Social Psychology Exam 2
How does the media endorse stereotypes
People who watch more tv tend to endorse more racially prejudiced attitudes, assume that women have more limited abilities than men, and overestimate the prevalence of violent crime
What kind of persuasion works for immediate acquisence of an audience
Peripheral route- they are not very motivated or attentive
Audience characteristics definition
Characteristics of those who receive a persuasive message, including need for cognition, mood, and age
When ability to process something is low what happens
(arguments in a persuasive message are being presented too quickly or are hard to comprehend- we're more apt to rely on easy-to-process, peripheral cues associated with the message, such as the credentials of the message source
Placed in stressful social situations, people with friends feel
Showed a milder stress-related cardiovascular response to the challenging tasks
Elaboration likelihood model definition
A model of persuasion maintaining that there are two differing routes to persuasion- the central route and the peripheral route
What might a peripheral route argument do in relation to a red meat argument
A person might argue "an expert says its bad to eat" or "there are many arguments agaisnt it" or "a lot of people dont eat it"
Peripheral route definition
A route to persuasion wherein people attend to relatively easy-to-process, superficial cues related to a persuasive message, such as its length or the expertise or attractiveness of the source of the message
Central route definition
A route to persuasion wherein people think carefully and deliberately about the content of a persuasive message, attending to its logic and the strength of its arguments, as well as to related evidence and principles
Credibility of a message's source can sway opinions under what circumstances and example
Circumstances that promote the peripheral route to persuasion- when the topic is of low personal relevance to the audience or the audience is distracted
Guilt seems to lead to an enhanced persuasion when
So long as the communication offers people a way to alleviate some of their guilt
People with low need for cognition do what
Are persuaded more by easier- to-process peripheral cues
How does fear play into persuasion
Fear- eliciting persuasive messages that provide information that can be acted on can be highly effective
High personal relevance did what for the argument and what route of persuasion
Made participants be persuaded by the strength of the arguments (the central route to persuasion)
What helps us respond to short term stress- immediate threats to survival
Activation of the HPA axis and the accompanying release of cortisol into the bloodstream
What is a problem with advertising
Advertising can be directed at young children
Sleeper effect definition
An effect that occurs when a persuasive message from an unreliable source initially exerts little influence but later causes attitudes to shift
Message characteristics definition
Aspects, or content, of a persuasive message including the quality of the evidence and the explicitness of its conclusions
How are attractive people persuasive
Attractive sources are particularly persuasive when the message isn't personally important to the people haring it and when those people don't have much knowledge of the domain
People who are low in motivation or ability will
Be unlikely to discern the strength of the arguments because they're only noticing peripheral cues of the message- so whether of not they change their attitudes is less affected by the argument strength
Short= term stressors can what
Become chronic, triggering, excessively high levels of cortisol that damage our health
Sources who express their views how are more persuasive
Certainty and confidence
Source characteristic definition
Characteristics of the person who delivers a persuasive message, such as attractiveness, credibility, and certainty
What are aspects of the peripheral route arguments
Cues, such as the communicators expertise or credibility can be a form of evidence when processed. Persuasion occurs when the person is swayed by these cues without engaging in much thought
Recent studies have found what pertaining to the sleeper effect
Delayed persuasion by a credible source who is initially linked to a weak message but down the road is dissociated from it
People with a weak need fro cognition do that
Don't find thought and contemplation that much fun
Example of listening selectivley
During presidential elections people are more inclined to subscribe to and read newspapers, blogs, and websites that support their preferred candidate and avoid those that support opposition
Agenda Control definition
Efforts of the media to select certain events and topics to emphasize, thereby shaping which issues and events people think are important
The Elaboration likelihood model tries to get you to think about how the message will make the responder...
