Comm 368 Exam 3

Consistency

*Commitment-> consistency to committed position -encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with commitment -pressures to justify initial commitment -desire for consistency is central motivator of our behavior

Brain Studies on Dissonance

*Dissonance arousing information: -more processing in areas of brain associated with forgiveness, regulation of emotional response and motivated reasoning *Solving cognitive dissonance: -more processing in areas associated with reward and planning

Situational Constraints- Compliance Gaining

*Dominance *Intimacy *Rights: is request warranted *Resistance: people prepare for resistance

Degrade the Victim

*I just hurt this person -> they didn't deserve it (inconsistent) *I just hurt this person -> they deserved it Rationalization Trap- the need to justify behavior leads to more reasons for doing it again in the future

Music and Advertising

*Peripheral route- creates positive mood and association -listening to music takes less cognitive effort for same message as voice -more relaxed, less counter arguing

Compliance Gaining Strategies- Interpersonal Persuasion

*Rewarding- promises, pre-giving before compliance; esteem rewards (I'll think more of you) *Punishing- threats; aversive stimulus that won't be lifted until compliance; esteem threats (I'll think less of you) *Expertise *Liking *Personal Commitments- you owe me *Altruism

Initiation Rites: Aronson & Mills (1959)

*Three screening conditions -control (pronounce normal words) -mild (pronounce somewhat sexual words) -extreme (pronounce very inappropriate sexual words) -participants then listen to sample tape of discussion group (horribly boring) *DV- expressed liking for the discussion group and desire to join *Women in more extreme condition were more likely to join to psychology of sex discussion group

Why Do We Reciprocate Gifts

-"web of indebtedness" adaptive mechanism for humans- allows people to initiate a relationship without fear of loss -social sanctions and derision applied to anyone who fails to reciprocate -can trigger unfair exchanges

Giving Mints with the Bill- Does it Increase Tips?

-no candy, 1 candy, 2 candies or 1 candy with a kind comment -candy increases tip amounts, 1 candy with kind comment increased tips the most

Zajonc- Mere Exposure Effect

-nonsense words and Chinese ideographs placed in the student newspaper at varying rates -brought in students to gauge favorability of ideographs and nonsense words *Students with increased exposure tended to display more favorability *truth effect

How to Avoid Reciprocity

-obligation is powerful -reframe from gift to compliance tactic and you are released from the ruler's power -favors should be met with favors, NOT sales techniques

Avoiding Commitment Pressures

-pay attention to consistency tension -point out the use of consistency

Promotion

-people's hopes, wishes and ideal ed states -approaching desirable -what do you want?

Door-in-the-Face Technique

-persuasive technique involving making an unreasonably large request before making the small request we're hoping to have granted -obligation to reciprocate a concession -guilt -perceptual contrast principle

Ambient Aromas and Influence

-pleasant fragrances can relax people and increase their mood ex.- spider study, MRI patients, math problem study -increase sexual arousal? Mixed research -women more likely to agree to date in front of pastry shops with pleasant aroma

Action-Oriented Mind Set

-prime person to enact decisions -resolving dissonance helps put one in an action-oriented state

When Are Subliminal Messages Effective

-priming image or word -increasing familiarity -goal relevant -when used in highly controlled lab conditions

Hypocrisy Induction- Condom Use

-questionnaire or no questionnaire regarding condom use completed to be public or private -induces hypocrisy, but not pointed out *Participants who made public proclamation of condom usage reported more regular condom usage

Music within Advertising

-reinforce product's image (association) -mere exposure -mnemonic device -increases brand recall

Door-in-The-Face Success

-same cause/issue requested -same presenter makes request -short duration between the requests -best for volunteer/pro-social requests

Adaptive Value of Dissonance

-second guessing could waste valuable time -spend resources on implementing decision -increases confidence to act

Why do People Experience Dissonance

-self perception -impression management -threat to self image -Unpleasant consequences + responsibility = guilt

Ambient Aromas and Consumer Behavior

-shoppers visiting identical rooms except: unscented and scented- results *Pleasant scents increase the amount that shoppers linger

Disrupt the Reframe

-shows something unusual and confusing to capture your attention, then gives you new information to change your thinking -causes cognitive disruption -different effects for people with high vs. low need for cognition

Zimbardo Grasshopper Study- 1965

-subjects are asked to eat a grasshopper by "Mr. Nice" or "Mr. Nasty" -half of the participants in both conditions refused to eat them, but researchers wanted to know the attitude of those who ate them -attitude of those who interacted with "Mr. Nice" was better than those who interacted with "Mr. Nasty

