is a change in the nature of the information being presented, the break between segments might cause motivated people to consolidate the information they've heard, form an attitude, and stick with it (primacy effect). For unmotivated ppl who might normally ignore later information, however, the break might act as a "wake-up call," increasing the amount of attention they pay to later information (recency effect). -In unchunked conditions, the effects are the opposite.

Primacy and Recency Effects

A coin is flipped, one candidate speaks, and then the other takes a turn. When that happens, is there any advantage to speaking first, or do all good things come to those who wait? Results in this area are mixed; some studies support a *primacy effect*--i.e. the first arguments presented have an advantage But others support a *recency effect*--i.e. the later arguments presented have an advantage.

Inoculation

A second way to stay healthy is through *inoculation*. Perhaps your rear end has forgotten all of those needles it encountered in your youth, but if you've ever had immunizations or a flue shot, you are familiar with the reasoning behind such injections. The idea is that if you are exposed to a small dose of a disease virus, your bodies are better able to defend themselves against the virus later. These metaphors behind supportive and inoculation strategies can also be applied to situations involving persuasion.

"Rhetoric"

Aristotle defined it as: "the faculty of discovering all the available means of persuasion". Although today the term "rhetoric" is often used in conjunction with words such as "empty" or meaningless", the connotations surrounding the term was not always negative.

Evidence

Different persuasive claims require different types of proof. One common form of proof is evidence. A benefit on using evidence is that it tends to increase a source's perceived credibility. Most everyday persuaders need all he help they can get. Unless you are the foremost expert in the world on an issue, go ahead and include high-quality evidence, and lots of it, in your persuasive message.

Quality

For other people, it is the *quality* of arguments that counts. For such ppl, the number of arguments is inconsequential (aka unimportant, insignificant). They require "gourmet" arguments.

Quantity

For some people, it is the *quantity* of arguments presented that counts. For them, a "kitchen sink" approach, in which an advocate throws in every available arguments, works best.

Quantity Vs. Quality of Arguments: The More the Merrier

If given the choice between an all you can eat buffet and fancy French restaurant, which would you pick? Buffets offer lots of mediocre food, while a good french restaurant typically promises small portions of quality cuisine. What appeals to you more than likely depends on your priorities. The same is true of persuasive messages.

Supportive Strategy

If you want a healthy body, what do you do? One strategy is to eat your Wheaties and Flintstones vitamins, avoid fats and sugars, stay rested, and exercise. This is what is know as a *supportive strategy*. The rationale here is that a stronger body will be more effective at fending off diseases and viruses.

Implicit Conclusions

In contrast, one type of *soft-sell strategy* involves the use of *implicit conclusions*. Here the persuader is more subtle, allowing persuaders to reach their own conclusions without being told what to do or believe. *Ex.*: An implicit conclusions approach is used because customers are allowed to make their own references. Research found that it is better to let receivers draw their own conclusions about a product when the receivers have a lot of knowledge about that type of product (Ex. cd players).

Gain-Framed

Messages like the first pair that look on the "bright side" of things. Look for what there is to be gained. (200 of the 600 will survive).

Loss-Framed

Messages like the second pair that look at the negative side. Look at what will be "lost". (400 of the 600 will die) While gain framed appeals are more effective that loss-framed appeals when trying to promote dental hygiene, *loss-framed appeals* were more effective than gain framed appeals for promoting great cancer detection behaviors.

Explicit vs. Implicit Conclusions

One of the key decisions facing advertisers is whether a hard-sell or a soft-sell strategy is best.

Explicit Conclusions

One type of *hard-sell strategy* is to draw *explicit conclusions* for your audience. In other words, when employing an explicit conclusions approach, any claim that is made in a message is directly stated by the person sending the message. Ex*: You should buy our product, our product is simply the best.

One Sided vs. Two Sided Messages

One-Sided Message--presenting arguments in favor of a single position Two-sided Message--presents arguments in favor of one proposition and considers opposing arguments as well. In other words, when trying to persuade an audience to accept your arguments and reject your opponent's arguments, it is best to address your opposition or ignore them? The effectiveness of one to two sided arguments depended on two factors: education level and initial attitude. One sided was effective for persuading subjects with little education, whereas two sided message was more effective for persuading subjects who had at least a high school education.

Order Effects and Persuasion

Persuasive messages often contain many arguments, some stronger than others. When that happens, whoever is delivering the persuasive message must decide how he or she should arrange the arguments.

Repetition

Research has argued that message repetition can be an effective tactic, but not always. One perspective is that message repetition causes the *mere exposure effect*: this theory says that familiar objects are more liked than less familiar ones, and that by merely being repetitively exposed, something initially unfamiliar will be looked upon more favorably. *Mere exposure theory* suggests that we really do "acquire tastes" , that things can "grow on us".

Refutational strategy

Responding to your opponent's position is one of the most important parts of debate, and doing so well can give you a huge strategic advantage in the round As a lawyer, if you were trying to defend someone accused of murder who is innocent, you might use the *refutational strategy* , by exposing the jurors to weak doses of the other lawyer's arguments and by showing how such arguments might be refuted. The hope is that jurors exposed to weak doses of the opposition's argument will be less persuaded.

Refutational Vs. Nonrefutational Messages

Two types of two-sided messages: *Nonrefutational (non argued against)*: opposing arguments are mentioned by not argued against *Refutational (argued against)*: opposing arguments are presented and shown to be inferior to the position advocated. Two sided messages are more effective than one-sided messages as long as the two sided message is *refutational*. Two sided nonrefutational messages are usually less effective than one-sided messages.

Cultural Truism

a belief whose truth is taken for granted. For example, the idea that "it is good to brush your teeth after every meal, if possible", is a cultural truism because it is generally accepted in our culture.

Forewarning (You'd better watch out)

an advance warning. Forewarning an audience of a persuasive message can be an effective way of making an audience resistant to that message. Forewarning only makes people aware of a possible counter attitudinal attack.

Dispositio

the study of rhetoric was divided into 5 parts...one of them being *dispositio*. It focused on selecting the most important arguments and ideas and on the effective and orderly arrangements of those ideas and arguments. It noted the significance of strategically planning and organizing a persuasive message.

Inoculation Theory

used to explain more about how attitudes and beliefs change, and more importantly, how to keep existing attitudes and beliefs consistent in the face of persuasion attempts. At the core of inoculation theory is a biological metaphor.The idea that attitudes could be inoculated against persuasive attacks in much the same way that one's immune system can be inoculated against viral attacks. In medical immunization, weakened forms of viruses are injected into the body, and the body then reacts to this injection (e.g., through cell adaptation), protecting the body from future attacks from stronger versions of that virus. *By exposing individuals to a persuasive message that contains weakened arguments against an established attitude (e.g., a two-sided message, or a message that presents both counterarguments and refutations of those counterarguments), individuals would develop resistance against stronger, future persuasive attacks*.

Bracketing

when people working on political campaigns send hecklers to their opponents speeches. designed to fluster the heckled candidate. -when an audience identifies with a heckled speaker, the speaker is more persuasive and is perceived as more credible -distraction prevents people from scrutinizing a counterattitudinal message. If someone can't scrutinize, they are less likely to be persuaded.