Theories of Persuasion: Hourly Exam 2

PERSUASIVE CAMPAIGNS 2. (a) Identify and describe the steps involved in designing and evaluating a campaign. (b) How does one identify the campaign's aims? (That is, what exactly is to be specified?) What is a target behavior? Give examples. What is a target audience? Give examples.

(A) 1. Specify target behavior 2. specify target audience 3. identify obstacles to compliance 4. identify obstacles to exposure 5. design and test messages 6. implement the campaign 7. evaluate the campaign. (B) Identifying aims: what is the specific action you want people to take? What behavior do you want them to adopt/change? Ex. get vaccine. Identifying audience: exactly what people do you want to influence? Ex. teenagers, women, citizens of NYC.

PERSUASIVE CAMPAIGNS 1. (a) What is a communication campaign? Identify three ways in which campaigns are "large-scale" persuasive efforts. (b) Identify two varieties of campaigns. What are prosocial campaigns? What are non-prosocial campaigns? What is "social marketing"?

(A) A systematic large-scale persuasive effort. 1. Extended time 2. employs multiple persuasive vehicles 3. has a relatively large intended audience. (B) 1. Prosocial campaigns and 2. non-prosocial campaigns. Can be in-between ex. Pharmaceutical company and CDC team up for HPV vaccine campaign. Social marketing is an approach used to develop activities aimed at changing or maintaining people's behaviour for the benefit of individuals and society as a whole. The greater good.

MESSAGE FACTORS 2. (a) What appears to be the most satisfactory general picture of the relationship between discrepancy and attitude change? What factors influence the point of inflection in the curve that relates discrepancy and attitude change? (b) Does the point of inflection occur at lower discrepancies for high-credibility communicators or for low-credibility communicators? Does the point of inflection occur at lower discrepancies for high-involvement topics or for low-involvement topics?

(A) An upside down U shape with attitude on vertical axis and discrepancy on horizontal axis. POI is maximum attitude change. Upside down U can be left leaning or right leaning. (B) POI at lower discrepancy for lower credibility communicators. POI at lower discrepancy for higher involvement receivers (because you run into the LR sooner)

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY 1. (a) What is a cognitive element (cognition)? (b) What are the possible relationships between two cognitions? Explain how two cognitions can be irrelevant to each other; explain how two cognitions can be consistent with each other; explain how two cognitions can be inconsistent with each other. (c) When are two cognitions said to be in a dissonant relationship?

(A) Any belief/opinion/knowledge/opinion about anything, NOT behavior. (B) Cognitions can be irrelevant--not relating at all, having nothing to do with each other; can be consistent--a consonant relationship in which they work together; can be inconsistent--a dissonant relationship. (C) Dissonant if the opposite of one follows from the other. X and Y are dissonant if the opposite of X follows from Y. Ex. Smoking causes cancer + I smoke.

MESSAGE FACTORS 1. (a) What are the effects (on persuasive outcomes) of the citation of evidence sources (information sources)? Is this effect explained by the effect that evidence-source citation has on perceptions of the communicator's credibility? Does evidence-source citation affect persuasive outcomes differently for high-credibility and low-credibility communicators? What is the most plausible account of the effect of evidence-source citation on persuasive outcomes? Describe two possible ways in which evidence-source citation might directly enhance acceptance of an argument.

(A) Citation of evidence sources enhance persuasion (at least with counter-attitudinal messages). Both high and low credibility communicators get boosted persuasion from citing sources, not just low credibility. (It enhances persuasion directly and not through enhancing credibility). Citing one's information enhances persuasion because it directly enhances acceptance of the relevant argument/point being made. Two ways it might enhance acceptance: 1. People carefully scrutinize message and information source and so they end up believing the point presented to them and 2. through the heuristic process: message recipient just thinks "oh their citing a source so it must be true."

SOURCE FACTORS 1. (a) What is credibility? What are the primary dimensions of credibility? (b) What is competence? Describe the questionnaire items commonly used to assess competence. (c) What is trustworthiness? Describe the questionnaire items commonly used to asses trustworthiness. (d) Describe the research used to identify the primary dimensions of credibility. What is factor analysis?

(A) Credibility is judgements made by perceiver on credibility or believability of communicator. Dimensions: Competence and trustworthiness. (You want communicator to know what the truth is and for them to be honest in telling you the truth) Ex. A care salesman is competent but dishonest. (B) Competence is the expertise, expertness, qualification, or authority of communicator. Questionnaire items include qualified-unqualified, expert-inexpert, informed-uninformed, intelligent-unitelligent, experienced-unexperienced, trained-untrained, skilled-unskilled. (C) Trustworthiness is the character, honesty, safety, or personal integrity of communicator. Items include honest-dishonest, trustworthy-untrustworthy, unbiased-biased, openminded-closedminded, fair-unfair, unselfish-selfish, just-unjust. (D) Collect free response answers about credibility, researchers use most commonly measured descriptions (ex. people describe communicator as honest or as an expert, they make scale of honest _ _ _ _ dishonest, expert _ _ _ _ non-expert), they make a scale, then they have other people rate the communicator on that scale and they conduct factor analysis: group scales together on basis of intercorrelation.

