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Summary Communication & Persuasion
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Summary, CPT23306: Communication & PersuasionAcademic Year 2017 – 2018
Wageningen University
Lectures
Lecture 1: Introduction
Persuasion is a symbolic process in which a communicator (attempts to) induce(s) a change
in belief, attitude or behaviour of another person, and the persuadee has a perceived sense
of freedom. It is, thus, different from coercion, where the other person has no freedom.
The traditional view of persuasion is that the sender and the receiver are independent from
each other and that the receiver is passive. Nowadays, persuasion is dynamic. The different
components (sender, receiver, message) are interrelated. The receiver is active and the
context of the message is everything. Persuasion is everywhere and a lot of professions can
use persuasion.
Studying persuasion has three important benefits:
1. You can become a more effective persuader.
2. You can increase your knowledge.
3. You can become perceptive and defensive.
Lecture 2: Basic Principles of Persuasion
Heuristics are rules of thumb. We have learned that acting in a particular way is usually
optimal. So, there are implicit, shortcut rules that guide our behaviour. They are fixed-action
patterns.
There are two systems for thinking. System 1 is fast, automatic, frequent, emotional,
stereotypic and subconscious. System 2 is slow, effortful, infrequent, logical, calculation,
conscious. These previous mentioned shortcuts are most likely to be used in system 1.
Cialdini (2001) produced the six weapons of influence.
1. Reciprocity: Reciprocity is helping those who help you. “You scratch my back, and I
scratch yours”. The giving of samples is a good example of reciprocity.
2. Scarcity: People want freedom of choice. They will respond negatively to restrictions.
This is also referred to as ‘reactance’. People will then try to restore freedom.
3. Authority: People are sensitive to authority. It is part of our socialization process. We
look for symbols, like uniforms, titles and cars.
4. Liking: We are more likely to say ‘yes’ to someone we like. We like pretty people,
similar people, people we have seen before and people we trust. We associate the
message with the source.
5. Consensus (Social Proof): People are social creatures. We look at what other do.
Social norms play an important role.
6. Commitment (and consistency): People need consistency. Inconsistency causes
tension. Different commitment strategies can be used to get rid of the tension.
In 2016, Cialdini added a seventh weapon of influence; unity.
Lecture 3: Attitudes
We study attitudes, because persuasion is attitude change. You have to know what they are
in order to “see” them. We have attitudes towards pretty much anything.
An attitude is a learned, global evaluation of an object (person, place, issue) that influences
behaviour. They are learned and formed by experience. They are not innate. They are based
on both affect and cognition. They are also relatively stable and enduring. It is a state of
readiness that guides behaviour. It is an assessment or evaluation. Which means your
feelings and thoughts are positive or negative towards a certain object.
An attitude is not the same as:
, - Value: Thoughts about how something should be. They are less concrete, more
stable and more general.
- Belief: A belief is more cognitive and specific. They are not facts.
- Mood: Moods have to do with the here and now. They fluctuate quickly. It is a short-
term emotional state. They are very general.
The Expectancy Value Model describes that the overall attitude is formed by beliefs a
person has concerning attributes of the attitude object and the evaluations of those beliefs.
The Expectancy Value Model focuses on chronically accessible beliefs (stable attitudes).
However, contextual variables can make certain beliefs temporarily more accessible. They
can shift in positive or negative directions. The mood congruency hypothesis states that
when you are in a negative (positive) mood, negative (positive) beliefs and memories
become more accessible. So, context matters!
Affect and cognitions are most likely joint effects. When cognition and affect are consistent,
they contribute equally to predicting behaviour. However, affective aspects underlying
attitudes are more easily accessible in memory and when beliefs and feelings regarding an
object are of opposite valence (ambivalence), feelings tend to predominate. Individuals differ
in their reliance on affect and cognition.
Attitudinal ambivalence describes the co-existence of positive and negative dispositions;
conflicting beliefs, conflicting attitudes, etc. Consequences of attitudinal ambivalence are that
subsequent intentions and behaviour are less predictive than non-ambivalent attitude and
they are less resistant to persuasion than non-ambivalent. There are several strategies to
reduce ambivalence.
The negativity bias states that whether cognitive or affective in nature, it seems that
negative information tends to have a greater impact on overall evaluations than comparably
extreme positive information.
Strong attitudes are resistant to persuasion. They are based on high personal relevance
and are stable over time. They predict manifest behaviour and they are linked to our self-
concept. Strong attitudes can possibly bias information processing and memory in favour of
attitude-consistent material (confirmation bias). Ambiguous information is also seen as
supporting existing attitude. People overestimate who agrees with them. This is also called
false consensus effect.
Social Judgement Theory states that existing attitudes serve as reference points (anchors).
New information is compared to these anchors. People process new information based on
what they already think or feel. People differ in what information they find (un)acceptable.
The attitude functions as a continuum of evaluations. These are split up as followed: lattitude
of acceptance (LA), lattitude of rejection (LR), lattitude of non-commitment. If a message falls
within LA, new information is perceived as being more congruent with own attitudes. This is
also called assimilation. If a message falls outside of LA and within LR, new information is
perceived as being more incongruent with own attitudes. This is called a contrast. The more
involvement there is, the smaller the LA is and the bigger the LR is, because there are
stronger attitudes. People can only be persuaded if the advocated positions are not too
different from their existing attitudes. Contrast effects reduce persuasiveness, but so do
assimilation effects! The theory only focuses on the receiver.
Attitudes are assumed to influence behaviour. Yet, the effect is medium. There are several
reasons.
1. Aspects of the situation
2. Aspects of the behaviour
Behaviour is influenced not only by attitude, but also social norms, perceived
behavioural control, emotions, self-identity, moral norms, etc.