Elaborate on it- think deeply about the message or process it mindlessly
Advertisements play into persuasion how-so
Even if specific advertisements don't succeed at getting us to buy specific products, they could still sway us to believe that personal happiness lies in materialistic pursuits
How does social media play into persuasion
Even though social media is not the first thing you think of about persuasive arenas, persuasion may as well be occurring more subtly while people are using such forms of media for other purposes
People respond to stress more effectively if they
Have an increased sense of control and they also had a more optimistic outlook and engaged in better health practices
When we connect to people we are what
Healthier
David Spiegel did what
His study is probably one of the most dramatic evidence of the health benefits of social connection
Prior knowledge makes people engage how
Makes people engage with persuasive messages though the central route, thereby leading them to scrutinize those messages carefully
How do nonverbal cues play into persuasion
How confident (or not) we feel about the thoughts we have in response to a persuasive appeal can also come from nonverbal sources- whether our posture is upright or slouching, or our tone of voice is confident or uncertain
What is one way confidence can play into our thoughts
How confident we feel about our thoughts can also arise from our perceptions of the accuracy of a thought or just from how clear a thought is in our mind
What is a real-world application of the effect of persuasion in relation to age- in court
How seriously the courts should consider the testimony of young children is a major issue in light of the fact that their attitudes can be readily altered by clever attorneys interested in winning a case, not getting at the truth
What effects does cortisol have on the body
Increases heart rate and blood pressure, distributing blood to appropriate muscle groups involved in the fight- or- flight response to stress.
How do different cultures respond to ads
Individual-oriented ads were more effective with American participants and that the collective-oriented ads were more effective with Korean Participants Persuasive messages appeal to independence may be more effective among higher-class individuals, whereas messages conveying interdependence themes may be more effective among lower-class individuals
Attend selectively means to
Information that confirms their original attitudes- we tune into information that reinforces our attitudes, and we tune out information that contradicts them
How do you work with an audience to increase persuasion
It is important to match the characteristics of the persuasive message to characteristics of the intended audience
What elements of someones culture can...
Like social class, leading people from lower-class backgrounds to suffer more frequently from almost every kind of heath problem
People of lower socioeconomic status may have what
Lower heath and be more prone to health risks
People with a high needed for cognition do what
More persuaded by high-quality arguments and are relatively unmotivated by peripheral cues for persuasion
People with a greater deal of knowledge are
More resistant to persuasion, their beliefs and habits (and sometimes emotions) are tied up with their attitudes, and thus their point of view tends to be fixed
What determines whether we will engage in central or peripheral processing in response to a persuasive message? Two Factors
Motivation and ability
Ads that try to get people to shift their political allegiances
Must convince voters to abandon deep commitments
The self-validation hypothesis accounts for what finding
Nodding led students to feel greater confidence in the unfavorable thoughts they had in response to the weak arguments they were listening to, leading them to feel less favorable toward the headphones
What does nodding do to persuasion
Nodding while listening to the strong arguments led to greater confidence in the most favorable thoughts participants generated, leading to more favorable attitudes toward the people wearing headphones and nodding- in weak arguments condition, students who nodded their heads were actually less persuaded than those who shook their head side to side
Langer and Rodin preformed a study with elderly people and plants that did what
One group had plans they took care of, the other group had plants that the staff took care of- participants on the floor that emphasized personal control showed greater increases in happiness compares with those on the neighboring floors, they were more inclined to attend a free movie, ten times more likley to participate in a game proposed by the staff
There are two basic routes to persuasion what are they
One involving systematic elaboration for the persuasive arguments and the other characterized by less effortful processing of relatively superficial cues
What are social connections vital to
Our physical, mental, and emotional health``
Those with a strong need for cognition do what and example
People for a strong need for cognition like to think, puzzle, ponder, and consider multiple perspectives on issues- this is the kind of person you might observe on the subway reading Scientific American or working though sodoku puzzles on their smartphone
Some persuasive appeals will be more affective when...
People in certain contexts process persuasive messages rather mindlessly and effortlessly and on other occasions deeply and attentively
What does the elaboration likelihood model mean with two routes?
People in certain contexts process persuasive messages rather mindlessly and effortlessly and on other occasions deeply and attentively
How do jurors judge credibility
People judge how credible eyewitnesses are based on the confidence they express when they give their testimony
How does thinking about your thoughts effect persuasion
People thinking about their thoughts to have a fuller understanding of the dynamics of persuasion
What kind of persuasion involves long lasting attitude change
Persuasion through the central route- the end result is attitude change that is more enduring, more resistant to persuasion, and more predictive of future behavior
What does ability mean to persuasion
Process the message in depth: when we have sufficient cognitive resources and time, we're able to process persuasive messages more deeply, in general
How do attractive people promote change
Promote attitude change though the peripheral route
What is another connection between social class and health
Rank and power
What typically causes chronic stress
Rumination
Metacognition definition
Secondary thoughts that are reflections on primary thoughts (cognitions)
Our minds sometimes respond selectively to information in a way that maintains our initial point of view- broke down into two groups
Selective attention and selective evaluation
How does the media affect us
Several reviews suggest that the media have only a small effect on what we buy, whom we vote for, and whether or not we adopt healthier habits
Through rumination what happens
Specific stresses become chronic ones
How can pictures be powerful sources of persuasion
Vivid, flesh and blood victims are often more powerful sources of persuasion than abstract statistics
Thought polarization hypothesis definition
The hypothesis that more extended thought about a particular issue tends to produce a more extreme, entrenched attitude
Self-validation hypothesis
The idea that feeling confident about our thoughts validates those thoughts, making it more likely that we'll be swayed in their direction
Why do people process information through the central route
The issue has a great deal of personal relevance, they should be sensitive to the strength of the arguments- swayed when the arguments are strong but not when they're weak
Its easier to persuade someone when what
The person you're trying to woo is in the right mood- more successful when the mood of the message matches the mood of the audience
Psychological Stress Definition
The sense that challenges and demands surpass one's current capacities, resources, and energies.
