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Persuasive Communication CIS summary
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Chapter 11. What is persuasion? Pag 2-4
Persuasion is a successful intentional effort at influencing another’s mental state through
communication in a circumstance in which the persuadee has some measure of
freedom. Persuasion only occurs if the mental state of the persuadee is indeed changed.
The term “intentional” indicates that it was the speaker’s intention to change the
interlocutor’s mind. “Entity” can be an object (classroom), a person, an institution
(university), a behavior (studying at home), a policy (cell phones not allowed), a product
(iPhone), etc. The mental state is usually equated with attitude. Often attitude is referred
to as a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with
some degree of favor or disfavor.
Stronger attitudes: persist over time, predictive of intentions and behavior, are resistant
to counterpersuasion. This is what we want when we design persuasive messages so
that the attitude can be resistant.
Weaker attitudes: do not persist over time, are less predictive of intentions and behavior
and are less resistant to counterpersuasion.
2. What is the difference between persuasive and informative documents? Pag 5-6
The document should stimulate the processes required to achieve the document’s goal.
Informative documents intend to provide information. It expresses just facts, not
opinions. Persuasive documents intend to convince readers of a particular point of view.
Although persuasive documents may have an informative effect, and informative
documents may have a persuasive effect, this does not mean that these document types
are similar.
Informative documents seem to be read more from the perspective of the communication
principle than persuasive documents. This communication principle states that 4 criteria
must be met: clarity, honesty, efficiency and relevance. Readers of informative
documents expect the writer to present all relevant information honestly and as clearly
and efficiently as possible.
Readers of persuasive documents appear unconvinced that this has been done since
the writer has an interest in suppressing negative arguments and embellishing positive
arguments. In this context, the distinction between directive communication and
non-directive communication is important. The information given as part of directive
communication is intended to make the target group draw a particular conclusion.
Non-directive communication does not have the intention to steer people towards a
particular conclusion.
3. What four instruments are available to a government when they want to influence
behavior? Pag 7-9
Although advertisers cannot force people to buy their products, the government can
impose obligations on citizens. Legislation enables the government to stipulate that
certain behaviors are mandatory and others prohibited. The instruments available are:
financial instruments (tax benefits), private law instruments (allowing the trade in manure
permits), direct regulation (via legislation) and social regulation (via public information).
,4. What is the role of “enforcement burden” and “personal responsibility” in the
choice between these measures?
If the government decides to adopt laws or regulations, these will come with an
enforcement burden since the government must be prepared to enforce them ( = to
make sure that people obey the law). This sometimes takes considerable effort.
On the other hand, when governments use social regulation (encouraging people), they
are appealing to personal responsibility. Thus, personal responsibility and enforcement
burden are “communicating vessels”. The more the instrument appeals to citizens’
personal responsibility, the lighter the government’s enforcement burden. If the
instrument allies less personal responsibility, the enforcement burden increases.
5. How does urgency of a situation influence the choice between these measures?
It depends on the nature of the situation: there are “very urgent situations” and “less
urgent situations''. The risks in very urgent situations are so high that immediate and
effective action is imperative. Since direct regulation is in principle more effective to
enforce the desired behavior, the council’s recommendation is to use this instrument in
very urgent situations. In less urgent situations, the government can choose between
several instruments, based on the nature of the situation, with 3 dimensions playing a
role.
6. What dimensions play a role in not-so-urgent situations?
The measurability of knowability of the behavior is the ease - or difficulty - with which the
government can monitor whether people abide by the rules. The easier it is to ascertain
that people do so, the lower the enforcement burden.
The size and heterogeneity (structure of target group) of the group of people who are
supposed to change their behavior. If the group is small and easy to identify, the
enforcement burden will be light.
The final dimension concerns the costs of the behavior change. The higher the people in
the target group perceive the costs to be, the less they will be inclined to adopt the
desired behavior. If the costs are perceived as low, their resistance to adopting the
behavior will decrease.
