PSY220H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Cupcake, Sunscreen, Meta-Analysis
Lecture 3:Opinions vs Attitudes:
Attitudes are emotive meanwhile opinions are beliefs. Key words in attitudes are: I like, I love, I
hate, etc. Its way more difficult to change an attitude than an opinion. Question of censorship:
should the photo of the little boy drowning (refugee crisis) have been published with a warning,
without a warning, or not published. Week after it was published donation rates was 55X higher
and the rates declined over the coming weeks but RED CROSS still got more donation in those
weeks then prior the photo. The donation rate for monthly donors was 10X the original rate.
Propoganda vs Education:
Propoganda: The systematic propogation of doctrine. Education: Facts being imparted,
basically. Persuasion: Persuasion: The process of forming, strengthening, or changing
attitudes, opinions, or behaviour by communication.
Why are some methods successful and not others depends on: Source: who is saying
Message: what is being said Audience: who is being persuaded The Models of Persuasion.
Who: Says
What: TO Whom: With what effect?
The Yale Model of Persuasion. They studied WW2 US government put out a video during
WW2 to the soldiers which was supposed to convince them why they should continue to fight
and they watched this video but immediately after there was no immediate effect HOWEVER
days and even Weeks after they saw a boost in morale .
This is dubbed as the sleep effect: When persuasion lies dormant a while but becomes apparent
after Reason for this: A solider comes into a theatre to watch this video and sees this propaganda
and this source (The biased US Government) discredits the message but as time goes on the
disconnect between the source and the message grows larger (similar to source amnesia) and the
message is thus, no longer discredited.
Source Characteristics: Who: Credibility, familiarity, attractiveness(?), etc. We tend to
trust/like attractive people so
we are generally more likely to be persuaded by a message coming from an attractive vs
unattractive source. This tends to only hold true for trivial things. This has an even larger effect
if the attractiveness is relevant to the message (buying cosmetics).What makes someone
credible? -Expertise/Knowledge -Trustworthiness (lack of an ulterior motive).
What is the content of the message? -Quality, Length, Context, Familiarity, Response of those
around you, etc. Ie: Something you have heard before, with nice music playing in the
background, you are in a good mood, everyone is reacting positively, its not too short/long you
are more likely to believe it. High Quality messages are generally more persuasive than low
quality messages. High Quality arguments are generally clear, logical, and tailored to the values
of the audience.
To Whom is the message directed? Audience. characteristics include the person’s age,
personality, mood, as well as their motivation to process the message. Age: very young and very
old tend to be easier to persuade Mood: People in a very good mood don’t tend to want to
analyze especially if this analysis has a chance of spoiling their good mood. Dual Process
Models: A type of theory which provides an account of how a phenomenon can occur in two
different ways, or as a result of two different processes
Elaboration Likelihood Model: (missed notes —check audio recording)
Persuasion can occur through two different “routes” or types of processes: (Central —Direct and
Peripheral more discreet/unconscious) The role of cognitive responses varies across people and
situations:At certain times (when motivation and ability are high) cognitive responses will be
key to determining persuasion outcomes These cognitive responses are going to influence
responses when we are taking central route to persuasion.
At other times (when motivation and/or ability are low) the use of simple cues or rules will be
key to determining persuasion outcomes When we are using the peripheral route simple cues (?)
will be used instead.People can take two different routes to persuasion: The easy shortcut route
or the long/difficult route which requires us to be motivated. There are certain circumstances
under which people will take the more time-consuming, effortful route
(missed notes check slide for diagram and audio recoding for what she said) Elaboration:
Refers to the thoughts (the cognitive response) that someone has in reaction to a
persuasive messageWhen elaboration occurs, a persuasive appeal will be successful if it leads to
favourable reactions, and unsuccessful if it leads unfavourable reactions When elaboration
likelihood is high people are more likely to take the central route to persuasion.Central route:
When people think carefully about the content of the communication, including the quality of the
arguments and evidence provided When it is low people are more likely to take the peripheral
route to persuasion. Peripheral route: When people attend to relatively simple, superficial cues
related to the communication
For the central route diagram refer to slides.
So what should we do to persuade people?
Two Routes to Persuasion: Which route is your audience going to take?
Motivation: Is the audience motivated to think carefully about this persuasive communication?
(does your audience have a motivation to learn this) In the case of teaching your roommates
about the environment so they compost.
. 1) Do they believe in environmental issues/are they relevant to them? 2)
Do they feel a sense of personal responsibility for their attitude toward the environment?
. 2) 3) Do hey have a lot of knowledge about the subject.
. 3) (One missed) —Check audio recording. There are certain people
who are more likely to take the central route. People who are high in the need for
cognition are more likely to take the central route. They are motivated to put more time
and effort into processing persuasive messages Check the next slide for the scale used to
measure this. Even if the audience has motivation you still need to consider ability: 1) Do
they have the time and cognitive resources available to process what you are saying
tothem.There are two key factors that can inhibit your audience’s ability to process
systematically: Information complexity and the Opportunity to concentrate. Attitude
Object — Comprehensive exams.So imagine you are in your fourth year at UofT and
you have to take an exam that tests everything you should have learned in your four years
thats a comprehensive exam. NO ONE WANTS THEM. Everyone feels badly about
them. So what researches are going to do is they run a study where they try to persuade
students to like these. So the researchers use different types of variables: Message
Quality Strong vs. weak arguments (better jobs available vs my cousin likes em)
Message Source (weak vs strong) Princeton professor (expert) vs. high-school student
(High School student doing a project) Self-Relevance: (relevant vs not relevant) Policy
to be implemented at their own school vs. another schoolHypothesis: If the issue is not
self-relevant they will not be motivated to take the central route so they will take the
Document Summary
Key words in attitudes are: i like, i love, i hate, etc. Its way more difficult to change an attitude than an opinion. Question of censorship: should the photo of the little boy drowning (refugee crisis) have been published with a warning, without a warning, or not published. Week after it was published donation rates was 55x higher and the rates declined over the coming weeks but red cross still got more donation in those weeks then prior the photo. The donation rate for monthly donors was 10x the original rate. Persuasion: persuasion: the process of forming, strengthening, or changing attitudes, opinions, or behaviour by communication. Why are some methods successful and not others depends on: source: who is saying. Message: what is being said audience: who is being persuaded the models of persuasion. They studied ww2 us government put out a video during.