MESSAGE FACTORS 3. (a) What is a consequence-based argument? How do variations in the perceived desirability of the consequences affect the persuasiveness of such arguments? Give examples. (b) Explain how cultural differences in individualism-collectivism are reflected in corresponding differences in the relative persuasiveness of different persuasive messages. What kind of appeals, individualist or collectivist, are more persuasive to recipients in individualist cultures? To recipients in collectivist cultures? (c) Explain how individual differences in consideration-of-future-consequences are reflected in corresponding differences in the relative persuasiveness of different persuasive messages. What is "consideration of future consequences" (CFC)? What kind of appeals, those to long-term consequences or those to short-term consequences, are more persuasive to recipients who are high in CFC? To those low in CFC? (d) Explain the potential importance of looking beyond (what seem to be) the consequences that obviously should be mentioned in persuasive appeals. How is this illustrated by research findings concerning persuasive messages about health behaviors?

(A) Depends on if the person thinks the consequence is good or really good. Ex. If you floss regularly you will have healthy gums. (B) Individualism values independence and collectivism values interdependence. Ex. A watch ad in China says "this watch will help you fit in" and a watch ad in USA says "this watch will help you stand out." (C) People are either focused on the long-term (high CFC) or short-term (low CFC) consequences. Ex. short term tanning will make you smell weird and long term it will give you cancer. (D) Need to look past "obvious" things to talk about. Ex. When trying to get people to think about engaging in a healthy behavior: you naturally think about health consequences but sometimes people are encouraged by other factors. Ex. Tell teens that smoking makes them less cool and has social consequences rather than health consequences.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY 2. (a) What are the properties of dissonance? What sort of state is it? (b) Can dissonance vary in magnitude? (c) What factors influence the degree of dissonance experienced? Explain how the relative proportion of consonant and dissonant elements influences dissonance. Explain how the importance of the elements and the issue influence dissonance. (d) Describe and explain two basic ways of reducing dissonance.

(A) Dissonance is an adverse motivational state, an uncomfortable state, just like hunger. The greater the dissonance the greater pressure to reduce it. People can tolerate small amounts but not too much. (B) Yes, it has degrees. (C) 1. Relative proportion of consonant and dissonant elements. 2. Importance of the elements and issue. (D) 1. You can change the proportion of con/diss elements, add new consonant elements 2. Change the importance of element and issue.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY 7. (a) Is there evidence of a general preference for supportive information? Is this a strong preference? (b) What others factors influence information exposure? Explain how perceived information utility can influence information exposure (and can override a preference for supportive information). Explain how curiosity can influence information exposure (and can override a preference for supportive information). Explain how fairness norms can influence information exposure (and can override a preference for supportive information). (c) Identify three broad means by which advocates might seek to get a hearing for their views.

(A) Evidence is weak because there are competing influences on info exposure. (B) Perceived utility of information: people seek out information regardless of supportiveness. Ex. Study participant asked if prefer MC or essay exams, then they were given a choice of 1 of 2 articles, the majority didn't choose their preference; maybe by choosing other article and learning more they will do better on the other type of test in the future. Curiosity trumps supportive information. Ex. Study where participant listened to job interview and heard either a super qualified or horrible candidate; then they chose a reading that was supportive or unsupportive; some wanted to know what other people were thinking. Fairness, people want to "get both sides of the story." Ex. Study where participant was given verdict and offered chance to read about other's opinions. Read about others POV to hear other sides of story. (C) They might 1. stress the usefulness of their information, 2. peak audience's curiosity, or 3. emphasize fairness and the opportunity to hear all sides.

SOURCE FACTORS 3. (a) Explain the idea that the magnitude of credibility's effect on persuasive outcomes might vary. Identify two factors that influence the magnitude of credibility's effect. (b) Describe how involvement (personal relevance) influences the magnitude of credibility's effect. Under what sort of involvement condition will the effect of credibility be relatively larger? (c) Describe how the timing of identification of the communicator influences the magnitude of credibility's effect. What timing of identification leads to relatively larger effects of credibility? (d) Explain the idea that the direction of credibility's effect on persuasive outcomes might vary. Identify a factor that influences the direction of credibility's effect. (e) Under what conditions will higher-credibility sources be more persuasive than lower-credibility sources? And under what conditions will the opposite effect occur? Describe a possible explanation for the latter effect.

(A) From experiments comparing different levels of credibility, low credibility are not low in absolute terms but in relative terms. Affecting magnitude is involvement and timing. (B) If a person is highly involved, they will be less likely to change their opinion on topic based on their opinion of communicator. As involvement increases, the magnitude of credibility's effect decreases. Large effect when low involvement. (C) Timing is whether the communicator is identified before or after the message is delivered. With delayed identification, the magnitude of the effect decreases. Reveal communicator before message to increase magnitude. (D) Direction of credibility's effects is not constant, it depends if the message advocates a counter or pro-attitudinal position for the receiver. (E) Counter attitudinal messages favor a high credibility communicator; pro attitudinal messages favor a low credibility communicator. For pro-attitudinal messages, low credibility communicators stimulate receivers to have more positive thoughts than high credibility communicators (the receiver thinks about all the other things that they could say to support the position, that the low credibility communicator missed).

SOURCE FACTORS 4. (a) What is the general rule of thumb concerning the effect of variations in liking (of the communicator) on persuasive outcomes? Explain how that general principle can be misleading (e.g., identify a limiting condition). (b) Describe the relative strength of the effects of credibility and the effects of liking (on persuasive outcomes). (c) Describe how variations in involvement (personal relevance) influence the effects of liking. What involvement conditions lead to relatively larger effects of liking?

