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

2. 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)

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

4. 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

5. 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

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

7. 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)

8. 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

9. 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

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