Identifiable victim effect definition
The tendency to be more moved by the vivid plight of a single individual than by a more abstract number of people
Rumination definiton
The tendency to think about a stressful event repeatedly
Messages are higher quality when
They appeal to core values of the audience
What are aspects of central route aruments
They attend to the logic and strength of the argument and evidence presented in the message, they rely on relevant information and their own experiences, memories, and knowledge to evaluate the message
What do people with more sense of control have
They enjoy better health and well-being
What have studies shown about people who are more optomistic
They tend to have greater happiness and well-being and they enjoy better health as well.
Lower socioeconomic status individuals may construe their lives in terms of occupying positions of subordinate status...
This may be the construal that damages their health- ladder measure example
What can chronic stress lead to
Ulcers, heart disease, cancer, and even cell death in the hippocampus and consequent memory loss- high levels of cortisol damage different cells and organs in the body.
What happens when we have doubts about our thoughts
We might disregard the thoughts entirely or not even and up endorsing an opposing attitude
A highly credible source linked to a weak message does what
Weakness of the message will surely hurt persuasion initially, but the message can get dissociated from the credible source over time so that persuasion is ultimately effective in the long run solely because of the source's credibility
What does vividness to do a message
When information is vivid- colorful, interesting, and memorable- it tends to be more effective
Shared attention and what persuasion does it result in
When people perceive that they're attending to a stimulus- a televised political speech- with others they're inclined to process the stimulus more deeply, resulting in persuasion via the ELM's central route
How does going against self interest effect an argument
When someone argues for a position contrary to obvious self-interest, the source of the message is seen as more sincere
How are messages more persuasive and example
When sources argue against their own self-interest- a prison inmate advocating longer prison sentences is more persuasive than a message in which the same prisoner argued for shorter sentences-
When can source credibility be taken as a strong argument
When the audience happens to be highly motivated to be able to think carefully source credibility can be taken as a strong argument in favor of moving toward the position the credible source is endorsing
When did a student pay more attention to what was going to be on the test
When the message was personally relevant to the students- that is, when the exam was to be implemented the next year and these students would have to take it- they were motivated to pay attention to the strength of the arguments. When they wouldn't have to take the test themselves- the strength of the argument didn't matter as much
Thought polarization hypothesis example
When they stated their opinions about the same issue a second time, they routinely gave stronger ratings, both opponents and proponents became polarized
What happened in David Spiegel's study concerning emotional connection and breast cancer
Women with breast cancer engaged in a weekly session of emotionally supportive group therapy and other patients were assigned to a nonintervention control group- those in the group therapy condition survived 18 months longer than women in the other group
What is the stress hormone
cortisol
Perceptions of control and optimism can...
lead to a healthier life
Low personal relevance did what for the argument and what route of persuasion
led participants to be persuaded by the expertise of the source (the peripheral route to persuasion)
Our minds sometimes respond selectively to information in a way that does what
maintains our initial point of view
With each jump on the ladder of the class hierarchy people are....
more likely to enjoy better health
What does motivation mean to persuasion
to devote time and energy to a message: when the message has personal consequences- it bears on our goals, interests, or well-being- we're more likley to go the central route and carefully work through the arguments and relevant information
Psychologists propose that there are how many ways to persuade people
two
Attractiveness of a source is especially persuasive when
under circumstances that sway people to focus on peripheral cues
Carl Hovland and his colleagues conducted a study that broke down persuasion into three elements or three w's
who- source of the message, what- content of the message itself, whom- intended audience of the message