(A) General rule: liked sources are more effective, more persuasive. Can be misleading because there are many other things to consider and many other variables may have more power than liking. (B) Effects of liking are weaker than effects of credibility, and when the two are in conflict credibility is more powerful. (See handout of generous v. stingy sources again: although the generous source is liked more, if the stingy source advocates for a large award (therefore advocating for an unexpected position and increasing their credibility) the stingy source is more effective even though they are liked less because they have the edge in credibility). (C) As involvement increases, the effects of liking decrease. Low involvement = larger effects of liking.

MESSAGE FACTORS 10. (a) Describe the door-in-the-face (DITF) strategy. Identify four factors that influence the success of the DITF strategy (four moderating factors). (b) How is the success of the strategy affected by the presence of a delay between the requests? How is the success of the strategy affected by whether the same person makes the two requests? How is the success of the strategy affected by whether the two requests have the same beneficiary? How is the strategy's effectiveness influenced by whether the requests come from prosocial or non-prosocial organizations? (c) Describe the reciprocal-concessions explanation of DITF effects. Describe how that explanation accounts for some of the observed moderating factors; describe how that explanation has a difficult time accounting for other moderating factors. Does the size of the concession (the reduction in request size from the first to the second request) influence the success of the strategy? Is that result consistent or inconsistent with the reciprocal-concessions explanation? (d) Describe the guilt-based explanation of DITF effects. Describe how that explanation tries to account for the observed moderating factors. (e) What is a "transgression-compliance effect"? Do transgression-compliance effects vary depending on whether the requester is the victim of the transgression (as opposed to being someone else)? Explain the implication of this finding for the guilt-based explanation of DITF effects. Which moderating factor does the guilt-based explanation appear to have difficulty accommodating?

(A) Go from large request to small request. Make an unusually large initial request which will get rejected, and then make a second smaller target request which will be accepted. Ex. people approached on sidewalk and asked to serve as two-year two times a week unpaid volunteer, get turned down, then ask if they would volunteer for two hours chaperoning kids on a trip to the zoo. People asked just about zoo 17% said yes, people asked about two year volunteering first 50% agreed to zoo. See below for moderating factors. (B) DITF effects are larger when there is no delay between two requests, if same person makes both requests, if two requests have the same beneficiary, and if the requests come from pro-social organizations. (C) The sequence of requests makes it look like they are bargaining or negotiating the situation, makes it look like situation where if one side makes a concession, the other side is supposed to reciprocate and make a concession. It does not account for all of the moderating factors. It makes sense if it's the same person but other variables are not accounted for. Concession size does not influence the success of the strategy, as long as first request is at least slightly larger than the first. (D) Rejection of the first request creates guilt. So, if there is a delay between requests the guilt will dissipate. It works better with the same beneficiary because the the person being asked will get more guilt reduction by saying yes, which is ideal for them (Although we have good evidence that's not how guilt works, for all of these). (E) The transgression-compliance effect is said to occur when committing a transgression (doing something bad) and it makes people more likely to agree with the second request. Does not matter if the requester is the victim. Guilt reduction does not require making amends to the victim, when people are feeling guilty they automatically look for a way to not feel guilty.

MESSAGE FACTORS 9. (a) Describe the foot-in-the-door (FITD) strategy. Identify three factors that influence the success of the FITD strategy (three moderating factors). (b) How does the presence of an obvious external justification (for initial-request compliance) influence the effectiveness of the strategy? How does the size of the initial request influence the effectiveness of the strategy? How is the strategy's effectiveness influenced by whether the requests come from prosocial or non-prosocial organizations? (c) Is the strategy's success influenced by whether the two requests come from the same person? Is it influenced by whether the two requests concern the same subject (the same topic)? Is it influenced by the time interval between the two requests? (d) Describe the self-attribution explanation of FITD effects. Describe how that explanation accounts for the observed moderating factors.

(A) Go from small request to large request. Ask people for small initial request, they accept it, and then they will make the second larger target request. The idea is that after the first one they will be more likely to do the second one. Ex. A person goes to the door in a neighborhood and describes themselves as representing a committee for traffic safety in the neighborhood and they first make small request to sign a petition or put up a sign that supports the cause. People who don't agree are no longer contacted, but the people who agreed are sent a new person who represents a different organization two weeks later, and asked to put a large ugly sign in their front yard for a week that says "Drive Carefully." 20% people said yes to just sign, 55% of people who were first asked for petition or little sign said yes to big sign. (B) It decreases the effectiveness because people should be willing to do it on their own, without a big reward. The larger the first request (if successful)=bigger boost in compliance. Strategy is more effective for pro-social organizations, better for charities than businesses, better for not for profit organizations. (C) Does not matter if the person is the same, doesn't matter if subject matter or behavior change. Shorter time is better, but not right away I think?? (D) Compliance with the first request leads people to feel like they're being helpful, cooperative human beings, which leads them to comply with second request. If people get external justification they don't develop self-perceptions of being a helpful person, they're just doing it for the reward. The initial size of request being large makes peoples self-perceptions of being helpful enhanced. If people are doing action for pro social cause, they will think they are being a good person.

PERSUASIVE CAMPAIGNS 3. (a) What is formative research (formative evaluation)? Identify three broad purposes of formative research. (b) Describe what is involved in identifying campaign foci. Describe the nature of, and the strengths and weaknesses of, surveys and focus groups as means of gathering information about the target audience. Describe the role of general theoretical frameworks (e.g., the theory of planned behavior) in formative research. Explain how identifying target audiences and identifying the obstacles for that audience's performance of the behavior are not entirely distinct undertakings. (c) Describe what is involved in planning campaign exposure. Give examples. (d) Describe what is involved in designing and testing campaign messages. Explain why direct assessments of persuasive effects are preferable to judgments of expected persuasive effects for purposes of formative research.

