Persuasion, Attitude and Change Persuasion and attitude change Attitudes and decision making Effectiveness of Television

Persuasion and Attitude Change Schwerin & Newell (1981) Behavioural change cannot occur without attitude change Behavioural change is when you change your lifestyle (ie. Healthier living) or change your habits (ie. What you buy)

Persuasion and Attitude Change Changing attitudes = changing behaviour Psychologists look at the SCIENCE OF PERSUASION THE HOVLAND-YALE MODEL ELABORATION -LIKELIHOOD

THE HOVLAND-YALE MODEL Hovland worked for the US war dept. He had to find ways to persuade Americans to support the final stages of WWII. At Yale he studied the nature of persuasive communication. Achieved by focusing on who says what to whom Communicator Message Audience

Major Findings SOURCE FACTORS Experts Popular/attractive MESSAGE FACTORS Persuasive message is not apparent Level of FEAR AUDIENCE FACTORS Low and High intelligence Both sides of the argument

Methodological Problems What problems are there with the Hovland-Yale approach?

ELABORATION-LIKELIHOOD Petty & Cacioppo (1981) Two different routes to persuasive communication A) Focus on message B) Focus on other factors (how attractive/creditable the source appears to be)

Petty & Cacioppo (1981) CENTRAL ROUTE Focus on arguments – which are of personal interest to them PERIPHERAL ROUTE Focus on the context of the message more than the message itself

Petty & Cacioppo (1981) CENTRAL ROUTE Audience motivated to think about the message Focus on quality of arguments Lasting attitude change PERIPHERAL ROUTE Audience not motivated to think about the message Focus on peripheral factors Temporary attitude change

ELABORATION-LIKELIHOOD AO2………… Need for cognition Real-life applications Support for central route processing