Persuasive Communication Exam
Week 1: Influence
Chapter 1
In any society, people influence and are influenced by others on a day-to-day basis. From birth,
parents exert a huge influence over their children’s preferences, opinions and behaviours.
But probably the most pervasive and recognisable form of influence comes in the form of public
information and a
dvertising.
Agents of advertising all seek to influence us, in the hope of encouraging a specific type of
behaviour – from buying a particular product or service to changing our lifestyle habits, voting
for a particular political party or supporting a specific cause.
All of these agents deploy information in their efforts to influence people’s thoughts and
behaviour. That information can take many forms – either verbal or non-verbal communication,
images or sounds, or a combination of different forms of communication. Even aromas and
flavours are used to influence people.
While we might not r ecall many of the messages we see, we do often r ecognise t hem. This
suggests that the information we see influences us in a very subtle way, without us always
being aware that our opinions, preferences and behaviour are being shaped.
History of persuasive communication studies
● Persuasion started with the ancient Greek sophists. They travelled from town to town to
give lessons in rhetoric (the art of persuasion). The philosopher Plato regarded them as
nothing more than smooth talkers, uninterested in the truth.
Aristotle, Plato’s most famous pupil, approached the process of persuasion from a
scholarly perspective and so is generally regarded as the founder of a
rgumentation
studies ( =the academic discipline concerned with the use of language to persuade
others).
His view was that the power to persuade through language is determined by
characteristics of the s ource of the information (the persuader), its r ecipient and its
content. Aristotle also showed that it is important to consider the public you are
, addressing and, above all, to concentrate on those aspects that your audience finds
important and is sensitive to.
● With the advent of the industrial revolution, more and more products and services were
becoming available. In order to inform and influence the general public, companies
became more and more interested in the art of persuasion.
● But it's the events of the Second World War which really kick-started research into the
subject. Allied Forces desperately needed ways to convince and mobilise the home front
to donate and help with the war effort.
Drawing upon the numerous wartime studies of the impact of propaganda (WW2), in
the late 1940s Harold Laswell formulated the model of communication that now bears
his name.
Laswell's model of communication
In his view, the effectiveness of information is best understood by asking ourselves ‘who says
what in which channel to whom, with what effect?’
In other words, it is important to look at:
● Who: t he characteristics of the person issuing the message;
● What: the content of the information being communicated;
● Which channel: t he medium used to transmit it;
● To whom: the characteristics of the intended recipient;
● With what effect: and the extent to which their opinions or preferences are influenced
as a result.
,Lasswell was one of many researchers at American universities called in to investigate the
effectiveness of propaganda.
Yale model of persuasion
At Yale University, for instance, a group led by Carl Hovland was established to investigate the
psychology of attitudes and attitude change.
An attitude describes an evaluative response – positive or negative – to a person, a situation,
a product, an idea or an organisation.
Hovland’s team devised a four-step process model of persuasion.
(1) First, people must pay a ttention to the information contained in a message. Without
that, they cannot be persuaded for the simple reason that the information is not taken in.
(2) Secondly, the message must be presented in such a way that it is u nderstood.
(3) Once it is, the recipient can a ccept it and modify their attitude accordingly.
(4) But for that change to influence their behavior permanently, the recipient must also
retain their new attitude
Each of these steps – attention, understanding, acceptance and retention – influences the
probability of eventual attitude change.
The likelihood that the entire process will be completed depends upon various factors, first and
foremost the recipient’s willingness to actually pay attention to the message in the first place.
● The content of a message should relate to things that people consider important.
Information they regard as inconsequential will not be processed effectively.
● The nature of the source may also give the recipient greater or lesser reason to pay
attention.
● Existing attitudes influence the persuasive power of a new message. Information that
corresponds with the ideas and attitudes a person already holds dear is more
persuasive than a message which contradicts them.
, Shortcomings
But the model gives the recipient of information a somewhat limited/ passive role. It assumes
that as soon as a person is motivated to take notice of a message, they will internalise its
contents, ultimately shaping their attitude and behavior.
The model asserts only that motivated people will take in information; it does not state exactly
how that process works or whether its machinations affect the eventual outcome.
AIDA model
AIDA stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. AIDA was subsequently extended in
various ways, for example with the addition of an ‘S’ for ‘satisfaction’ (AIDAS) which was a
necessary component to assure c ustomer loyalty and so generate repeat purchases.