(A) Identifies foci for campaign. Identify obstacles to compliance, identify obstacles to exposure, design and test messages. (B) Gather info with surveys and focus groups. Surveys are large samples of people with items on a questionnaire, are designed to get the info the survey designer wants, but they are more expensive, harder to administer, but if done well they're great. Focus groups are a smaller number of people and responses aren't so organized. Idk the rest so sorry! (C) For planning campaign exposure, you identify resources and obstacles for ensuring exposure to campaign, for each target audience. Ex. Media uses, who do they find credible, preferred sources of information. (D) Ideally you wold test campaigns first before implementing them. Better to access persuasive effects NOT by asking if it's persuasive or not, but just seeing if it works. Can do ongoing research during campaign, not just before campaign.

BALANCE THEORY 3. (a) Explain how balance principles can play a role in the effects of celebrity product endorsements. Why is the believability of the endorsement important? (b) Explain how balance principle can play a role in peer pressure. (c) Explain how balance principles are related to the liking heuristic. (d) Explain how balance principles are related to the exploitation of assimilation and contrast effects by political candidates.

(A) If P likes O--the celebrity in this case--and also thinks O likes X, then P will be more inclined to like X. Believability of endorsement is important so P can think O likes X, without a doubt, or else is could have opposite effects. (B) If P thinks O likes X, they may feel they should like X too. (C) If P like O, then they will be more susceptible to what they think O thinks of X. (D) Candidates are O, and they make it unclear whether they like or dislike a policy so that both P's who like and dislike the policy have a chance to like O.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY 3. (a) Explain how choice (decision-making) inevitably arouses dissonance. (b) Is dissonance a pre-decisional or post-decisional state? What state is a decision-maker said to be in before having made the decision? What state is a decision-maker said to be in after having made the decision? (c) How can dissonance be reduced following a decision? What is postdecisional spreading of alternatives? Has research commonly detected postdecisional spreading of alternatives? (d) How is regret manifest following a decision? Does regret precede or follow dissonance reduction? Explain how regret can lead to a reversal of a decision. (e) Explain the function of follow-up persuasive efforts in the context of postdecisional processes.

(A) It is inevitable because you're usually choosing between two objects and neither are perfect, they both have flaws. (B) Dissonance is a Post-Decisional state. In state of conflict before decision. After decision, the person experiences dissonance. (C) Reduce by reevaluating the choices so that the chosen alternative is rated more positively and the unchosen alternative more negative. Post decisional spreading of alternatives means that you like what you picked even more after picking it, and what you didn't pick even less. (D) After decision made, before dissonance reduction, you see effect opposite of reduction where two alternatives are rated closer together. The person focuses on the dissonant aspects. People might want to reverse their decisions if they feel regret so strongly, but some decisions aren't reversible. (E) The follow-up persuasive efforts help people through the phase of regret and pushes them towards dissonance reduction.

MESSAGE FACTORS 6. (a) What does the research evidence suggest about the relative persuasive effectiveness of stating the message's conclusion explicitly as opposed to omitting the conclusion (leaving the conclusion implicit)? (b) Does this difference vary depending on the audience's educational level? Does it vary depending on the audience's initial favorability toward the advocated view? (c) Describe a possible explanation for the observed effect.

(A) It's more persuasive to explicitly state conclusions. (B) True no matter what education audience level is. True whether or not audience is favorable or unfavorable towards message. (C) Most plausible information involves assimilation and contrast effects. By exploit stating the conclusion, you make sure the message is not perceived incorrectly.

MESSAGE FACTORS 7. (a) What does the research evidence suggest about the relative persuasive effectiveness of providing a general (as opposed to a more specific) description of the advocated action? (b) Describe two possible explanations for the observed effect.

(A) More specific description of recommended action=more persuasion. Ex. "you should get a flu shot" vs. "you should go to the Walgreens on North Bend Avenue and go to Phyllis at the walk-in clinic to get your flu shot tomorrow" (B) 1. Specificity influences PBC, and 2. specificity encourages the development of implementation intentions.

MESSAGE FACTORS 4. (a) What is a one-sided message? What is a two-sided message? Distinguish two varieties of two-sided messages. What is a refutational two-sided message? What is a nonrefutational two-sided message? (b) Comparing one-sided messages and refutational two-sided messages, which generally is more persuasive? Which generally is perceived as more credible? Identify an implicit limiting condition on the occurrence of these effects (these differences). (c) What general differences, if any, are there in persuasiveness and perceived credibility between one-sided messages and nonrefutational two-sided messages? (d) In advertising contexts, how do one-sided messages and nonrefutational two-sided messages differ in persuasiveness? How do they differ in credibility? (e) Outside advertising contexts (that is, in "nonadvertising" messages), how do one-sided messages and nonrefutational two-sided messages differ in persuasiveness? How do they differ in credibility? (f) What might explain the observed differences between advertising messages and other persuasive messages in how nonrefutational two-sided messages work? Explain how skepticism about advertising might underlie the different effects of nonrefutational two-sided messages in advertising contexts as opposed to nonadvertising contexts.

