PSY220: Persuasion

Elaboration Likelihood Model §

Persuasion §

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An attempt to change attitudes

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• How can one persuade people, Theory: Elaboration Likelihood Model ★

Central vs Peripheral Routes §

• Which route to make depends on 2 factors

1. Motivation: People need a reason to pay attention to the given message

2. Ability: People need to be able to evaluate the message

   Motivation & Ability	Process	Factors Promoting Attitude Change
   HIGH - Personally relevant - Knowledge in domain - Personally responsible	[[Elaboration Likelihood Model#central-systematic-route	Central Systematic route]]
   LOW - Not personally relevant - Distracted or tired - Message incomplete or hard to understand	[[Elaboration Likelihood Model#peripheral-heuristic-route	Peripheral Heuristic route]]

Route to Persuation Stuy

• Method
  • Participants read arguments for a policy that required comprehensive exam for all graduating seniors at university
  1. Manipulated the relevance of the policy (take action in 1 year or 10 years).
  2. Manipulated the quality of the policy (8 strong or weak arguments)
  3. In additional, Manipulated the expertise of the source (student vs professor)
• Result
  • (Relevance & Quality)
    • The blue bars indicates the central persuasion route
    • The red bars indicates the peripheral route (aren’t responding too differently)
  • (Relevance & Expertise)
    • The blue bars indicates the central persuasion route (aren’t persuaded by source)
    • The red bars indicates the peripheral route

Which route to choose §

Motivation & Ability [LOW] => Peripheral
Motivation & Ability [HIGH] => Central

• Generally, the central route is more ideal and lasts a longer time

Characteristic of Persuasion §

Source §

The sources of persuasion indicates who is persuasive

• Attractiveness (ex. Ads show picture of more attractive people to persuade)
• Credibility (ex. Use expertise)
• Certainty (ex. Present a sense of confidence)

Content(message) §

• Quality
  • Highlight desirable consequences of taking action (ex. Ad to toothpaste can decrease cavities)
  • Straightforward, clear, and logical
  • Explicitly refute opposition
• Vividness
  • A single example or personal narrative with emotional appeal is more persuasive than statistical facts that are objectively more formative

  Collapse of Compassion - “A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.” - Stalin

• Fear
  • Fearful messages are highly persuasive
  • Important to provide info on how to act on the fear
  • Don’t go too far on fear (apocalypse backfires, provokes skepticism)

Smoking Study (focus on fear)

• Method
  • Currently smoking Participants were separated into 3 different groups
    1. Fear only: shown a lung removed from a smoker
    2. Information only: shown a pamphlet with suggestions on how to quit smoking
    3. Both intervention: lung + pamphlet
  • Followed up on the smoker’s status
• Result
  • Info only group smoked $14$ cigarettes per day
  • Fear only group smoked $6$ cigarettes per day
  • Both group smoked $4$ cigarettes per day

Receiver §

• Need for Cognition (one of a person’s personality trait)
  • Extent to which individuals are inclined towards effortful cognitive actives (constantly asking why)
  • People high in need for cognition are more persuaded by high-quality arguments and less moved by peripheral cues
• Age
  • Younger people more easily persuaded
  • Dangers of children as eye witness
  • College students have dynamic attitudes (attitudes change)
• Mood
  • People who are in a good mood are more easily persuaded

Resistance to Persuasion §

• Knowledge - more Knowledge is better to resist
• Previous Commitments - making attitudes public makes them harder to change
• Attentional Biases - by conformation bias
  • Selectively attend to and evaluate info that confirms their attitudes
• Attitude Inoculation
  • Small attacks on people’s beliefs that engage their pre-existing attitudes, prior commitments, and background Knowledge, enabling them to counteract a subsequent larger attack and thus resit persuasion.

Attitude Inoculation Study

• Method
  • Phase 1: “It’s a good idea to brush your teeth”
  • Phase 2:
    • Group 1: “Refute Small attacks: Too frequent tooth brushing can hurt your teeth”
    • Group 2: No attacks
    • Group 3: Review suporting evidence
  • Phase 3: Full scale attack on their attitudes
• Result
  • After Phase 1: $12/14$ people thought the tooth brushing is good
  • After Phase 2:
    • Group 1: $10/14$ still support
    • Group 2: $6/14$ still support
    • Group 3: $6/14$ still support