Induced Compliance

-subtly compelling people to behave in a manner that is inconsistent with their beliefs, attitudes, or values, in order to elicit dissonance, and therefore a change in their original views *unpleasant task- would not intrinsically want to do *asked- not forced *given minimal reward/justification

Attitude Function- Knowledge

-summarize a large amount of info to simplify our world -based on prior knowledge *Promotion: -lists key product attributes and benefits -use of logic: Omega 3 helps build up the brain, cereal X contains Omega 3, thus helps build up the brain -use of comparative advertising: most effective for alignable differences: brand X works for 4 hours vs. brand Z works for 8 hours (aleve) *Prevention: -avoid ambiguity, uncertainty and confusion -ads use ambiguity, uncertainty and confusion to reduce resistance and encourage consumer to counterargue less -mystery ad: draws attention and strong memory of brand

Resistance

-targets naturally resist compliance gaining attempts -breaking down resistance and decrease counter-arguing

Fear then Relief

-the persuader deliberately places the recipient in a state of fear, only to quickly eliminate the threat, and replace it with a mild request for compliance *distracts people with negative emotions, disrupts emotional processes -change of emotions is disorienting

Low Balling

-the persuader gets you to commit to an action then before you perform it the "cost increases" *initial commitment to first decision *initial request creates an unfulfilled obligation

Justification of Effort

-the tendency for individuals to increase their liking for something they have worked hard to attain ex- hazing, peace corps

Mere Exposure

-the tendency to prefer stimuli (including but not limited to people) that we have seen more frequently *Cognitive Ease- repeated exposure increases liking

Repetition with Variation

-used to prevent wear out effect -works better with peripheral processing

Reality of Subliminals

-used, but rarely -possible that subliminal priming could be effective in advertising, but is banned by FCC

Attitude Function- Social Adjustive

-what helps you meet your social goals; gain acceptance or avoid ostracism *Promotion -highlights positive outcome -"use our product and everyone will like you!" *Prevention: -avoiding being ostracized by friends and others by using our product -ex.- yellow teeth, dandruff, body odor

Importance of Attitude Function

-when a persuasive technique matches attitude function of target it can be more persuasive

Truth Effect

-when consumers believe a statement simply because it has been repeated a number of times -potential for wear out effect

Reciprocity- Compliance Gaining

-when someone gives you something, it may later create an obligation for you to later repay it *Trigger Feature -> fixed action sequence *Gift -> I should reciprocate; obligation to repay -persuaders can use the heuristics we use against us by instituting trigger feature

Perfume: A Case in Peripheral Processing

-when you have a weak argument: distract to increase peripheral processing *Distract Through: -artsy ad, strange layouts, confusing context -entertaining context -attractive spokesperson -disrupt and reframe

Cognitive Strain

-affected by current level of effort and presence of unmet demands

Experiences of Dissonance

-after counter-attitudinal behavior, people have high negative discomfort and arousal *When given sedative, no attitude change with dissonance inducing behavior *When given amphetamine, more attitude change with dissonance inducing behavior *Attribute arousal to external source, no attitude change

Drive Carefully Study- Foot in the door

-approached home owner's with "drive carefully signs" beginning with a small sign *Small sign: almost 100% agreed -later brought larger sign and 76% agreed *In control condition, where they only asked to place a large sign, 17% agreed

Question-Behavior Effect

-asking people about their pro-social behavior increases pro-social behavior -ex.- recycling

Sensory Branding

-association -increases attitude accessibility -visual images are more effective when coupled with an aroma

Peripheral Processing Summary

-associations and linkages, liking, good mood, mere exposure and accessibility and heuristics *When peripheral processing is most likely to occur: -short on time -overloaded with info -not important decision -we don't know much else about the product

Attitude Function- Utilitarian

-attitudes that help people approach pleasure and avoid pain more quickly *Promotion: -our product can bring you lots of rewards -often used with high calorie food, guilty pleasures *Prevention: -our product can prevent unpleasant things from happening to you ex.- pain, insomnia, etc.

