Persuasion Comm 210 Instructor: Derrick Ellis. Communication vs. Persuasion Basic model of Communication: SMCR Persuasion always involves Communication.

Persuasion

Comm 210Instructor: Derrick Ellis

Communication vs. Persuasion

Basic model of Communication: SMCR Persuasion always involves Communication What makes persuasion unique?

– Intent.• Communicator seeks to elicit a desired response• It involves a conscious effort—by the communicator—

aimed at influencing the thoughts or actions of a receiver

Communication that is similar to Persuasion Information Campaigns – Change Belief

– not attitudes, not behaviors! Compliance Gaining Strategies – Change overt behavior

(Almost always involve dishes and the mother)

– takes advantage of pre-existing beliefs, feelings of commitment.. etc.

Propaganda – Change viewpoint of others to further your own cause (or damage the opposition)– Used to bias information; misrepresent opinion as fact/fiction

as truth Mass Media Effects – results in modeling, imitating

presented images– Does not always involve persuasive communication

Judging the Success of Persuasive Communication Consider 4 things:

– Nature of the Correspondence between intentions of the source and subsequent behavior of the receiver (magnitude and direction?)

– Degree of Change secured– Nature of Opposition to source’s message (strong-

weak? Organized-scattered?)

– Difficulty level of the task being engaged in(is attitude weak-fixed? Habitual?)

Behavior, Attitudes and Beliefs

Ultimate Goal of Persuasive Communication = Behavior Change– Examples in motivational context?– Difficulties in dealing with Habit, Routine,

Frequency of the behavior (Toilet Paper)

– Behavior Change is not always a realistic goal.

• Q: How do we change behavior?

A: By Changing attitudes and beliefs.

Defining Key Concepts

Belief

Attitude

Value

Belief

Following Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), we define belief to be the subjective probability that a statement about an object is true or false.

What does this mean?– In order to alter people’s beliefs, you have

to provide them with new information and they have to accept it

Types of Beliefs Descriptive- those that tell us about the world around

us: “I believe that the spring semester should not be called ‘spring’; rather because of the frigid temperatures should be called winter semester”

Evaluative- those that focus on our judgments of what is good and bad: “I believe that Burger King’s hamburgers are healthier than McDonald’s burgers.”

Prescriptive- those that concern how people should behave: “I believe that college students should not take classes before noon.”

Sarbin, Taft & Bailey (1960) find 4 major sources of Beliefs

Induction- Person’s own, developed, generalized belief, based on a summation of their past observations.

Construction- A person develops a belief concerning how two or more events are related to one another, based on limited observations (not necessarily logical: “People who used to drink at Café Earth are snobby jerks” )

Analogy- A person develops a belief based on similarities among things or events– Could lead to analogical fallacy

Authority- A person develops and maintains a belief based on the authority of others (Easiest to influence)

Attitudes

Traditionally defined as a relatively stable predisposition to respond to an object in a positive or negative way.

Our definition: an enduring affective response to some object or class of objects

Attitudes serve certain Needs (Functions) – Katz Ego-Defensive Function

– Certain attitudes may help protect the individual from unflattering truths about themselves or about others who are important to them (theory builders)

Value-Expressive Function– People can perceive that their attitudes also

enable them to express important values (environmental concerns through attitudes toward products)

Attitudes serve certain Needs (Functions) – Katz (cont’d) Knowledge Function

– Attitudes can be used by the person to help organize their environment (political/social attitudes—liking or disliking Bush depending upon whether or not you applaud or blame him for the current state of world affairs)

Utilitarian Function– People are motivated to seek rewards and avoid

punishment—I should exercise

Key to this concept is the idea that different people can hold the same attitude but for different reasons (or different needs)

The Attitude Object (the concept that the attitude refers to) can be concrete, such as beer, or abstract, such as euthanasia.

Attitude Objects can also refer to purely imaginary objects, such as vampires or mermaids.

Attitude – Attitude Object

-Our definition treats attitude as cognitive dispositions rather than as mere emotional responses. People decide what their attitude towards something is.

-An attitude is not just a response — it is something that endures, and exists even when the stimulus that originally generated the emotional response is not present.

Attitude Structures Attitudes are linked to one another in memory. This

is in part due to the role of brain structures that link emotion and memory

Activation of one attitude can lead to the activation of related attitudes. – For example, suppose that you are asked to describe your

attitude toward Budweiser. As you begin thinking about Budweiser, your mind may wander into thinking about spring break, playing football, Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.

– Attitudes toward Recycling will undoubtedly be related to attitudes toward purchasing recycled products

• Which leads us to…

Beliefs

Attitudes

Behavior

Emotionally-basedchange

Cognitively-basedchange

The Belief-Attitude-Behavior Sequenceaka the Knowledge-Attitude-Behavior (KAB) sequence

Belief-Behavior SequenceIt is possible that the person will make the purchase decision on beliefs alone, without

intervention from the attitude.

•This might occur if an ad claimed that the Viper or the Reliant is durable. The ad might support the claim of durability based on quality of workmanship awards, repair records, customer satisfaction, etc.

•These beliefs about the car’s durability might predict purchase of the Viper or Reliant without eliciting an emotional response.

•These conditions vary greatly between individuals: some of you get excited about cars, others just want theirs to work.

Values Values are sometimes referred to as “global

attitudes,“ or even “super attitudes” because they are connected to many other attitudes.– Recycling, Recycled Goods, and Environmentalist

Values People may value a concept like “family values” to

the same degree, but have different connotations for that concept, with different reasons for valuing that concept– How could we find out what someone means by “family

values”?• You might start by asking them about their concept of a family

What are “Family Values”

For Conservatives, correlates of a positive attitude toward family would include respect for parents, doing work around the house, attending religious services, etc.