(A) One-sided only focuses on the pros, the positives of an argument. Two-sided acknowledges the other side of the argument, identifies the pros and cons. Two kinds: 1. refutation two-sided, gives pros and cons and also a rebuttal to the cons to make the pros stronger and 2. non-refutational two-sided, which acknowledges cons but doesn't refute them, tries to overwhelm cons with a lots of pros and tries to make very clear which side is best. (B) Refutational two-sided messages are more effective, since it's not a good idea to ignore the other side, and best to refute the other side. Limiting condition is that the cons have to be real and believable. (C) In advertising contexts, NR2S is better in credibility but the same in persuasion. In non-advertising NR2S is the same is credibility but is less effective on persuasion. See answers below for more explanation. (D) In advertising contexts NR2S enhances credibility but does nothing for persuasion, since people have an initial skepticism about ads and aren't expecting credibility. Likely to lead to closer message scrutiny though, so the persuasion depends how strong the argument is. (E) In non-advertising contexts NR2S has no effect on credibility but makes is less effective on persuasion. In non-ad contexts, there is no reason for initial skepticism so there is no opportunity for credibility enhancement. Instead it just arms the audience with counter arguments and weakens the persuasion. (F) See answers above.

BALANCE THEORY 2. (a) Identify the three perceptions with which balance theory is most centrally concerned. Does balance theory consider whether O likes/dislikes X, or whether P thinks O likes/dislikes X? (b) Describe the eight possible interrelationships of the perceptions of interest. Which of these are balanced states, and which unbalanced? Give a rule of thumb for distinguishing balanced and unbalanced states. (c) How are balanced and unbalanced states said to differ? Which sort of state represents a state of consistency? Which states are more pleasant? More stable? Preferable? Which arouse psychological tension?

(A) P-perceiver's perception X-thing, P's perception of O-other person, and O's perception of X. Considers whether P thinks O likes/dislikes X. (B) See Worksheet. Balanced states: P + X, P + O, O + X; P - X, P + O, O - X; P + O, P - O, O -X; P - X, P - O, O - X. Unbalanced: P + X, P + O, O - X; P - X, P + O, O + X; P + X, P - O, O + X, P - X, P - O, O - X. In balanced states, you will agree with people you like and disagree with people you don't like. (C) See above. Balanced is consistency, more pleasant, more stable, more preferable. Unbalanced arouse psychological tension.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY 6. (a) What is the selective exposure hypothesis? Explain how the hypothesis reflects the main tenets of dissonance theory. (b) Describe the usual research design for studying selective exposure. In such designs, what sort of result represents evidence of selective exposure?

(A) People seek out information support of their current beliefs (consonance). People want to avoid non-supportive information (dissonance). Ex. If you're looking to fund a new bike path, you would only focus on the positives. Ex. People who drive SUVs read Big Car catalog and people who ride bikes read pro-bike blog. (B) Participant asked if pro/against death penalty, then asked to choose one of many catalogs clearly labeled either pro/against death penalty, and they tended to have a preference for supportive info.

RESISTANCE TO PERSUASION 2. (a) Describe the general idea of inoculation as a means of creating resistance to persuasion. Describe the biological (biomedical) metaphor for inoculation against persuasion. Identify two general ways persons might be made resistant to a disease virus. Describe supportive medical treatments; describe how inoculation against disease works. (b) Describe supportive treatments for inducing resistance to persuasion. Describe refutational (inoculation) treatments for inducing resistance to persuasion. (c) Do supportive treatments create resistance to persuasion? Do refutational treatments create resistance to persuasion? Which kind of treatment, supportive or refutational, is more effective in creating resistance to persuasion? (d) Do refutational treatments create resistance only to the particular attack argument that is refuted, or does the resistance generalize to other attack arguments? (e) How effective is the combination of supportive and refutational treatments in conferring resistance to persuasion? Explain how the combination of supportive and refutational treatments is equivalent to a refutational two-sided message. (f) Describe how inoculation and refusal-skill training represent different ways of inducing resistance to persuasion.

(A) People should resist persuasion of others to be able to stick with your idea/point of view. 1. Biological metaphor: how do you go about making people resistant to certain things (diseases etc.) Supportive therapy: try to support them, good health/diet/rest/vitamins. This works, but not as well as 2. exposing people to weak doses of the disease which stimulates the body's defense, so that when a big attack comes the body defenses are ready. (B) Supportive treatments: provide information that bolsters existing attitudes, consists of giving receivers arguments supporting the current attitude. Works but not as good as Refutational treatment: provide information that refutes the attacking arguments, and these effects can be generalized to new arguments. Consists of first showing receivers a weak attack on their attitude and then refuting that attack. (C) Supportive treatments do create resistance to persuasion. Refutation treatment can also create resistance. Refutation treatments create greater resistance to persuasion than do supportive treatments. (D) Resistance created by refutation treatments generalizes to new arguments. (E) Combo or refutational and supportive treatments create greater resistance to persuasion than supportive treatments alone. Supportive treatments=one sided messages. Combo=two sided refutational messages, and this create more resistance to persuasion. (F) Inoculation tries to strengthen or harden existing attitudes, refusal skill training teaches new communicative skills; not meant to strengthen people's attitudes or shape issue-relevant thinking.

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY 5. (a) What is hypocrisy induction? Identify a common persuasive situation in which hypocrisy induction might be useful to a persuader. (b) What two things are made salient in inducing feelings of hypocrisy? (c) Explain how a persuader can use hypocrisy induction to change behavior; identify a necessary condition for such effects. Explain how and why hypocrisy-induction efforts might backfire.

