PSYC 241 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Elaboration Likelihood Model, Norm (Social), Product Placement
CHAPTER 5: PERSUASION
• Persuasion: process by which a message induces change in beliefs, attitudes, behaviours
• Steps to be taken for successful persuasion to occur:
o Exposure: persuasion attempt has to be presented within field of view/within earshot
o Attention: need to notice persuasion attempt
o Comprehension: be able to understand what’s being asked
o Yielding: agree to message to be successfully persuaded by it
o Memory: if we forget persuasive appeal, won’t affect future attitudes or behaviour
• We can’t process all persuasive messages we encounter
o Process messages carefully when motivated to do so, and able to do so
â–Ş Motivated to process message carefully:
• When we have personal involvement with issue
• If we have personal responsibility for making decision
• People high in need for cognition: individual difference variable,
essentially tendency individual has to engage in & enjoy effortful
thinking
â–Ş Able to process message carefully:
• Less likely to process when too many distractions competing for our
attention
• We need to have requisite amount of knowledge to understand
persuasive message
• Can’t be under time pressure – otherwise too rushed, less likely to read
carefully and think through it
• Elaboration Likelihood Model: two routes to persuasion (Petty & Cacioppo)
o Central route: taken when we have motivation and able to think through message
â–Ş People carefully & deliberately scrutinize message content
â–Ş Message substance is most important
• Logic of arguments, strength of arguments, related evidence
o Peripheral route: taken when we lack either motivation or ability to think
â–Ş People attend to relatively simple, superficial cues
â–Ş Superficial cues most important
• Message length, communicator attractiveness, communicator expertise
• Central route more often produces enduring attitude change explicitly
• Peripheral route more slowly builds implicit attitudes through repeated associations between
attitude object & emotion
Elements of Persuasion:
• Credibility: believability – credible communicator perceived as expert & trustworthy
o Effects of source credibility diminish after a month or so – impact of persuasion may fade
o Sleeper effect: delayed impact of message – occurs when we remember original message
but forget reason why we discounted it in the first place
o Whether the info that discredits the source precedes the message or is presented after the
message is an important moderator
▪ If presented after message, then you’ve already heard the message so more likely
to fall prey to sleeper effect
â–Ş If you know source not credible before hearing message, less likely to attend to
info at all
o Perceived expertise: say things audience agrees with (making speaker seem smart); have
identify that seems knowledgeable on topic; speak confidently
o Perceived trustworthiness: speech style; higher if audience doesn’t think they’re being
persuaded; arguing against own self-interest
o Trustworthiness & credibility increase when people talk fast
• Attractiveness: having qualities that appeal to audience – most persuasive on matters of
subjective preference
o Our liking opens us up to arguments (central) or may trigger positive associations when
we see product later (peripheral)
o Physical attractiveness most influential over emotional situations
o Similarity is attractive – respond better to message from someone from their group
• Reason vs emotion:
o When people’s initial attitudes formed through emotion, more persuaded by later
emotional appeals – when initial attitudes formed through reason, more persuaded by
later intellectual arguments
o Messages more persuasive through association with good feelings: enhance positive
thinking, link good feelings with message
â–Ş People in good mood make faster & impulsive decisions, rely on peripheral cues
â–Ş Unhappy people ruminate more before reacting, less easily swayed by weak
arguments
o Fear-arousing message potent for stopping negative events i.e. smoking
â–Ş If message scary but not clear to audience how they can avoid negative outcomes
contained in message, people become overwhelmed by emotion & don’t process
message carefully
â–Ş But moderate amounts of fear can increase message receptivity if message also
states how negative outcome can be avoided
• Discrepancy:
o Credible source elicits considerable opinion change when advocating a position greatly
discrepant from recipient’s but also needs to be within their range of acceptability, better
if people not too opinionated/invested in topic
• One-sided vs two-sided appeals: moderated by knowledge of audience
o If audience not likely to know a lot & know opposing arguments, then just say one side of
story, try to persuade just giving lots of strong arguments for your side
o If audience knowledgeable & already know some opposing arguments, message more
persuasive if you acknowledge opposing ideas
o We cherish “Occam’s razor”: seeking simplest possible principles
• Primacy vs recency: primacy more common
o Primacy effect: 2 persuasive messages back to back & audience responds at later time,
first message has advantage
o Recency effect: 2 persuasive messages separated in time & audience responds soon after
second message, second has advantage
• Ego-depletion: state in which our self-regulatory capacities diminished
o Ego-depletion & persuasion study by Wheeler
o 68 participants read about comprehensive examinations
â–Ş Now comprehensive exams would mean in addition to passing all courses, would
need to write big exam at the end based on major, and would need to pass exam
to graduate
o 2 independent variables:
â–Ş Ego depletion (east task or difficult task)
â–Ş Message strength (strong or weak arguments)
o Easy task read passage and cross out “e’s”