Chapter 7 - Essay Flashcards
Define both central routes to persuasion and peripheral routes to persuasion. Provide an example of each and suggest when each is most appropriate.
Central Route:
- More thoughtful and less superficial.
- When people who are interested in the topic pay attention to the arguments and think about them in a good way.
- Strong and compelling arguments are likely to get people to agree with them. If the message only has weak arguments, people who are smart will notice that the arguments aren’t very strong and will counterargue against them.
- People who use the central route of processing can make more long-term changes than people who use the peripheral route of processing.
- Ex. Analytical people, people who have a lot of need for thought, like to think about things very carefully and like to take central routes
Peripheral Route:
- If we aren’t motivated or aren’t able to think very well, the strength of the arguments might not matter. The content of a message may not be important to us if we’re distracted, uninterested, or just busy.
- We may not have time to think about the message.
- Advertisers have found that peripheral, emotion-based appeals work better for a wide range of products.
- Instead of focusing on whether the arguments are strong, we could look for cues that make people automatically accept the idea without much thought. This is peripheral persuasion. In these situations, simple, well-known statements are more persuasive than new statements with the same meaning.
- Instead of giving reasons why you should not smoke, cigarette ads show images of beauty and pleasure. They also use images of happy people and fun outdoor activities in their soft-drink ads to show that “America Is Beautiful,” which says that.
- People who like to save their mental energy, or who have a low need for cognition, are more likely to pay attention to things like the communicator’s attractiveness and the pleasantness of the surroundings. If you’re planning to go on spring break, you might be asked to imagine that you’re trying to think of a place to go and can’t decide. Their next step was to look at the tourism websites of the five most-visited cities in the United States, then
125) When will it be best to present a persuasive appeal to an audience that is in a good mood versus a bad mood? Why?
Putting good feelings with a message makes it more likely to be taken seriously. People tend to make quick, less thoughtful decisions when they are in a good mood. Fear-inducing messages can also be very effective, especially if the people who read them feel vulnerable but can do something to protect them.
129) Describe how age plays a role in persuasion. Be sure to compare and contrast the life cycle explanation and the generational explanation.
Young people’s attitudes are more subject to change.
People tend to have different social and political attitudes depending on their age because attitudes change as people grow older. This refers to the life-cyle explanation for how age plays a role in persuasion.
People’s social and political views tend to change as they get older, and this has an effect on their views.
Due to the fact that attitudes change as people grow older, people tend to have a variety of social and political attitudes depending on their generation. This refers to the life-cyle explanation for how age influences one’s ability to persuade others.
Explain attitude inoculation and how it affects persuasive appeals.
- One way inoculation can happen is by making people think about counterarguments, which are reasons why a persuasive message is wrong.
Sleeper Effect
- A message’s delayed impact occurs when an initially discounted message is effective, such as when we remember the message but forget the reason for discounting it.
- It is possible for a message to have a long-term impact even if it was initially dismissed.
Lowball Technique
A way to get people to agree to something. People who agree to an initial request are often willing to do the same thing when the requester ups the ante (priming). People who only get the pricey request are less likely to do it.
Door-in-the-face technique
a means of securing a favorable outcome; a compromise. First, the requester makes a large request (the door-in-your-face) and then offers a more reasonable one (the counteroffer).
Foot-in-the-door technique
The tendency for people who
have first agreed to a small
request to comply later with a
larger request.
People who agree to a small request are more likely to agree to a bigger one later.
Primary vs Recency effect
When two persuasive messages are shown next to each other, and the audience responds at a later time, the first message has the advantage. This is called the primacy effect. There are times when two messages come at different times, but when they do, the second message has an advantage (recency effect).
Forgetting creates the recency effect when enough time separates two messages.
Attitude Inoculation
Attitude Inoculation happens when you think about the reasons why you don’t like your attitude. As a result, you become more resistant to changes in your attitude in the future. This happens by giving the person small doses of arguments that don’t agree with them.
It is possible to become more resistant to future attempts at attitude change if you consider the arguments against your current attitude for a prolonged period of time. This is accomplished by presenting the individual with small doses of evidence that is in opposition to their position.
