Persuasion - Lecture Notes 17

Persuasion How do the central and peripheral routes to persuasion differ from each other? What factors determine whether we are influenced by the central vs. the peripheral route? o Central route to persuasion: Persuasion that employs direct, relevant, logical messages  Intended to produce enduring agreement o Peripheral route to persuasion: Persuasion that relies on superficial cues that have little to do with logic  Requires a target who isn’t thinking carefully about what you are saying. Requires low effort from the target and often exploits rule-of-thumb heuristics that trigger mindless reactions. How do source characteristics like perceived authority, honesty, or trustworthiness, and likeability influence us? Authority The Triad of Trust Likeability Honesty o o Three characteristics that lead to trust: perceived authority, honesty, and likeability o When the source appears to have any or all of these characteristics, people not only are more willing to do so without carefully considering the facts. o Authority signifies status and power, as well as expertise. Respect for authority is a moral virtue.  Uncritical trust in authority may, however, lead to bad decisions. Even is the source of the message is legitimate, well-intended authority, they may not always be correct When respect for authority becomes mindless, expertise in one domain may be confused with expertise in general The authority may not be legitimate. o Honesty is the moral dimension of trustworthiness o Likability – we trust people we like How are testimonials and endorsements, educational presentation of information, “the maven”, and word-ofmouth used to influence perceived trustworthiness? o Testimonials and endorsements-Technique employs someone who people already trust to testify about the product or message being sold. o Presenting the message as educational – message may be framed as objective information. o Word of mouth: we turn to people around us for many decisions (surveys) o The Maven – More persuasive, but involve peers face-to-face How are mindless tricks, such as reciprocity, social proof, door in the face, foot in the door, sunk cost trap, “that’s not all”, and scarcity/reactance used to get us to comply with requests? o Mindless, mental shortcuts – heuristics and fixed action patterns – that leave us suspectable to persuasion o The norm of reciprocity: The normative pressure to repay, in equitable value, what another person has given to us. o Social proof: the mental shortcut based on the assumption that, if everyone is doing it, it must be right.  Two powerful social forces: comparison and conformity  We compare our behavior to what others are doing and, if there is a discrepancy between the other person and ourselves, we feel pressure to change.  So common that it easily passes unnoticed. o Foot in the door: obtaining a small, initial commitment o Door in the face: pushing a request to or beyond its acceptable limit and then backing off. o “That’s not all”: variation of door in the face. The latter begins with a request that will be rejected, however, “that’s not all” gains its influence by putting the consumer on the fence, allowing them to waver and then offering them a comfortable way off. o The Sunk Cost Trap: Term used in economics referring to nonrecoverable investments of time or money. The trap occurs when a person’s aversion to loss impels them to throw good money after bad, because they don’t want to waste their earlier investment. Vulnerable to manipulation. o Scarcity: People bend to perceive things as more attractive when their availability is limited, or when they stand to lose the opportunity to acquire them on favorable terms.  Psychological reactance: A reaction to people, rules, requirements, or offerings that are perceived to limit freedoms. How can we protect ourselves against these persuasive tricks? o “inoculation” method: weak versions of the persuasive message. Vocabulary: Central route to persuasion: Persuasion that employs direct, relevant, logical messages. Fixed Action Patterns (FAPs): Sequence of behavior that occur in the same fashion, in exactly the same order, every time they are elicited. Foot in the door: Obtaining a small, initial commitment Gradually escalating commitment: A pattern of small, progressively escalating demands is less likely to be rejected than a single large demand made all at once. Heuristics: Mental shortcuts that enable people to make decisions and solve problems quickly and efficiently. Peripheral route to persuasion: Persuasion that relies on superficial cues that have little to do with logic. Psychological reactance: A reaction to people, rules, requirements, or offerings that are perceived to limit freedoms. Social proof: The mental shortcut based on the assumption that, if everyone is doing it, it must be right. The norm of reciprocity: The normative pressure to repay, in equitable value, what another person has given to us. The rule of scarcity: People tend to perceive things as more attractive when their availability is limited, or when they stand to lose the opportunity to acquire them on favorable terms. The triad of trust: we are most vulnerable to persuasion when the source is perceived as an authority, as honest and likeable. Trigger features: specific, sometimes minute, aspects of a situation that activate fixed action patterns.