3. Aspects of the person
, People differ in their display of consistency between their attitudes and behaviour.
Self-monitoring is monitoring how you appear to others. If this is high, you are
motivated to act in line with the situation. If this is low, you are motivated to act in line
with your own attitudes. If the preference for consistency is high, you are motivated to
behave in line with earlier behaviour. If it is low, you are motivated to be spontaneous.
4. Aspects of the attitude
Strong attitudes guide behaviour. They are straightforward and accessible. You
cannot predict specific behaviour from a general attitude, and vice versa. Behaviour is
often influenced by many attitudes.
Lecture 4: Think and feel
The Elaboration Likelihood Model is developed by Petty and Cacioppo (1986). People
have nether the ability nor the motivation to evaluate everything carefully. There are two
mental routes in changing the attitude; the central route and the peripheral route. High
Elaboration Likelihood occurs when one is motivated and able. The focus is on content and
the argument itself. The argument has to be strong in evidence. The Low Elaboration
Likelihood occurs when motivation and ability are absent. The focus is on cues within
delivery, like experts, humour, source, number of arguments, etc. The argument has to look
good.
Priming is an umbrella term, which means activating information in memory and making it
more accessible and presumably influential in processing new stimuli and decision making.
Priming with certain cues can presumably affect behaviour outside awareness. Words and
signs can play a role in priming.
A mood is a mild emotional state. It is very general. An emotion is more extreme. It occurs
on a shorter term. It is specific and triggered. Emotions help us adapt to our social
environment. Emotions are a consequence of how an individual appraises a situation in light
of his/her goals. If the appraisal of a situation is facilitating goal achievement, positive
emotions play a role. If the appraisal of a situation is inhibiting goal achievement, negative
emotions play a role.
Emotions are a source of information. It is hard to predict others’ behaviour. People use
emotions as a communication device. Emotional contagion occurs when we automatically
take over others’ emotions. We mimic other’s postures, expression and tone of voice.
When a leader shows emotions, it shows commitment to goal. Leaders that show positive
emotions are seen as more charismatic.
We react strongly and automatically to emotions, but it is difficult to find empirical evidence
for the effectiveness of real world campaigns using emotions.
Our moods influence the way we process information. Positive mood fosters heuristic or
more abstract processing, while negative mood fosters systematic or more concrete
processing. A message seems to matter less when the recipient is in a good mood.
People evaluate things more positively when in a good rather than bad mood. Being in a
good (bad) mood facilitates recall of positive (negative) information from memory, resulting in
a biased data base on which the judgement is based. We misread pre-existing mood states
as affective responses to what we are thinking about, resulting in mood congruent
judgments. Possible explanation for this principle are:
- Mood as Information (MAI): A happy mood signals that everything is okay and that
one can relax. They are less prone to consider available information.
- Positive mood opens the mental road to stored positive material in the brain. There is
more of this than negative material, so less ‘cognitive capacity’ available for other
processing tasks.
- People want to preserve their pleasant feeling, thinking might lessen their good
mood.
Pleasant feelings can also facilitate thinking.
, When expected that the content of a massage is uplifting, one scrutinizes an uplifting text
to preserve (or even enhance) one’s pleasant mood.
If the situation encourages happy people to do so. When people are explicitly instructed
to pay attention.
Happy people who scrutinize a message seem to be the ones who are persuaded the most
by communication.
Negative emotions will lead to central processing. Negative mood is a signal that something
is wrong and that one should pay attention. This causes careful consideration and
scrutinizing of message. However, most conducted studies only aroused mild levels of
negative emotions. With more intense negativity, processing can become heuristic and with
extreme levels might end in rejection of the message.
The Extended Parallel Response Model states that a fear appeal can evoke different
reactions, depending on
1. Perceived threat
a. Vulnerability to threat (susceptibility)
b. Seriousness of threat (severity)
c. No threat: No action is taken
2. Action: Perceived efficacy
a. Ability to perform recommended response (self-efficacy)
b. Effectiveness of response (response efficacy)
c. No efficacy: No motivation to control danger, instead fear control occurs.
When too much fear is created, people will not listen. They will avoid pain. It has to be
realistic.
There are different types of fear appeals, such as physical, social and financial. There are
also other emotional appeals, such as guilt, eroticism, warmth and humour.
People have a very basic need for consistency. We strive for consistency (or balance,
congruence) between our cognitions, attitudes, behaviours and such. When there is
inconsistency, this creates a tension and a motivation to change.
The Cognitive Dissonance Theory is the most famous consistency theory by Festinger
(1957). It states that if two cognitions are consistent, it leads to consonance. However, if two
(or more) cognitions are inconsistent, it will result in dissonance. As cognitions increase in
importance, so does the magnitude of the dissonance. Physical tension and arousal are
experienced. The experienced dissonance is psychological, not objective. It is an unpleasant
feeling which needs remedy. It motivates a need to reduce tension and reinstate consistency.
Dissonance occurs when an individual
- Holds inconsistent thoughts
- Freely performs behaviour inconsistent with an attitude
- Rules out a desirable alternative
- Participates in a disappointing activity
- Is unable to find justification for an attitude or behaviour
The magnitude of dissonance depends on the number of dissonant elements and the
importance of the issue.
The cognitive dissonance theory states that people are motivated to reduce dissonance,
including changing their attitude. There are several strategies to reduce dissonance. Some
people are better in coping with dissonance than others. The reduction of dissonance is not
always successful, but people are always motivated.
The different coping strategies are:
- Modifying: Actual change
- Bolstering: Rationalizing or making excuses
- Transcendence: Focus on higher level
- Communication: Convince others to change or convince them that you did the right
thing
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