(A) Persuader is trying to get people to act consistently with their attitudes, by calling attention to the difference of attitude and behavior. Ex. Drawing attention to the fact that teenagers have pro-attitudinal beliefs about safe sex and disease prevention through safe sex practices, but don't wear condoms themselves. (B) The existing attitude and the previous inconsistent behavior. (C) Showing that they aren't acting congruence with their beliefs. The necessary condition is that their PBC is sufficiently high. If their PBC is low, then if the persuader shows their hypocrisy, then they might just change their attitude instead of their behavior. Ex. Low PBC of recycling but positive attitude, and then hypocrisy is revealed, then then the person changes their attitude of recycling to negative.

PERSUASIVE CAMPAIGNS 5. (a) What is summative research? Identify three broad possible purposes of summative research. (b) Explain how summative research can be used to assess campaign effectiveness, to assess campaign implementation, and to provide cost-benefit information. Describe the variety of means of gathering summative-research data.

(A) Research done after campaign. Assess the effects of the campaign, assess the campaigns implementation, and provide cost-benefit info. (B) Did the campaign change the beliefs, attitudes, intentions, behaviors, as intended? Was the target audience exposed tot the message? Was it worth it financially, were there things that were cheap but really effective, or things that were expensive but not effective. You can gather all kinds of data, qualitative and quantitative data, to assess campaign.

PERSUASIVE CAMPAIGNS 4. (a) Identify and describe vehicles of persuasive influence other than advertising (as means of campaign implementation). (b) What are school-based interventions? What are workplace-based interventions? What is media advocacy? Describe how existing entertainment programming can be used as a vehicle for persuasion. Describe how new entertainment programming can be created as a vehicle for persuasion.

(A) See below. (B) School-based interventions (ex. give teachers lesson plans), work place interventions (ex. put signs in office promoting stairs over elevator), media advocacy (purposeful use of news media to accomplish social influence), use of existing entertainment programming (ex. medical associations using Grey's Anatomy), creating new entertainment (entertainment education. ex. health campaigns in developing world. Ex. radio program that has story that advocates for family planning. *Must strike balance between entertainment and education).

SOURCE FACTORS 2. (a) Identify factors influencing credibility. Which of these influence competence, and which trustworthiness? (b) Describe the effect of knowledge of the communicator's education, occupation, experience, and training on competence and on trustworthiness. (c) Describe the effect of nonfluencies in delivery on competence and on trustworthiness. (d) Describe the effect of citation of evidence sources on competence and on trustworthiness. (e) Describe the effect of the advocated position on competence and on trustworthiness. Explain the meaning of "unexpected position" in the context of this phenomenon. (f) Describe the effect of (small amounts of appropriate) humor on competence and on trustworthiness. (g) Describe the effect of an organized (vs. disorganized) message on competence and on trustworthiness. (h) What is a ceiling effect? A floor effect?

(A) See following answers. (B) 1. Education, occupation, experience, background, training--their credentials--influence competence and trustworthiness. (C) 2. Nonfluencies in delivery ("uh or repetition of words etc.) lead to lower competence but don't affect trustworthiness. (D) 3. Citation of evidence sources, whether you cite sources and tell where it came from, using high credibility sources; identifying sources enhances competence and trustworthiness. (E) 4. Position advocated, when source takes unexpected position, likely to be perceived are more competent and more trustworthy (unexpected=unexpected given what's known about sources characteristics or circumstances, ex. arguing for position that is against communicator's own self interest, ex. automobile manufacturer arguing that their cars are unsafe)(See handout, generous source advocating for small award is more persuasive, stingy source advocating for large award more persuasive, because it makes you think more about why they chose their choice, why they aren't just going with the expected decision). (F) 5. Humor, small amounts of appropriate humor increases trustworthiness but doesn't influence competence. (G) 6. Organization, organized compared to disorganized. Increased organization leads to higher competence and trustworthiness or decreased organization can lead to lower of both as well. (H) A ceiling effect occurs when value cannot increase because it's already at it's practical maximum. A floor effect occurs when value cannot decrease because because it's already at it's minimum. Ex. Already low credibility and then the communicator gives a disorganized presentation but there isn't a huge change in perceived credibility because credibility is already on the "floor."

SOURCE FACTORS 5. (a) Does perceived similarity (of receiver and source) influence persuasive outcomes directly or indirectly? Explain. Through what avenues does perceived similarity influence persuasive outcomes? (b) Can perceived similarities influence judgments of communicator credibility? Identify a necessary condition for a perceived similarity to influence credibility judgments. Will all relevant perceived similarities enhance credibility? Will all relevant perceived dissimilarities diminish credibility? Explain. (c) What is attitudinal similarity? How does perceived attitudinal similarity influence liking? Explain the connection between this phenomenon and balance. Can liking be influenced by perceived similarities that are not relevant to the message topic?

(A) Similarity influences persuasive outcomes indirectly, through its effects on credibility and liking. (B) Yes, but similarity or dissimilarity must be relevant to influence attempt/topic. Not all relevant perceived similarities will enhance credibility and not all dissimilarities will hurt credibility. Ex. This person is just as stupid as me (similarity) and therefore does not have authority and is not credible. Ex. You are not southern, but you hear a southern person (dissimilarity) give a message on the current political situation in the south. The southern person is dissimilar but seen as more credible. Ex. they are dissimilar to me because they are smarter than me therefore they are more credible. ***Remember that the relationship between credibility and persuasive outcomes complicates similarity's effects (i.e. remember that similarity does not influence persuasive outcomes directly, only credibility directly). (C) Perceived attitudinal similarities lead to greater liking. Even when not relevant to the subject of influences, they can affect liking and therefore affect persuasive outcomes. (Remember that attitudinal similarities don't affect persuasive outcomes directly). If you think the other person has a similar attitude to you, it reflects balance. It creates the natural pressure for balance theory, toward the balance of the triangle.

