Persuasive Notes
Week 1
(Ancient) History of Persuasive Communication Studies
Ancient
● Started with ancient greek sophists: gave lessons in persuasion and even make people
believe black is white
● Aristotle: the power to persuade is determined by the characteristics of the
information source, its recipient and its content
● Emphasise the importance of considering the addressed audience (the aspect they find
especially important & the aspects they are sensitive to)
Modern
● Industrial Revolution: more interested in the art of persuasion
● WWII: grew larger because troops needed motivation to fight (propaganda)
Lasswell’s model of communication: who says what in which channel to whom with
what effect.
One of the earliest models of communication was formulated in 1940s by Harold Lasswell
● The effectiveness of information is best understood by asking ourselves:
● Who says what in which channel to whom, with what effect
In other words, important to understand
● The characteristics of the source
● The person issuing the message (Who)
● The content of the information being communicated (What)
● The medium used to transmit it (Which Channel)
● The characteristics of the intended recipient (To Whom)
● The extent to which their opinions or preferences are influenced as a result (What
effect)
The effect is the (change in) attitude
Attitude = a evaluative response (positive or negative) to a person/ situation / product / idea /
organisation
1
,Yale model of persuasion (describing a four-step process)
Studies the possible effects of particular characteristics of the
● Message content (What)
● Source (Who)
● Recipient (To Whom)
4 steps process model of persuasion
1. People must pay attention to the information contained in a message
● Without that, they cannot be persuaded for the simple reason that the
information is not taken
● Content of a message should relate to things that people consider important
2. The message must be present in such a way that it is understood
3. Once it is, the recipient can accept it and modify their attitude accordingly
4. For that change to influence permanently, the recipient must also retain their new
attitude
AIDA(S) model (attention, interest, desire, action, (satisfaction)).
The earliest model in advertising and marketing to describe of influence is the AIDA model
● Was extended in various ways
● To AIDAS:S (satisfaction → customer loyalty)
Within the AIDA model, persuasion does not necessarily follow a sequential order
● The fourth steps tend to run in parallel and one or more can be skipped
● The model assumes that people devote a certain amount of time and attention to
information presented to them
● In reality this is not always the case
● This model regards the recipients as rather passive (a supposition that is no longer
shared by most psychological models)
2
,McGuire communication-persuasion matrix (describing at least 12 steps)
Visualisation of the famous phrase: who says what in which channel to whom, with what
effect
● Allows researchers and advertisers to make an overview of how variation and
message characteristics has different effect on each of these steps
Alternative causal orders
● Not always the case that the person go from exposure to the permanent behaviour
change
No strict hierarchical order the always must be followed
Might skips steps, ● Low involved people might immediately go from “like the
take short -cuts ad” via “like the brand” to “buy the brand”
3
, Enter the same step ● High involved people might need several exposures and
multiple times repeated thinking about the content, before they decide to buy
(loops)
Follow steps in ● First buy the brand because you see it in the shop or you
reverse order follow the advice of a salesperson
● Next you form an attitude about the brand or pay attention to
its advertisement
Relevance of the matrix
● Make you aware of the cumulative effects of input factors and of how input factors
interact
● Makes you aware that behavioural change is a process → many steps between
exposure and permanent behaviour change → input factors might affect each output
factor differently
● Enables you to systematically overview the scientific knowledge on the effects of
each input factors on output factors
● Helps to see the weak spots of some input factors, which other input factors might
help to solve
● When designing a campaign , use the matrix
4
Week 1
(Ancient) History of Persuasive Communication Studies
Ancient
● Started with ancient greek sophists: gave lessons in persuasion and even make people
believe black is white
● Aristotle: the power to persuade is determined by the characteristics of the
information source, its recipient and its content
● Emphasise the importance of considering the addressed audience (the aspect they find
especially important & the aspects they are sensitive to)
Modern
● Industrial Revolution: more interested in the art of persuasion
● WWII: grew larger because troops needed motivation to fight (propaganda)
Lasswell’s model of communication: who says what in which channel to whom with
what effect.
One of the earliest models of communication was formulated in 1940s by Harold Lasswell
● The effectiveness of information is best understood by asking ourselves:
● Who says what in which channel to whom, with what effect
In other words, important to understand
● The characteristics of the source
● The person issuing the message (Who)
● The content of the information being communicated (What)
● The medium used to transmit it (Which Channel)
● The characteristics of the intended recipient (To Whom)
● The extent to which their opinions or preferences are influenced as a result (What
effect)
The effect is the (change in) attitude
Attitude = a evaluative response (positive or negative) to a person/ situation / product / idea /
organisation
1
,Yale model of persuasion (describing a four-step process)
Studies the possible effects of particular characteristics of the
● Message content (What)
● Source (Who)
● Recipient (To Whom)
4 steps process model of persuasion
1. People must pay attention to the information contained in a message
● Without that, they cannot be persuaded for the simple reason that the
information is not taken
● Content of a message should relate to things that people consider important
2. The message must be present in such a way that it is understood
3. Once it is, the recipient can accept it and modify their attitude accordingly
4. For that change to influence permanently, the recipient must also retain their new
attitude
AIDA(S) model (attention, interest, desire, action, (satisfaction)).
The earliest model in advertising and marketing to describe of influence is the AIDA model
● Was extended in various ways
● To AIDAS:S (satisfaction → customer loyalty)
Within the AIDA model, persuasion does not necessarily follow a sequential order
● The fourth steps tend to run in parallel and one or more can be skipped
● The model assumes that people devote a certain amount of time and attention to
information presented to them
● In reality this is not always the case
● This model regards the recipients as rather passive (a supposition that is no longer
shared by most psychological models)
2
,McGuire communication-persuasion matrix (describing at least 12 steps)
Visualisation of the famous phrase: who says what in which channel to whom, with what
effect
● Allows researchers and advertisers to make an overview of how variation and
message characteristics has different effect on each of these steps
Alternative causal orders
● Not always the case that the person go from exposure to the permanent behaviour
change
No strict hierarchical order the always must be followed
Might skips steps, ● Low involved people might immediately go from “like the
take short -cuts ad” via “like the brand” to “buy the brand”
3
, Enter the same step ● High involved people might need several exposures and
multiple times repeated thinking about the content, before they decide to buy
(loops)
Follow steps in ● First buy the brand because you see it in the shop or you
reverse order follow the advice of a salesperson
● Next you form an attitude about the brand or pay attention to
its advertisement
Relevance of the matrix
● Make you aware of the cumulative effects of input factors and of how input factors
interact
● Makes you aware that behavioural change is a process → many steps between
exposure and permanent behaviour change → input factors might affect each output
factor differently
● Enables you to systematically overview the scientific knowledge on the effects of
each input factors on output factors
● Helps to see the weak spots of some input factors, which other input factors might
help to solve
● When designing a campaign , use the matrix
4
