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 Process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors 2

 Central Route › Occurs when interested people focus on the arguments and respond with favorable thoughts  Peripheral Route › Occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker’s attractiveness  Focuses on cues that trigger automatic acceptance without much thinking 3

 Different Paths for Different Purposes › Peripheral route  Superficial and temporary attitude change › Central route  More durable and more likely to influence behavior 4

Figure 7.2 5

 Who Says? The Communicator › Credibility  Believability  Sleeper effect  Delayed impact of a message that occurs when an initially discounted message becomes effective, as we remember the message but forget the reason for discounting it 6

 Who Says? The Communicator › Credibility  Perceived expertise  Speak confidently  Perceived trustworthiness  Eye contact  Arguing against own self-interest  Speak quickly 7

 Who Says? The Communicator › Attractiveness and liking  Physical attractiveness  Similarity 8

 What Is Said? The Message Content › Reason versus emotion  Effect of good feelings  Effect of arousing fear › Discrepancy  Depends on the communicator’s credibility 9

 What Is Said? The Message Content › One-sided versus two-sided appeals  Which one is more effective?  Depends on whether the audience already agrees with the message; if the audience is unaware of opposing arguments, it is unlikely later to consider the opposition 10

 What Is Said? The Message Content › Primacy versus recency  Primacy effect  Other things being equal, information presented first usually has the most influence  Recency effect  Information presented last sometimes has the most influence. Recency effects are less common than primacy effects 11

Figure

 How Is It Said? The Channel of Communication › Active experience or passive reception?  Active experience strengthens attitudes  Repetition and rhyming of a statement serves to increase its fluency and believability 13

 How Is It Said? The Channel of Communication › Personal versus media influence  Media influence: The two-step flow communication  Process by which media influence often occurs through opinion leaders, who in turn influence others 14

 How Is It Said? The Channel of Communication › Personal versus media influence  Comparing media  The more lifelike the medium, the more persuasive its message Figure

 To Whom Is It Said? The Audience › How old are they?  Life cycle explanation  Attitudes change as people grow older  Generational explanation  Attitudes do not change; older people largely hold onto the attitudes they adopted when they were young 16

 To Whom Is It Said? The Audience › What are they thinking?  Forewarned is forearmed–If you care enough to counterargue  Distraction disarms counterarguing  Words can promote candidate/product  Visual images keep us occupied so we don’t analyze the words 17

 To Whom Is It Said? The Audience › What are they thinking?  Uninvolved audiences use peripheral cues  Ways to stimulate people’s thinking  Use rhetorical questions  Present multiple speakers  Make people feel responsible  Repeat the message  Get people’s undistracted attention 18

 Cult › “New religious movement” › Group typically characterized by  Distinctive ritual and beliefs related to its devotion to a god or a person  Isolation from the surrounding “evil” culture  Charismatic leader 19

 Attitudes Follow Behavior › Compliance breeds acceptance  Initiates become active members of the group › Foot-in-the-door phenomenon  Gradual induction 20

 Persuasive Elements › Communicator › Message › Audience Figure

 Group Effects › Social implosion  Isolation of members with like minded groups  External ties weaken until the group collapses inward socially  Monasteries  Fraternities and sororities  Therapeutic communities for recovering drug and alcohol abusers 22

 Strengthening Personal Commitment › Challenging beliefs › Developing counterarguments  Attitude inoculation  Exposing people to weak attacks upon their attitudes so that when stronger attacks come, they will have refutation available 23

 Real-Life Applications: Inoculation Programs › Inoculating children against:  Peer pressure to smoke  The influence of advertising Figure

 Prepare others to counter persuasive appeals  An ineffective appeal can be worse than none  A way to strengthen existing attitudes is to weakly challenge them 25