HC 1
Persuasive communication
Persuasive: overtuigend
A sender's attempt to change a receiver's beliefs, attitudes and behaviour
Persuasive communication is:
• Broader than marketing communication
• Foundation of most marketing communication
Marketing communication
Persuasive communication, but also:
• Attention / awareness (memory effects)
• Consumer choice behavior (b.v. biases)
• Branding
• Targeting strategy
• Media influence (b.v. online vs offline)
• Etc.
Marketing and persuasive communication
• More focus on persuasion (vs. attention, strategy)
• Theoretical foundations; social psychology
Persuasion: application areas
Corporate sphere, b.v.
• Marketing communication, but also
o Sales / negotiations
o Motivation / leadership
o Online campaigns / influencers
Public sphere, b.v.
• Health communication
• Politics, societal debates
Individual sphere, b.v.
• Relations
• Education / family life
Question
Are good-looking people seen as more or less intelligent as less good-looking people?
Answer:
• Good looking people are seen as more intelligent, nicer, more outgoing (halo-effect)
• Effect:
o More positive responses, credible, reliable
o More persuasive!
o Better (paid) jobs, nicer partners
Persuasion
More precise definition:
• a symbolic process in which communicators try to convince other people to change their attitudes or
behavior regarding an issue through the transmission of a message, in an atmosphere of free choice
So:
• Symbolic process
• Intentional influence
, • (Beliefs), attitudes and behaviour
• Sender, receiver, message, object, context
• Receiver has free choice
News or persuasion?
News may influence attitudes, but there usually is no “persuasive intent”
If there is persuasive intent → persuasion
Quiz
1: Which of the following is a basic component of persuasion?
a. logic
b. emotion
c. free choice
d. threat
2: The text discussed persuasion and coercion. The discussion concluded that:
a. coercion and persuasion differ sharply
b. it is frequently difficult to differentiate persuasion from coercion
c. coercive appeals are more emotional than persuasive messages
d. coercion is immoral; persuasion is always moral
3: According to the definition of persuasion, which of these would NOT be regarded as a persuasive
message?
a. television violence
b. political commercial
c. sales appeal via telephone
d. folk song intended to change attitudes toward police
4: Plato criticized these early Greek scholars of persuasion. Their name has become synonymous with glib,
simplistic appeals. They are the:
a. Gyros
b. Aristotleans
c. Athenian rockers
d. Sophists
5: Let's say that Jennifer loves to hike in the woods and has pro-environmental attitudes. After clicking on
the Green Party's web site, she feels even more positively toward environmental causes. The website has
exerted which type of persuasion effect:
a. attitude shaping
b. attitude changing
c. attitude reinforcing
d. attitude brainwashing
6: The social scientific approach to persuasion is characterized by:
a. proposing philosophical approaches to persuasion ethics
b. testing hypotheses through empirical methods
c. studying persuasive messages, not people
d. focusing on animals to understand human behavior
HC 2
Atmosphere of free choise
• In case of unequal power / hierarchical contexts there is no free choice
• Hence: no persuasive communication
,Definitions of attitudes
• “A mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive and
dynamic influence upon the individual's response to all objects and situations with which it is related”
Allport (1935)
o Erg zwart / wit
• “The predisposition of the individual to evaluate a particular object in a favorable or unfavorable
manner” Katz (1960)
o Predispositie: van tevoren al een gevoel hebben, lijkt een soort aangeboren. Je hebt in je
hoofd al een attitude tegenover bijvoorbeeld koffie
• “A tendency to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given
object” Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975 / Ajzen 1988
o Neiging is ook een soort predispositie, het bestaat al van tevoren
• “A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of
favor or disfavor” Eagly & Chaiken (1993)
o Dit is de meest gezaghebbende definitie op het moment
o Een tendentie is er ook al van tevoren en preciezer dan een neiging
o Entiteit beter woord voor object
o Evaluatief is nieuw in deze definitie
o Geeft meer ruimte en is neutraler, niet zwart / wit zoals de eerste definitie
Key characteristics of attitudes
• Tendency: longer than emotions, shorter than personality traits
• Learned: through experience or other
• Evaluative: has a valence (positive / negative) and intensity (weak / strong)
• Directed at object: person, issue, group, etc.
Attitude functions
Attitudes have psychological benefits for people
• Katz (1960):
o Ego-defensive
o Value-expressive
o Instrumental
o Knowledge function
• Smith, Bruner & White (1956):
o Social adjustive function
1: Ego-defensive function
• Attitudes help maintain a positive self-image
• In vs. outgroup: negative attitudes toward other groups confirms own superiority
o Negative attitudes toward immigrants
2: Value-expressive function
• People want to express their identity
• Attitudes help to express central values, obtain social approval
o Liking classical music to show refinement, class
o Loving "Black Pete" (or being woke)
3: Instrumental function
• Attitudes and associated behaviour (approach / avoid) will help obtaining positive outcomes
• Usually result from learning processes (rewards and punishments)
• Children develop positive attitudes bases on associated positive outcomes
o Leerling vindt leren stom, maar krijgt bij goed leren een compliment van de leraar (uitkomst),
daardoor ga je leren associëren met complimenten krijgen en vind je het leuk.
, 4: Knowledge function of attitudes
• Attitudes organize our thinking; make the world understandable / predictable
• Attitudes help us predict how people will respond / situation will work out
o 'Good guys vs. bad guys'
5: Social adjustment
• People like others with similar beliefs
• Expressing attitudes helps in forming or maintaining (or blocking!) relationships
o "Wow, this class really sucks right?"
o "No, I think it's the best class ever!"
Attitudes
Expectancy-value approach (Fishbein & Azjen, 1975):
Attitude = strengths of beliefs * evaluation of these beliefs
Justin Bieber = belangrijk dat je goed kunt zingen * hij kan het heel goed → dus een positieve attitude
Sterkte van beliefs (en dus attitudes) zijn afhankelijk van veel dingen:
• Accessibility: zat Justin Bieber pas geleden niet in de gevangenis vanwege dronken rijden?
• Personal importance of belief: ik haat mensen die dronken rijden!
• Personal importance of attitude object: ik luister zijn muziek al van kleins af aan
• Certainty of belief: misschien is hij wel aardig
• Uniqueness of belief: bieberkapsel
• Relative importance of belief: drank? Who cares?
Je kan attitudes bijvoorbeeld meten met een vijf-puntenschaal
Quiz
1: An attitude is best described as:
a. innate, global evaluation of social objects
b. learned, global evaluation of people, places, or issues
c. cognitive assessments that influence thoughts, but not actions
d. ideals; guiding principles in our lives
2: Which of these statements is NOT true of beliefs?
a. beliefs are cognitions about the world
b. prescriptive beliefs concern what people think should occur
c. beliefs are equivalent to facts
d. the expectancy value approach says that beliefs and evaluations comprise attitudes
3: According to balance theory, individuals crave which of the following?
a. consistency among attitude elements
b. reward for holding the right attitude
c. social acceptance from peers
d. skill in balancing their bodies on a tightrope
4: According to social judgment theory, which of these is the most important factor in understanding an
individual's reaction to a persuasive message?
a. the arguments in the message
b. the speaker's credibility
c. intelligence
d. his or her own initial attitude