MESSAGE FACTORS 8. (a) What is a prompt? Give examples. (b) Identify two necessary conditions for prompts to be effective in influencing behavior. Why is an existing positive attitude such a condition? Why is sufficiently high perceived behavioral control (PBC, self-efficacy) such a condition? (c) Can prompts be cost-effective? Explain.

(A) Simple cues that make behavioral performance salient. They trigger the behavior, and remind people to do it. Ex. Parents who got a call about immunizing their children were more likely to do so or sign that says use the stairs instead of the elevator or signs in restroom to wash hands. (B) 1. Person must already have the appropriate positive attitude and be willing to do the behavior, and 2. person believe themselves capable of performing the behavior (high PBC). If the don't think they can do it, they won't try. (C) Prompts are cheap, inexpensive, cost-effective, however it has to be the right circumstances, people must be willing to do it and not just thinking about it.

BALANCE THEORY 4. (a) Explain how balance theory offers a crude representation of consistency processes. Does balance theory acknowledge degrees of liking? Degrees of issue importance? Degrees of consistency? (b) How supportive is the research evidence concerning balance theory? Identify one area in which balance theory's expectations have not been confirmed. Identify other domains in which balance theory's expectations have been confirmed.

(A) There is no room for anything besides completely negative and completely positive views, it does not acknowledge degrees of liking, issue importance, or consistency. (B) Research evidence is generally supportive but not entirely. In pleasantness ratings, the people didn't care about the opinions of the people they didn't like. Confirmed that balance helps people store/use info; people learn situations more easily, people remember balanced situations more accurately, and people expect balanced situations.

MESSAGE FACTORS 5. (a) What is a threat appeal? Describe the two parts of a threat appeal. (b) What is protection motivation theory (PMT)? What is protection motivation? Identify the two processes underlying protection motivation. (c) What is threat appraisal? Identify two factors that influence threat appraisal. What is perceived threat severity? What is perceived vulnerability to threat? (d) What is coping appraisal? Identify two factors that influence coping appraisal. What is perceived response efficacy? What is perceived self-efficacy? (e) Explain how the PMT framework provides a basis for thinking about adapting persuasive messages to audiences. Can messages be constructed so as to influence PMT variables (perceived threat severity, perceived threat vulnerability, and so forth)? Do such message variations affect persuasive outcomes in the ways expected by PMT? (f) What is the relationship between the intensity of threat-appeal contents and the degree of fear aroused in receivers? Are messages that arouse greater fear generally more persuasive (than those that arouse lesser amounts of fear)? Are messages with more intense contents generally more persuasive (than those with less intense contents)? Does the relationship between the intensity of message contents and the amount of aroused fear take the shape of an inverted U? Explain. Does the relationship between the intensity of message contents and persuasive outcomes take the shape of an inverted U? Explain. (g) Identify two conditions under which more intense threat appeals are unlikely to be more persuasive than less intense appeals. Explain how, under conditions of low coping appraisal, people with high threat appraisal might be led to re-appraise the threat. (h) Describe two alternative conceptions of the role played (in the persuasive effects of threat appeals) by the emotion of fear. What does the existing research evidence indicate about whether fear plays a causal role in the persuasive effects of threat-appeal messages?

(A) Threat appeals are messages designed to encourage behaviors that protect against threat. Two parts are the threat component--description of what can happen to you--and the recommendation component--the way to protect against the threat. (B) PMT investigates threat appeals and how threats motivate people to persuasion. What motivates people to adopt protective behaviors in the face of a threat? Two processes include 1. threat appraisal and 2. coping appraisal. (C) Threat appraisal is the appraisal of the given threat. This consists of 1. perceived threat severity--how bad the person thinks the threat is--and 2. perceived threat vulnerability--whether they think the threat could happen to them or not. (D) Coping appraisal is the appraisal of the given recommended action. This consists of 1. perceived response efficacy--the perceived effectiveness of recommended action in dealing with the given threat--and 2. perceived self-efficacy--does the person think that they are able to adopt the behavior that will protect them against the threat. (E) Ex. Heart disease and exercise. The person thinks that the threat of heart disease is bad, that it could happen to them, so they have strong protection motivation. If they think that exercising will successfully deal with the threat, and they think they are able to exercise, they will be persuaded to change their behavior. Considering all of the different foci is a useful way to think about what underlying issues might be addressed. I.E. if someone thinks heart disease is bad but doesn't think it will happen to them, then they will need a different message (one that convinces them that it will happen to them). Each of the four underlying factors can be influenced by factors such as threat severity, thoughts on vulnerability, changing response efficacy, and checking self-efficacy. (F) Messages with more intense content do arouse greater fear. Messages that arouse greater fear are more persuasive. So, messages with more intense content are more persuasive. The relationship between fear arousal (vertical axis) and the intensity of the content (horizontal axis) is positively linear. It may plateau, but you can never go to far with intensity/fear that you decrease persuasion. (G) 1. If recipients fear level is already high and 2. if the recipient doesn't have sufficient positive assessment of recommended action (i.e. they don't think the action will prevent the bad thing from happening). If people think the recommended action will help, they might reassess the threat and try to convince themselves "its not that bad." (H) It's not clear what role the emotion of fear plays. Could be 1. casual: receive message material, experience fear, persuasive outcomes follow or 2. epiphenomenal: (a by-product or side effect) receive message material, have beliefs about e.g. threat severity--have fear as side effect of these beliefs--and then persuasive outcomes follow. Existing research evidence doesn't make it clear which is correct.

