Notes all lectures Persuasive communication

Persuasive communication quarter 1

Week 1, 36

Lecture 1, September 2, Chapter 1

Origin of persuasion > people want things

 Attitude > the target’s group opinion about a behavior.
 Perceived norm > what the target thinks their group believes or
expects.
 Self-efficacy > the target’s group belief in their ability to do the
behavior.

In the head, 2 parts;
 Limbic system > wants something, says buy the chocolate, do it
 Frontal/prefrontal cortex> thinks about it, thinks about the health,
don’t do it

Definition; “A successful intentional effort at influencing another’s mental
state through
communication in a circumstance in which the persuadee has some
measure
of freedom”

Attitude; “A psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a
particular entity with some degree of favor or disfavor”

“Entity” can be an object (classroom), a person (me), an institution
(university), a behavior (studying at home), a policy (cellphones not
allowed), a product (iPhone),
etc.

Redefine, different kinds of communications or documents (in the
broadest sense);
 Informational documents (newspaper, brochure, textbook)
 Instructional documents (manuals, help info, forms, package inserts)
 Persuasive documents (marketing communication, health
campaigns, fundraising letters
 Informational and instructional documents may also persuade

Is persuasion okay? different viewpoints;
 “Science must aid society” > if persuasion research is not aimed at
the greater good, it is unethical
 “Persuasion research must not violate social norms or sensitivities”
 “Persuaders (and persuasion researchers) have freedom of speech”
> everything goes unless hate or violence is incited (or illegal
behavior)

,  “Persuadees are free”, and can choose to ignore the persuasive
communication, should not violate social norms

Types of factors involved in persuasion;
 Source factors: who is doing the talking? > expertise,
trustworthiness, sympathy, Attractiveness
 Message factors: what is said and how? > types of evidence,
framing, style, argumentation
 Audience factors: who is listening? > male versus female, cogniative
abilities, need for cognition, motivation

Why no recipe? Factors may interact;
-Certain types of evidence may work only for certain types of experts
-Certain types of framing may only work for certain topics, and differently
for males than for females

One study is no study, so don’t use only one study, try to find all;
 Systematic review > qualitative
 Meta-analyses > quantitative

Governments have a number of instruments at their disposal when they
want to influence behavior > enforcement burden is not such an
instrument?

 Lecture 2, September 4, Chapter 2

The concepts of attitudes; “A person’s general evuluation of an object”

Attidutes;
-Are relatively stable representations in Long Term Memory (LTM)
-Are evaluative, either favorable or unfavorbale, postive or negative,
approach or avoidance
-Are assoiciated with objects, persons, behavior, instituions, eventis, etc.
-Most often based on direct experience (also: mere exposure)
-Can also be based on reasoning

Fundamentals of attitudes; ABC
A. Affective component: feelings/emotions about the object, in 2
dimensions: valence (is positive and negative) and intensity
B. Behavioral component: attitudes influence behavior, however
behavior can also
influence attitudes
C. Congitve component: knowledge/beliefs about the object, typically
in descriptive terms

Eating vegetables; example ABC attitudes
A, example > negative- it is not always tasty, postive- fealing healthy after
eating
B, example > avoiding and trying to eating less of it when it is not tasty

, C, example > need to eat it, it is healthy and good for you

RAT; Intergrative model of behavioral prediction;
 Attitude toward behavior > Positive or negative evaluation of
performing the behavior
 Perceived norms > Social pressure to act, divided into:
RAT model, example
 Injunctive norm > What others think you should do
attitude
 Descriptive norm > What others actually do
 Self-efficacy/perceived behavioral control > Confidence in ability to
perform the behavior
 Behavioral intention > Motivation or readiness to perform the
behavior
 Behavior > The actual action, influenced by intention and control
factors

Why is RAT relevant for persuasion?
To know your audience and their behavior

Persuasive communication can target the proximal determiants of
behavior (and account for distal determiants)

Belief-based attitude models;
 Belief > propostion/statement about an object
 Belief-based models > attitudes are functions
of the beliefs that one has about the attitude
object
 Summative model > attitude is sum of
products of belief strength/belief evaluation

Summative attitude models, gives a score, implications for persuasion;
-Instill new positive beliefs
-Increase salience of existing positive beliefs
-Increase positive evaluations
-Reduce negative evaluations
-Increase probability of positive beliefs
-Decrease probability of negative beliefs
Summative attitude
Summative models help to identify targets for persuasive model
appeals

Cognitive dissonance theory;
-People like to feel consistency in their attitudes and behavior
-Inconsistencies between what people believe and how they
behave can generate psychological tension or discomfort
-People will (unconsciously) try to prevent or resolve feelings of
dissonance

Example;
Attitude > “I like eating fish”