1. You are feeling very sleeepy…
Persuasion
You are feeling very sleeepy…

2. 300 to 400 appeals/day from marketers alone
Bumper Stickers - “I’ll give up my gun when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.”
Billboards - “Get U.S. out of the U.N.”
Magazine Ads - “Think different”
Television Ads - “Got Milk?”
Radio Ads - “This program is brought to you by Exxon, working for a better environment”
T- shirts - “No Nukes”
Lawn Placards - “Vote for Kaine”
Mailings, etc.
300 to 400 appeals/day from marketers alone

3. Martin Luther King, Jr.

4. National Rifle Association

5. What are attitudes? ABCs of attitudes
Affective: evaluations are based on positive and negative emotions associated with a target
Behavioral: a behavioral tendency to act in a certain manner towards the attitude object
Cognitive: evaluations based on beliefs & facts

6. Homer Simpson’s Attitudes Toward Beer
"Mmmmm... Gummi Beer."
Homer Simpson’s Attitudes Toward Beer
Affective
Evaluation
Beer
Homer’s
Attitude
Toward Beer
"Homer no function beer well without."
Behavior
Regarding Beer
Cognitions
Regarding
Beer
“To alcohol, the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems."
"The other day, I was so desperate for a beer, I snuck into the football stadium and ate the dirt under the bleachers."

7. Consistency in persuasion
Balance theory (Heider)
- we are motivated to have harmony in our views and behaviors
- we want to agree with people we like a disagree with those we don’t
Think of someone you respect / like. What if they expressed an opinion you opposed?
Could change your feelings for the person
Could change your opinion on the issue

8. If you like Tiger, shouldn’t you like the car?

9. Balance Theory Balanced Situations
Michelle
Teacher
Legalized abortion +
Michelle
Teacher
Legalized abortion - +
Michelle
Teacher
Legalized abortion + -
Michelle
Teacher
Legalized abortion - +

10. Balance Theory Imbalanced Situations
Michelle
Teacher
Legalized abortion - +
Michelle
Teacher
Legalized abortion + -
Michelle
Teacher
Legalized abortion + -
Michelle
Teacher
Legalized abortion -

11. Consistency in persuasion
Cognitive dissonance theory
- we will work to resolve inconsistencies in our beliefs and actions when they matter to us
- changing a behavior can change an attitude (and vice versa)
Changes in attitudes occur primarily when we perceive justification – e.g., free will in determining our (inconsistent) actions

12. Ready to turn some pegs??
Students spent hour turning pegs in holes (really boring)
Paid either $1 or $20
Who enjoyed the task more (when asked later)?
Why $1 people  $20 was justification enough, $1 wasn’t – I must have really liked turning pegs!
(Festinger & Carlsmith, 1959)

13. Insufficient justification
Attitude change happens when one freely performs an attitude-discrepant act for an inadequate reward.

14. Dissonance begins with:
Initiation
Amplification
Motivation
Reduction
Dissonance begins with:
More dissonance arises when the action or decision:
Dissonance is experienced as:
Dissonance is reduced through:
is seen as freely chosen.
action or decision that conflicts w/ impt. aspect of self.
Can’t be justified as due to strong reward or threat
unpleasant arousal.
change designed to remove the unpleasant arousal.
produces negative consequences that were foreseeable
cannot be withdrawn

15. What affects how consistent we are?
Arousal
Tranquilizers cause people to not change their opinions
Preference for consistency
Consequences
More impact of your behavior = more likely you will be to change your attitudes
Salience of inconsistency

16. Individualist  “me” focused Collectivist  group focused
Consistent with what?
Individualist  “me” focused
Collectivist  group focused

17. Persuasion  change in private attitude or belief as a result of receiving a message
Dual Process Model
- takes into account two ways attitude change takes place
- e.g., central vs. peripheral processing, systematic vs. heuristic processing, etc.
Certain information is processed more deeply than other info

19. Message Persuasion Attempt Audience Factors Processing Approach
Persuasion Outcome
High motivation and ability to think about the message
Deep processing, focused on the quality of the message arguments.
Lasting change that resists fading and counterattack
Message
Low motivation or ability to think about the message
Superficial processing, focused on surface features, e.g.: communicator’s attractiveness or number of arguments
Temporary change that that is susceptible to fading and counterattack

20. “Retirement planning can be a way to stay ahead of the game.”
Cris Carter
Schwab Investor
Central or Peripheral?

21. Who says... What... By what means... To whom?
Channel
spoken
written
audio
Video
Communicator
Credibility
expertise
trustworthiness
Attractiveness
Message content
Reason vs. emotion
Discrepancy
One vs. two-sided
Audience
Need for Cognition

22. Who says? Credibility: believability
Communicator
Credibility
expertise
trustworthiness
Attractiveness
Credibility: believability
expertise: the amount of knowledge the source is assumed to have
trustworthiness: the perceived intention of the communicator to deceive.
Perceived expertise
Begin by saying things the audience agrees with
Be introduced as someone knowledgeable on the topic
Speak confidently (no stuttering), and quickly

23. Class Demonstration Message on Phosphate containing detergents Source
Government Agency
Soap Company

24. Who says? Attractiveness: having qualities that appeal to an audience
physical appeal
likeability
perceived similarity
surface characteristics (Dembroski and others, 1978)
attitudes & values
Persuasive on matters of subjective preference (e.g., aspirin, soft drinks)
Communicator characteristics less relevant when the subject matter is important to participants

25. Agreement with the message
Low personal relevance
High personal relevance
(Petty et al., 1981)

26. The Sleeper Effect (Hovland & Weiss, 1951) Time interval Expert source
% attitude change
Nonexpert source
Time interval
(Hovland & Weiss, 1951)

27. Message content
Reason vs. emotion
Discrepancy
One vs. two-sided
What is said?
Is a carefully reasoned message more persuasive, or one that arouses emotion?
Will you be more persuasive by advocating an extreme point of view, or by advocating a moderate position?
Should your message be one-sided, or should it acknowledge two points of view?

28. Is a carefully reasoned message more persuasive, or one that arouses emotion?
(Dabbs & Janis, 1965)

29. Fear and Persuasion

30. 2. Extreme or moderate point of view?
Discrepancy interacts with communicator credibility
Opinion change
Discrepancy
(Aronson et al., 1963)

31. 3. One-sided or Two-sided
3. One-sided or Two-sided? The interaction of initial opinion with one- versus two-sidedness
Opinion change
The message
(Hovland et al., 1949)

32. By What Means… Channel type (Chaiken & Eagly, 1978) Channel spoken
Opinion change
Channel
spoken
written
audio
Video
Channel type
(Chaiken & Eagly, 1978)

33. Audience
Need for Cognition
To Whom?
(Cacioppo et al., 1973)