RESISTANCE TO PERSUASION 1. (a) What is refusal-skill training? How is refusal-skill training meant to create resistance to persuasion? (b) Is it possible to teach refusal skills effectively? What are the most important program elements in teaching refusal skills? (c) What effect do refusal-skill training programs have on substance use/misuse?

(A) Training receiver in skills for refusing unwanted offers. Teach people to stick to their beliefs and not be influenced by the other side. (B) Research has found that these skills are teachable and that it does improve the quality of people's ability to say no. Important to to do two elements 1. modeling: showing someone the behavior and 2. rehearsal: guided practice of behavior. Together they influence PBC. (C) They have little to no impact on substance use. But, can be effective in contexts like abstinence or safe sex practices, preventing bullying, resisting dark side.

RESISTANCE TO PERSUASION 3. (a) Can warning a person of an impending counterattitudinal message create resistance to persuasion (on non-truism topics)? (b) Explain the mechanism by which warning confers resistance to persuasion. Identify three factors that influence the effectiveness of warnings at creating resistance. (c) How is the effectiveness of warnings influenced by the receiver's degree of involvement (personal relevance of the topic)? (d) How is the effectiveness of warnings influenced by distraction? (e) How is the effectiveness of warnings influenced by the length of the time interval between the warning and the message?

(A) Warning a person of impending counter-attitudinal message can create resistance. (B) Warnings can create resistance to persuasion. The warning stimulates and encourages counter-arguments. Encourages negative elaboration about the warned about messages advocated position. (C) Warnings more effective in creating resistance for high-involvement topics. (D) If receivers are distracted during time, then the warnings become less effective, because it interferes with the ability to create counter arguments. (E) Length of time interval between warning and message: with increasing time interval, more resistance to persuasion. Receivers can engage in anticipatory counter arguments, increased time increase their ability to counter argue. (*If person agrees with the warning message, don't warn them!!)

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE THEORY 4. (a) What is induced compliance? What is counterattitudinal advocacy? (b) Explain the dissonance theory view of induced-compliance situations. What is the key influence on the amount of dissonance experienced in such situations? Explain the relationship between incentive and dissonance in such situations. (c) Explain, from a dissonance perspective, the operation of low-price offers. From the marketer's point of view, what is the ideal amount of incentive to offer? (d) Explain, from a dissonance perspective, the operation of promotions that invite consumers to send in essays explaining why they like the product (or to send in advertisements, etc.), in return for being entered in a prize drawing. (e) Explain, from a dissonance perspective, the effects of insufficient incentive for counterattitudinal action. When might a persuader want to offer such insufficient incentive? (f) Identify a limiting condition on the occurrence of the predicted dissonance effects in induced-compliance situations. How is freedom of choice such a condition?

(A) When someone is induced to act in a way that is discrepant with their beliefs or attitudes. Counter attitudinal advocacy is advocating some POV opposed to their own position. Leads to an incentive for reward. (B) The amount of dissonance aroused is a function of incentive offered to engage in counter-attitudinal action. Dec dissonance, dec attitude change. Inc incentive, inc dissonance until point of compliance, and then inc incentive, dec dissonance. Past the point of compliance, increased external justification means decreased internal justification. (You have to think more when the incentive is medium because it's not easy to decline/accept. You would easily decline $.01 and easily accept $1 million, but you might need to think about accepting $50 and if you value doing the behavior lower or higher than that.) (C) If the price is lower, there is less attitudinal change because the person is buying the product for the deal, not the product's qualities. Ideal amount of incentive is right around the point of compliance. Just enough. (D) They aren't being guaranteed the prize, so it's not too big of an incentive, and the people will have to decide when or when not to comply by thought. (E) Ex. When Amazon offers employees $2000 at the end of their first year to quit, it makes the workers consider their job and re-identify the reasons they value it above $2000. (F) Freedom of choice; the person must feel like they had a say in the decision to comply or not in order for there to be attitudinal change.

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Balance Theory 1, 2A Cognitive Dissonance 3B, 3C, 5A, 6, 7 Source Factors Message Factors MISSED 8-10 Resistance to Persuasion MISSED 2-3 Persuasive Campaigns MISSED 1-2

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Balance Theory 1-4 Cognitive Dissonance 1-7 Source Factors 1-6 Message Factors 1-10 Resistance to Persuasion 1-3 Persuasive Campaigns 1-5

SOURCE FACTORS 6. Explain how other communicator characteristics (that is, other than credibility, liking, and similarity) influence persuasive outcomes indirectly.

Other communicator characteristics works the same way similarity works; they don't affect persuasive outcomes directly, but indirectly through their effect on credibility/liking. Ex. Someone who is physically attractive will get increased liking and that has effect on credibility.

BALANCE THEORY 1. What is the central tenet of consistency theories? What kind of consistency (logical or psychological) is of interest here?

People like for consistency of attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, etc., inconsistency is uncomfortable and tension-producing, people try to avoid inconsistencies.