Summary
Social Psychology Chapter 6-11 Summary
- Institution
- Stellenbosch University (SUN)
Detailed summaries for chapters 6-11 of Social Psychology 324. Includes explanations of key terms and theories for each chapter.
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CHAPTER 6PERSUATION AND ATTITITUDE CHANGE
Attitudes, Arguments and Behaviour
• Attitudes do not readily predict behaviour
• Discrepancies between attitudes and behaviour explain how attitudes can
change.
• Attitude change – any significant modification of an individual’s attitude. In
persuasion process involves communication, communicator and medium of
communication used.
• 2 general orientations:
o Concentrate on use of arguments to convince others to change.
Premise of reasoning
o Focus on changing behaviour of target if change how someone
acts, we can change their underlying attitudes. Eliminates reasoning
with the other, focus on persuasion.
Link to cognitive dissonance theory.
Persuasive communication
• Message intended to change an attitude and related behaviours of an
audience.
• Communications theory involves 3 general variables:
o The communicator or source
o The communication, or message
o The audience
• 4 steps in persuasion process (Hovland) (A CAR)
o Attention
o Comprehension
o Acceptance
o Retention
• Third-person effect: most people think they are less influenced than others
by advertisements.
• The Yale Approach: The Source, The Message, The Audience
o None work in isolation
The communicator
• Source credibility:
o Attractiveness
o Experts command more respect
o Likeability
o Similarity/ Familiarity more persuasive if similar to us, but if it is a
matter of fact, dissimilar sources do better.
o Speech rate rapidly – more persuasive
o If message is simple, credibility acts as a heuristic. This person is
famous / an expert, so what they say must be true.
o More complex message more elaboration or thought processing.
, o Influence
The Message
• The Sleeper Effect: suggests that over time, the quality of the argument has
more of an impact on persuasion than the credibility of the source.
o i.e. a high-quality argument overpowers any heuristics/ cognitive
shortcuts.
o Over time a message stays in memory, but unlikely source stays in
memory too
• Subtle messaging more effective
• Low linguistic power more negative impression
• When to present both sides of an argument:
o If audience against argument, but fairly intelligent present both.
o There is low motivation to adopt your opinion
• When not: when audience strongly in favour of alternative over yours.
• Framing:
o For health: frame in terms of preventing loss
o Targeting positive behaviours: frame in terms of what can be gained
• Fear:
o Less likely to be persuaded under conditions of no fear and under
conditions of extreme fear
o Inverted U-Curve hypothesis too much fear/panic leads to
distraction and limited info processing.
o Protection Motivation Theory: fear-based appeals can eliminate
dangerous health practices if they include an effective presentation of
how to cope with the danger.
o Terror Management Theory: if fear is so extreme it makes aware of
mortality fear lead messages may lead to ideological conviction
instead of attitude and behavioural change
• Medium used:
o Strong influence on persuasion.
o Moderating variable is complexity of message
o Simple (most powerful to least): TV, radio, newspapers
o Complex message: newspapers, TV, radio.
The Audience
• Prior beliefs:
o Arguments incompatible to prior beliefs are scrutinized longer, and
judged weaker than compatible arguments
• Distraction:
o makes more susceptible to persuasion when distracted, at least when
message is simple.
• High self-monitors:
o Persuaded more by high-quality arguments by someone who is an
attractive person.
• Age
o Hypothesis of increasing persistence:
, Susceptibility to attitude change is higher in early adulthood, but
less so when older because attitudes reflect an accumulation
of experiences
o Hypothesis of impressionable years:
Core attitudes, values and beliefs are crystallised during period
of high plasticity in early adulthood.
o Hypothesis of life stages:
High susceptibility early adulthood + later life, low
susceptibility throughout middle adulthood
o Lifelong openness:
Throughout our lives, we are susceptible to attitude change.
o Persistence:
Most of an individual’s fundamental orientations are established
firmly during pre-adult socialisation after that, susceptibility is
low.
• Gender
o Women more easily influence than men socialised to be co-
operative + non-assertive?
o Only more influenced when topic is more male-oriented, and vice
versa.
• Self-esteem
o High self-esteem people might be as influenced as those with low self-
esteem
o Inverted u-curve: suggests either low/high self-esteem may be less
susceptible to persuasion than those with moderate self-esteem
Low: less attentive, more anxious
High: very self-assured
• Cognitive style
o Score high on:
Need for cognition
Need to evaluate
Need for closure
Preference for consistency
Combination of scoring highly on these factors less
susceptible to persuasion
Dual-process models of persuasion
• Both deal with persuasion cues and draw on social cognition research on
memory.
Elaboration-Likelihood Model (Petty, Cacioppo)
• When people attend to a message carefully, they use a central route to
process it, otherwise they will use a peripheral route.
• If receive a persuasive message, will think about arguments it makes.
• But do not necessarily think deeply takes cognitive effort
• Cognitive tacticians use least amount of cognitive effort possible
• If argument is followed closely:
o Central, bottom -up processing
Takes time to draw conclusions
, Requires cognitive effort
Pay attention to details
Data-driven processing
Fewer assumptions
o Attitude change is dependent on quality of arguments
• Peripheral cues:
o Focus on superficial qualities / persuasion cues eg attractiveness of
communicator
Heuristic-Systematic Model (Chaiken)
• When people attend to message carefully, they use systematic processing.
Otherwise process info using heuristics or mental short-cuts.
• Bottom-up (systematic) and top-down (heuristics)
• Systematic: analyse carefully
• Heuristics: use heuristics and shortcuts to analyse message. Credibility of
source focused on Cognitive misers + motivated tacticians. Eg: statistics don’t
lie
o Will use as long as satisfy need to be confident in attitude we adopt
• Lack confidence switch to systematic processing: sufficiency threshold
Compliance
• Compliance surface behavioural response to a request by another
individual. Superficial, temporary. More closely associated with behaviour
• Conformity influence of a group upon an individual that usually produces
more enduring internalised changes in one’s attitudes and beliefs. More
associated with attitudes.
Tactics for enhancing compliance
• Jones and Pittman:
o Self-promotion elicit respect and confidence in capabilities
o Intimidation elicit fear
o Exemplification elicit guilt and get others to think you are a morally
respectable individual
o Supplication elicit pity
o Ingratiation attempt to make others like you. (reciprocity principle:
responding to a positive action with another positive action, rewarding
kind actions)
• Multiple requests more effective.
o Foot-in-the door: agree to small request, more likely to agree to
second. But first can’t be too small, and second can’t be too large.
Bem’s self-perception theory: people become committed to
behaviour, see themselves as giving want to be consistent in
being charitable.
o Door-in-face: large favour, then smaller request.
Relies on contrast effect – second request seems more
acceptable when contrasted with larger request.
o Low-ball: get to agree to one request, then reveal costs of action.
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