Persuasion

Theoretical and practical concerns

Persuasion

• Attempts to persuade you are everywhere all the time– That is, wherever you go now, someone is trying to

influence you– The attempts don’t stop—they go on day and night

• Advanced industrial countries rely heavily on persuasion for social influence– Less emphasis on brute force– Mass communication available

• Persuasion is more efficient and may be more effective

Persuasion

• Persuasion is the use of communication to influence beliefs, attitudes and/or behavior– If the persuasive communication is meant first and

foremost to advance the interests of the speaker/author ahead of other considerations, it is propaganda

• The study of persuasion has been one of the main foci of media studies

Applied research

• Most persuasion research is meant to test specific persuasive communications strategies or tactics rather than to build theory– Advertising research• Copytesting• Campaigns studies

– Propaganda studies– Educational/persuasive campaigns• Public health interventions

Theory development

• Theory may be developed and tested using scientific research methods– Experimental studies, usually

• More often, the results of advertising, educational campaigns reviewed and theory is induced from real-world experience– Advertising effectiveness monitoring

Hovland and colleagues

• First recruited to study the effectiveness of the U.S. government’s attempts to educate soldiers and boost morale during World War II– The Why We Fight series

• Followed up the American Soldiers studies with a program of research on persuasion– Yale School of persuasion research

Hovland et al.

• Applied Lasswell’s paradigm for study:– Who?– Says What?– To Whom?– In Which Channel?– With what effect?

Who?

• Hovland et al. looked at the effects of credibility of source on the effectiveness of attitude change messages.– Controlled experimental designs– Presented identical messages but varied the

source of the message• News stories and editorials supposedly written by

sources of greater or lesser credibility, or from more or less credible news organizations

Hovland et al.

• The researchers found that credibility of the source was an important determinant of the persuasiveness of the message– However, the impact of message source seemed to

decay over time• Sleeper effect

– Credibility of the source was tied to a number of characteristics• Expertise• Trustworthiness• Likeability

Expertise

• Does the source appear to be knowledgeable on the topic?– A source may be perceived to have expertise even

if he doesn’t• “I‘m not a doctor, but I play one on TV”• All sorts of actors dressed up as doctors in early

commercials– FCC restricted representations of sources—cannot be

misleading or false

Trustworthiness

• If the source seems honest and straightforward we are more likely to be convinced by what she says– The audience has some reason to believe the

source is honest• Newsperson’s commitment to objectivity

– Walter Cronkite

• A history of openness and honesty (self-disclosure)– Oprah

Trustworthiness

• Another source of trustworthiness is situational. – If the speaker or author is perceived to be

arguing in favor of a position that is in her self-interest she will be less persuasive– If you overhear someone talking you are

more likely to be influenced than if they know you are listening• An experiment with a supposedly overheard

discussion led to greater attitude change

–When the speaker argues against his own self-interest, he is more persuasive• Joe “The Shoulder” Napolitano arguing for

more stringent sentencing• A group of wealthy people opposed to the

repeal of the inheritance tax

Charisma

• Personal charm or likeability– Ronald Reagan • “Teflon president”

– Celebrity endorsements• Not really clear why some people are appealing

• Physical attractiveness– Physically attractive people are liked, trusted

Homophily

• If the speaker is a lot like the audience member, he is more likely to be persuasive– Probably a combination of expertise (she understands

me and my situation) likeability (people like those who share their view of the world) and trustworthiness (I can trust someone like me)• In propaganda studies, this is called “Just Plain Folks”• Candidates try to portray themselves as resembling the

group they are targeting– Eating ethnic foods– Wearing work clothes

Sources

• Heavy use of celebrities– Positive affect prior to advertising, etc.– Natural on-air presentation– Physical attractiveness– Association with certain image, roles

Says what? (content)

• Structure of arguments– One-sided v. two-sided– Primacy v. recency– Conclusive v. non-conclusive

