Social Psych Chapter 6

Front 1

Attitude change

Back 1

any signficant modification of an individual's attitude. In the persuasion process this involves the communicator, the communication, the medium, and the characteristics of the audience. Attitude change can also occur by inducing someone to perform an act that runs counter to an existing attitude

Front 2

Cognitive Dissonance

Back 2

State of psychological tension, produced by simultaneously having two opposing cognitions. People are motivated to reduce the tension, often by changing or rejecting one of the cognitions. Festinger proposed that we seek harmony in our attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, and try to reduce tension from inconsistency among these elements

Front 3

Persuasive Communication

Back 3

message intended to change an attitude and related behaviors of an audience

Front 4

Shwerin and Newell 1981

Back 4

persuasive communication; said behavioral change cannot occur without attitude change.

Front 5

Hovland

Back 5

contracted by the US war department to investigate how propaganda could be used to support the american war effort. after the war he worked at yale with patronage from the government to fight communism. Formulated the Yale Approach

Front 6

The Yale Approach (hovland)

Back 6

3 principles involved in persuasion 1. communicator 2. message 3. audience

Front 7

The Yale Approach

Back 7

by hovland, janis and kelley, who posit that there are three factors that are intrinsic to persuasion: the message (order of arguments, one vs two sided arguments, type of appeal, explicit vs. implicit conclusion) source (expertise, trustworthiness, likeability, status, race) and audience (persuasibility, initial position, intelligence, self-esteem, personality) which then go through the four steps of the persuasion process
1. attention
2. comprehension
3. acceptance
4. retention

Front 8

Communicator Findings From the Yale Approach

Back 8

1. experts are more persuasive
2. popular and attractive communicators are more effective
3. people who speak more quickly are more persuasive
4. message is when given in a powerless linguistic style (frequent hedges, tag questions, and hesitations) than in a powerful one. The speaker and arguments are perceived more negatively with a powerless linguistic style

Front 9

Message Findings From the Yale Study

Back 9

1. We are more easily persuaded if we think the message is not deliberately intended to persuade or manipulate us
2. Persuasion can be enhanced by messages that arouse fear in the audience, ie smoking, reduce work toll, safety
3. Persuasion can be enhanced by using evaluatively biased technology, but those effects depend on the amount of cognitive effort
4. Negative linguistic style (hedges, tag questions, hesitations) can weaken even a strong argument
5. When persuasion is tough- that is, when the audience is hostile- it is more effective to present both sides of the issue than just one side

Front 10

Audience Findings From the Yale Approach

Back 10

1. People with low self esteem are more easily persuaded than people with high self esteem
2. People are sometimes more susceptible to persuasion when they are distracted than when paying attention, at least when the message is simple
3. When audience is hostile, it is more effective to present both sides

Front 11

Baumeister and Covington

Back 11

found that people with high self esteem are just as easily persuaded as those with low self esteem, but they do not want to admit it and deny it when persuasion does occur.

Front 12

Bem and McConnell

Back 12

reported that when people do succumb to persuasion they conveniently fail to recall their original opinion

Front 13

Third Person Effect (Duck, Hogg, Terry)

Back 13

most people think that they are less influenced by advertisements and attempts at persuasion than others.
Duck-conducted a series of studies demonstrating the third party effect in political ads and AIDS prevention

Front 14

Source credibility

Back 14

we like people who are impressive, similar to us (in matters of taste, matters of fact are better from dissimilar sources)

Front 15

Bochner and Insko

Back 15

participants were initially asked how much sleep was needed each night, to which most said 8 hours. Then were then exposed to 2 sources of opinion: a nobel prize winner and a YMCA instructor. If the source said that it was better to get 5 hours of sleep there was less persuasion than if the expert gave only 1 hour discrepancy. They found that the audience will be more influenced by similar sources;

Front 16

Ray (repetition)

Back 16

message needs to have maximum impact with minimum exposure to maximize cost effectiveness

Front 17

optimum rate of repetition

Back 17

2 to 3 times per week

Front 18

Janis and Feshbach (fear)

Back 18

participants were encouraged to take care of their teeth in 3 different contexts:
1. low fear- told the painful outcomes of gum disease and tooth decay
2. moderate fear-more explicit
3. high fear disease could spread to other parts of their body, unpleasant graphics

Hint 18

Found after 1 week that low fear group were taking the best care of their teeth, followed by moderate and finally high (inverse relationship)