Attitude Function- Ego Defensive

-attitudes that help people feel good about themselves and help them feel safe from real or imagined threats -self protective, self-enhancing -security systems, guns, condoms, etc. *Promotion: -use of experts and authority figures -offer spiritual, political, financial or security related advice about how to obtain desired level of security -goal to feel safe and secure *Prevention: -fear appeals that make a negative outcome more relative

Attitude Function- Social Identity

-attitudes that set person apart from others -shows status, good taste, cool *Promotion: -image appeals emphasize uniqueness of people who buy brand -emphasize positive, ideal image *Prevention: -show poor, sad, unattractive actors with ineffective products -"don't end up like this guy"

Subliminal Messages

-below the threshold of awareness -subtle/supraliminal vs. subliminal *Five Types: -embedding -subliminal priming -sub-audible messages -subliminal smells -backward masking

Ethics of Ambient Smell

-can't "look" away -allergic reactions, health related concerns of breathing petrochemicals -example in SF with "Got Milk"

Humor

-captures attention -less counter-arguing -increases liking and perceived social attractiveness -may diminish perceptions of competence or expertise

How to Reduce Dissonance

-change attitude -add additional beliefs consistent with attitude -downplay importance of behavior -suppress thoughts -deny responsibility

Foot-In-The-Door Explained

-changes in self perception to be consistent with original commitment paves the way for later compliance -consistency between first and second action

Smells Like Clean Spirit

-clean smells like citrus-scented Windex promote clean behavior -people exposed to clean smell were more likely to clean up crumbs after eating a crumbly biscuit *Cleaner scents reduce littering

Foot-In-The-Door

-compliance to small request increases likelihood of compliance to large request

Post-Decision Dissonance

-dissonance aroused after making a decision, typically reduced by enhancing the attractiveness of the chosen alternative and devaluating the rejected alternatives

Spreading of Alternatives

-emphasize positive aspects of choice and negative aspects of unchosen alternative so that now the two choices seem far apart -people often stick with bad choices in order to justify them -try to avoid "buyer's remorse"

Cognitive Dissonance- Festinger (1959)

-experiments with induced compliance -participants perform extremely boring task (peg board adjustment) -P's were either offered nothing $1 or $20 to lie to next person about how the experiment is fun -those offered more money had more sufficient justification to lie than those in the other conditions *Induced Compliance

Prevention

-failing to meet duties, responsibilities, obligations, ought goals -avoiding undesirable -what should you do?

What do Persuaders Do?

-free samples -enclose free gift in envelope soliciting money

Spreading of Alternatives- Brehm 1956

-had young women evaluate and rate 8 small household products -after P's rated the products, they were given the opportunity to take home 1 of the products -women were asked to re-rate the products after the choice was made -ratings on chosen item went up, while the other item ratings went down

Pointing out Hypocrisy to Persuade

-have someone espouse pro-social viewpoint, then indirectly point out discrepancies in their personal behavior from viewpoint -thus, cognitive dissonance *commitment to position leads to pressure to behave consistently with position

Incentive Systems vs. Reciprocity

-hotel towel reuse placard study *Control: standard environmental appeal *Incentive appeal- hotel will donate % of energy savings to environmental protection: no increase *Reciprocity- hotel had already made donation and asked guest to reciprocate by reusing their towel: 45% increase

Subliminal Priming

-image flashed very quickly -ex.- priming happy faces to softdrink increased preference but only for thirsty participants

Cognitive Ease

-in the absence of factual knowledge, people select statements constructed in simpler and more memorable language when faced with choices between false statements *Peripheral cues *Increase of Cognitive Ease: -repeated exposure -clear display -primed idea -good mood

Legitimization of Paltry Favors Technique

-influence technique in which a requester makes a small amount of aid acceptable

Background Music and Persuasion

-influences shopping pace: people bought 17%/38% more stuff with slow tempo music-shopped 18 % longer and lingered -restaurant patrons ate faster to faster paced music (94 beats per minute): higher bar tab with slow tempo music (72 beats) -uplifting music makes people more compliant -sets mood for brand atmosphere

Cognitive Dissonance

-inner tension that a consumer experiences after recognizing an inconsistency between behavior and values or opinions -collectivists (Eastern cultures) vs. individualistic (Western cultures)

Compliance Gaining

-involves interpersonal attempts at influence, especially attempts to influence someone's behavior

Role of Self-Affirmation

-maintain a sense of self-adequacy; competent, good, stable, moral, integrated, capable of choice *Threats to the integrity of self leads to: -address the threat directly -address the threat indirectly by affirming other valued self-images -other aspects of valued self-image buffers

Reciprocity Study: Coke

*control group: actor does not give coke *reciprocity condition: actor gives person a coke -actor then asks participant if they'd like to purchase raffle tickets *Those who received coke bought twice as many tickets

Compliance Gaining Study

-P's gave answer and then were presented with evidence that they were wrong Three Conditions -don't write down answer -write down, but throw away -write down and show answers *Those who wrote down and showed answers were more likely to stick with the answers