7. When should communication be considered as a way to influence behavior?
There are situations in which communication is indeed a useful instrument, particularly if
it can be expected that people will let themselves be convinced of the benefits of the
promoted behavior in comparison to their current behavior. There are 7 steps to be
followed in order to have a successful campaign.
- Conducting formative research
- Using theory
- Segmenting the target group
- Using an appropriate message design
- Choosing appropriate channels
- Controlling the process
- Conduct good evaluation research
, 8. What is meant by “effect size”? Pag 11
An effect size is based on the difference between two means, say the mean
appreciation of a message in a narrative format and the mean appreciation of a
message in a non-narrative format. In general, if this difference is large, the effect size is
large; if the difference is small, the effect size is small. To correct for measurement scale
and variability, we often use the standardized effect size, which is the difference between
the two means, but now divided by the Standard Deviation (=variability). This type of
effect size is called Cohen’s d.
- When someone designs a message, they should pay attention to the property of
their message (the content, structure, style, and images) ← could lead to a more
positive attitude or the opposite.
- The greater the effect, the greater the practical relevance is because large effects
mean that the message property leads to a large difference in persuasiveness.
- Small significance will lead to very modest differences.
A significant effect, or "difference in means", is not automatically practically relevant.
This is because small effects can also be significant. "Significant" only means that you
believe it is real, not that it is big. In general, the effect sizes in communication research
are rather small. That is why communication specialists should be modest.
9. What is the take-home message of the authors about the effect-size of
communication research?
Effects caused by message properties are generally small, and nonetheless very
important. They may lead to modest differences. In fact, large significant effects indicate
that the message property leads to large differences in persuasiveness.
Chapter 2
1. What is priming? Pag 21
Activating concepts or stereotypes by confronting people with words. In everyday life
people are seldom confronted with words in isolation, let alone with words all belonging
to the same domain. These stereotypes are usually evoked by people who belong to the
stereotypical group. Activation of stereotypes or stereotypical behavior can automatically
lead to a certain behavior.
There is a second trigger of automatic behavior besides the behavior of others:
automatic activation of goals. Subconscious or conscious goal activation leads to certain
behaviors, without people being aware of this activation and can lead people to perform
better. Many of our actions are carried out without thought. They are patterns evoked by
our perceptions of others or through subconscious activation of particular goals.
, 2. What are the components of the Integrative Model of Behavioral Prediction and
how are they related? (RAT, Reasoned Action Theory)
An important distinction in the model is between indirect and direct variables. Whereas
direct variables have a direct bearing on a person’s behavior, this is not the case for
indirect variables. According to this model, indirect variables only influence behavior
through the effect of direct variables.
The RAT describes the prediction of behavior from beliefs.
RAT: Beliefs -> Attitude/SocialNorm/PerceivedEfficacy -> Intention -> Behavior
3. Are the determinants of behavior the same for every behavior?
A person's behavior is primarily decided by 3 determinants: the intention to perform the
behavior, the skills necessary to perform the behavior and environmental constraints that
may hinder one to perform the behavior.
4. Are the determinants of behavioral intention the same for every behavior?
Attitude, perceived norm and efficacy. Attitude concerns the person’s evaluation of the
behavior: how positive or negative. The perceived norm can be either of two norms. On
the one hand, it may relate to what the person thinks that significant others may believe.
On the other hand, the perceived norm may relate to what others in the same situation
actually do. Finally, efficacy beliefs come down to the question “Do I think I can perform
this behavior?”. The relative weight of these three determinants differs for each behavior.
1) Attitudes are functions of the beliefs that one has about the attitude object/target's
behavior. Summative model: attitude is sum of products of belief strength * belief
evaluation. Attitude is seen as an evaluative summary of the assumed consequences of
the behavior, with two determinants playing a role: the perceived likelihood of the
behavior leading to a particular behavior (behavioral beliefs) and the degree of
desirability of this consequence (evaluations).
2) The normative perceived norm determinant is also a summary of two other factors:
normative beliefs combined with the motivation to comply. Normative beliefs concern
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