Liberals might also highly value the family, but include much different correlates such as engaging in dialogue with parents, doing work in the community and attending cultural events such as a play.

Attitude as an Evaluative Semantic Dimension Semantic Space

– There are many dimensions, or continuums that something can be evaluated on.

• The Positive – Negative dimension is just one of many possible associative dimensions on which “fingers” or any other concept can be rated

• For instance, we could rate fingers on the long-short continuum, or the clean-dirty continuum. Some of the dimensions will be more salient to us than others.

Taken together, these dimensions constitute space that is often referred to as “semantic space.”

One of the major underlying themes of this semantic space is evaluation. Where you locate a referent on the evaluative dimension is your attitude toward the referent.

Osgood, Suci and Tannenbaum (1957) asked people to map a multitude of objects in semantic space.– These researchers claim that any referent can be located in

this space– They found 3 fundamental dimensions people use for

evaluations

Semantic Space

EvaluativeDimension

PotencyDimension

MostImportantfor Attitudes

ActivityDimension

Good-badBeneficial-Harmful

Strong-WeakAssertive-Meek

Fast-SlowActive-Passive

Relationship among the Three Dimensions

And Now… How We Learn

Operant ConditioningClassical ConditioningSocial Learning/Modeling

Operant Conditioning

Also called “instrumental learning” and applies to voluntary behavior, where classical conditioning applies to reflex

Known as “goal-directed’ learning, in that the organism learns the behaviors leading to rewards and those leading to punishment.– Ask me about my mouse.

Operant Conditioning (cont’d)

Reinforcements can be positive or negative and increase behavior.

Punishments decrease behavior. Reinforcement schedules maintain behavior.

– Ex. Variable Reward-Variable Interval and Casinos

– Positive and negative incentives are learned in the process

Classical ConditioningKey Terms

UCS – the unconditioned stimulus UCR – the unconditioned response CS – the conditioned stimulus CR – the conditioned response

Classic Pavlov Experiment

Step 1

UnconditionedStimulus 1

UnconditionedResponse

ConditionedStimulus 2

UnconditionedResponse

ConditionedStimulus 2

ConditionedResponse

UnconditionedStimulus 2

UnconditionedResponse

ConditionedStimulus 3

UnconditionedResponse

ConditionedStimulus 3

ConditionedResponse

UnconditionedStimulus 3

UnconditionedResponse

ConditionedStimulus 4

UnconditionedResponse

ConditionedStimulus 4

ConditionedResponse

Step 2

Step 3

Salivation

Salivation

Salivation

Salivation

Salivation

Salivation

Salivation

Salivation

Salivation

Meat

Meat+Bell

Whistle

Bell+Whistle

Bell

Bell

Whistle

Whistle+Beep

Beep

Phases of the Conditioning Process The CS must be paired with the UCS

often enough so that the organism comes to associate the CS with the UCR

Once the CS to CR link has been established, the CS can serve as the UCS for another CS

Classical Conditioning: Basic Principles Recency Frequency Stimulus-generalization Stimulus-discrimintation Extinction Spontaneous recovery

Probability that stimulus evokes desired response in organism

The more recently and frequently the stimulus pairing, the greater the probability that the stimulus will elicit the desired response.

Stimulus Generalization

Once a stimulus is conditioned to elicit a response, similar stimuli may produce the same response. There is generalization from a particular stimulus to similar stimuli.

Beep with different tones? Different French Fries?

Stimulus Discrimination

When the organism responds to particular stimuli from a class of objects, and not the other similar stimuli from that class of objects.– Just salivate when looking at McDonald’s

fries Discrimination can be trained

Extinction

When a conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without reinforcement from the unconditioned stimulus, the conditioned response will weaken and eventually disappear.

Spontaneous Recovery

After a response appears to be extinguished, it may occasionally reappear in the presence of the conditioned stimulus.

Social Learning Theory (Bandura, 1971) Comes from observing others and noticing

the consequences of their actions (also called “observational learning”)

3 Main tenets:– We are capable of self-reward and self-influence– Environmental punishments and rewards are

simply symbolic representations of costs and benefits we store in memory and later use to guide behavior

– Our internal and External worlds continuously interact to shape many of our behaviors

Social Learning Theory (cont’d) Reinforcements come from 3

environmental sources:– Direct Experience (recall Induction)– Role Playing (trying to imagine life as

someone else… “how would they respond”)

– Modeling*** (Key)• We observe others behaving and model our

behavior after their example• Likely to occur when:

– Observer is Attending to the model behavior– Observer retains the information– Observer is competent to mimic the model’s

behavior– Observer is motivated to enact the bahavior

6 Factors influencing Success of Modeling

Observers are more likely to model a behavior when the benefits outweigh the costs

Observers are more likely to model a person who is similar to themselves

Observers are more likely to model a person who seems competent, reliable and informed about the behavior in question

Observers are more likely to model a person who appears to have high status

Observers are more likely to model a person who seems consistent in their own behavior (we prefer predictable models)

Observers are more influenced by multiple role models as opposed to a single one

Frame of Reference

Attitudes “filter” incoming information. Brain organizes stimuli into meaningful

patterns called Gestalts, which are influenced by our past experiences, motivation and needs. This influences perceptions of attribution, meaning, evaluations, etc.

“We do not see things the way they are, we see things the way we are.” – Talmudic Saying

Balance Theories

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