Chapter 7 -Persusasion

Question 1

What is the elaboration likelihood model?

Answer 1

A model of persuasion with two routes:

Central route:
people thinking carefully about the persuasive message they are sending. (A car company emphasizing car safety)

Peripheral route:
People cite superficial cues as a source of persuasion. (Like hotness, source of message)

Question 2

What is the role of motivation and ability?

Answer 2

Help determine if we use central route of peripheral route. You need both motivation and ability to use central.

Question 3

What are source characteristics?

Answer 3

Characteristics of a person who delivers a persuasive message: like attractiveness, credibility and, certainty

Question 4

Why does attractiveness influence people?

Answer 4

Celebrities often appear in commercials and other organizations, hot people tend to persuade those who:
-don’t care about the message
-don’t have much knowledge in the domain

Question 5

Why does credibility influence people?

Answer 5

If the person advertising seems trustworthy then people send to trust them.

Advertisers often exploit this.

Ex. Toothpaste ads when dentists recommend

Question 6

What is the sleeper effect?

Answer 6

When a persuasive message from an unreliable source initially has little influence, but later causes attitudes to shift.

Ex. Unreliable covers something reliable covers something

And people circle back and support it years after

Question 7

Why are people influenced by certainty?

Answer 7

People don’t feel persuaded by sentences with a lot of waffling

Question 8

What are message characteristics in persuasion?

Answer 8

Content of a persuasive message, quality of evidence and explicitness of its conclusions.

Question 9

What is message quality in persuasion?

Answer 9

-Straightforward, clear, logical

-Has explicit conclusions

-if the speaker argues against self benefit (arguing against cigarettes even if it would reduce his chance at inheritance)

Question 10

What is the identifiable victim effect? (Vividness)

Answer 10

People tend to be more moved by the struggle of one (vividly seeing them struggle) vs a more abstract number of people struggling.

Question 11

How should information be presented?

Answer 11

Colourful, interesting, and memorable.

Question 12

How do people use fear to convince?

Answer 12

Use fear and concrete steps people can take to address the source of fear.

Question 13

How is culture used for persuasion?

Answer 13

Important to fit the values and norms of the place you are persuading people in.

Ex. Watching if they’re in independent vs interdependent

Question 14

What are audience characteristics?

Answer 14

Audience characteristics are characteristics of those who receive a persuasive message. Like need for cognition (students), their mood or age.

Question 15

What is need for cognition?

Answer 15

People who read scientific American and do crosswords.

These people are more convinced by high quality arguments

Question 16

What is a mood as a characteristic?

Answer 16

When in the right mood people are more perceptive to persuasion

Ex. Hitler got people outraged
And they were more likely to follow him to satisfy that outrage

Question 17

How does age influence persuasion?

Answer 17

Younger people are more likely to be persuaded.

Question 18

How does knowing your audience help persuasion?

Answer 18

People who know a bit about a topic (global warming) will use a central route.

For those who know less might use the peripheral route (might choose attractive people here as opposed to solid reasoning)

Question 19

What is the power of the media?

Answer 19

Researchers rely on surveys

When people are watching a show at the same time as others, they will feel more connected to the community and can process it more deeply.

Question 20

What is agenda control?

Answer 20

Efforts by the media to emphasize certain events and topics, thereby shaping what events and topics the people think are important.

(Bias/propaganda)

Question 21

What is the hostile media phenomenon?

Answer 21

We all tend to assume the media is biased against our preferred causes

Question 22

Does fake news/misinformation travel faster?

Answer 22

Fake news does seem to spread faster then real news.

They tend to target more emotional reactions

This can make people make misguided choices

Question 23

What is selective attention? (Resistance to persuasion)

Answer 23

Tune into information that reinforces our attitudes.

Online “echo chamber”

Question 24

What is selective evaluation? (Resistance to persuasion)

Answer 24

People who are personally motivated will be more skeptical of information that challenges cherished beliefs.

Question 25

What is selectively frame? (Resistance to persuasion)

Answer 25

Shining a positive light on things we support and negative light on things we oppose.

Question 26

How do previous commitments and resistance halt persuasion?

Answer 26

Many persuasive messages fail because they can’t overcome the audiences previous commitments.

Question 27

What is the thought polarization hypothesis?

Answer 27

More extended thought about an issue causes a more extreme entrenched attitude.

Question 28

How does prior knowledge help resist persuasion?

Answer 28

Prior knowledge makes you more resistant to persuasive messages.

Question 29

When arguments turn into moral mandates, what happens? (What is moralization of attitudes)

Answer 29

Less likely to compromise

More motivated to act on them

People will believe their opinions are objectively true

Distance themselves from those with different beliefs

So if you frame a position in terms of moral position it will be more persuasive.

Question 30

What is attitude inoculation?

Answer 30

Small attacks on peoples beliefs that engage their pre-existing attitudes, prior commitments, and background knowledge: enabling them to counteract a larger attack to resist persuasion.