• Rational v. emotional appeals– Fear– Humor

• Visual v. semantic appeals

Fear appeals

• Fear appeals have been heavily studied– Hovland et al. concluded that moderate fear was

the most effective• Too little fear does not motivate• Too much fear causes target to avoid message or

implications– More recent findings have led to conclusion that

high levels of fear work well if a sense of efficacy is generated and clear means of dealing with the fear provided

Content

• Emotional content– Pathos– Humor– Love– Desire– Jealousy

• Cultural symbolism– Flags– Weddings– Cars

Framing

• Loss v. gain• Episode v general trend• Examples v. statistics• False comparisons

To whom?• Personality factors– Self-esteem

• Curvilinear effect• Education– Two-sided messages are more effective with more

formally educated while one-sided are more effective with less formally educated

– Rational appeals relatively more effective with more formally educated

• Interest– Topical interest predicts topical knowledge and pre-

existing attitudes (varies with demographics)

• Gender– Women are more persuadable • May no longer be true

• Social norms/beliefs• Active participation

Audience

• Targeting– Choice of media based on the ability to reach a

target audience• Target is usually “low hanging fruit”• Fish where the fish are• Fish when the fish are biting

– Messages written for particular audience rather than for everyone• “Tailored” messages are now possible—evidence

indicates they are more effective

Audience

• Audience feedback is used to improve messages, further communicate with likely purchasers

With what effect?• Learning– Most common/easiest change

• Attitude change– Especially when existing attitudes are not strongly

held• Behavior intention– Most predictive of actual behavior

• Behavior– Changing behavior is very difficult because of the

multiple influences that determine behavior • Biological, psychological, situational, cultural influences

With what effect?

• Sleeper effect• Selectivity• Interaction with education/demographics– One-sided v. two-sided

• ‘Boomerang effects’

Effect

• Varies across topics/products, audiences, campaigns– Information – Attitude change– Positioning/branding

What problems with the experimental method are there?

• One-time exposure– Compared with campaigns people experience on a

regular basis

• Forced exposure– Negates selectivity

• Demand characteristics of experimental method– Especially when carried out with students

• Overuse of available samples– “Students may not be people”

What problems with the experimental method are there?

• Lack of competing messages• Usually choose topics the audience knows

little about

Campaigns

• Studies of the effectiveness of campaigns– Advertising– Political campaigns– Propaganda campaigns– Public health campaigns

Campaigns analysis

• The massive use of advertising allows for the testing of real-world media persuasion across a wide range of topics – Meta-analyses of marketing/advertising

campaigns– Meta-analyses of copy tests– Reviews of public health campaigns– Comparison of political or propaganda campaigns

and public opinion

General findings

• Memory for campaigns is low– Recognition scores are better

• Attitude change is not often very great• However, change does occur and can be

significant under certain circumstances– Topic is relatively unknown– Media are consonant– Topic is emotionally charged

Meta-analysis

• Lodish et al. “Advertising works: A meta-analysis of 389 real world split cable T.V. advertising experiments”– TV advertising weight alone is not enough– The status quo is not enough– It is unlikely that there is a strong relationship

between standard measures of TV commercial recall and persuasion for established brands and the sales impact of the copy

– New brands or line extensions tend to be more responsive to alternative TV advertising plans than established products

– These data support the importance of introductory weight and prime time for new products

– Concentration of higher TV advertising weight is related to increases in brand sales

Dual-processing theory

• Dual-processing theories argue that we process persuasive messages differently if we are motivated to attend to them and are capable of processing them than if we just monitor them at a very low level or are unable to process them– Central v. peripheral processing

Central processing

• If we are motivated and capable of processing we will carefully review the arguments made to see if they are convincing according to rational argument– Appropriate evidence– Strength of argument, logic

Peripheral processing

• If we just give slight attention to a persuasive message, are not motivated enough to dedicate the effort to evaluate the logic and strength of argument, then we will tend to process according to ‘peripheral cues’– Attractiveness of the source

• May be sexual– Visual cues/attractiveness of the setting– Music– Emotion