Persuasion: Understanding the Use of Communication for Influence and Attitude Change, Slides of Theories of Communication

Download Persuasion: Understanding the Use of Communication for Influence and Attitude Change and more Slides Theories of Communication in PDF only on Docsity!

Persuasion

Theoretical and practical concerns

Persuasion

• Attempts to persuade you are everywhere all the

time

• That is, wherever you go now, someone is trying to influence you
• The attempts don’t stop—they go on day and night
• Advanced industrial countries rely heavily on

persuasion for social influence

• Less emphasis on brute force
• Mass communication available
  • Persuasion is more efficient and may be more effective

Applied research

• Most persuasion research is meant to test

specific persuasive communications strategies

or tactics rather than to build theory

• Advertising research
  • Copytesting
  • Campaigns studies
• Propaganda studies
• Educational/persuasive campaigns
  • Public health interventions

Theory development

• Theory may be developed and tested using

scientific research methods

• Experimental studies, usually
• More often, the results of advertising,

educational campaigns reviewed and theory is

induced from real-world experience

• Advertising effectiveness monitoring

Hovland et al.

• Applied Lasswell’s paradigm for study:
  • Who?
  • Says What?
  • To Whom?
  • In Which Channel?
  • With what effect?

Who?

• Hovland et al. looked at the effects of

credibility of source on the effectiveness of

attitude change messages.

• Controlled experimental designs
• Presented identical messages but varied the source of the message - News stories and editorials supposedly written by sources of greater or lesser credibility, or from more or less credible news organizations

Expertise

• Does the source appear to be knowledgeable

on the topic?

• A source may be perceived to have expertise even if he doesn’t - “I‘m not a doctor, but I play one on TV” - All sorts of actors dressed up as doctors in early commercials - FCC restricted representations of sources—cannot be misleading or false

Trustworthiness

• If the source seems honest and

straightforward we are more likely to be

convinced by what she says

• The audience has some reason to believe the source is honest - Newsperson’s commitment to objectivity - Walter Cronkite - A history of openness and honesty (self-disclosure) - Oprah

• When the speaker argues against his own

self-interest, he is more persuasive

• Joe “The Shoulder” Napolitano arguing for

more stringent sentencing

• A group of wealthy people opposed to the

repeal of the inheritance tax

Charisma

• Personal charm or likeability
  • Ronald Reagan
    • “Teflon president”
  • Celebrity endorsements
    • Not really clear why some people are appealing
• Physical attractiveness
  • Physically attractive people are liked, trusted

Sources

• Heavy use of celebrities
  • Positive affect prior to advertising, etc.
  • Natural on-air presentation
  • Physical attractiveness
  • Association with certain image, roles

Says what? (content)

• Structure of arguments
  • One-sided v. two-sided
  • Primacy v. recency
  • Conclusive v. non-conclusive
• Rational v. emotional appeals
  • Fear
  • Humor
• Visual v. semantic appeals

Content

• Emotional content
  • Pathos
  • Humor
  • Love
  • Desire
  • Jealousy
• Cultural symbolism
  • Flags
  • Weddings
  • Cars

Framing

• Loss v. gain
• Episode v general trend
• Examples v. statistics
• False comparisons