Psychology 315 Notes Ch. 8 Social Influence and Persuasion, Part 2

Langer studyWould people comply with the request to cut in line to copy?Request was either small or largeSometimes no reason was given, sometimes a superficial (placebic) reason given - doesn't really tell you anything useful or convincing, should have no effect, sometimes a good reason was given (i.e. "I'm in a hurry") Have several scripts in our head already that will lead us to comply or not comply automatically, small amount of copies should automatically make us say yes Small request – people grant it more than large request, when small request doesn’t really matter what the reason is – means an automatic script, don’t need to listen to all the information, make an automatic judgment When a large request, the difference between placebic and good reason changes/rises – makes a difference whether or not you have good reason, hearing something like “Because I have to make copies” doesn’t make a difference from no reason at all and because it is a placebic reason makes sense – it is NOT supposed to illicit a specific response Sometimes we comply, don’t comply automatically, sometimes we can disrupt this compliance/non-compliance

Friendship, scarcity, reciprocity, authority, commitment/consistency, attention, social validation

Can we get characteristics about who says something, what they are saying and two whom they are speaking (audience characteristics)Communicator expertise and trust - will be more likely persuaded by individuals in more trustworthy professionsCommunicator attractiveness and image - attractive people are assumed to be more trustworthy, smartCommunicator ulterior motive - what does the person advertising the product stand to gain, if conclude that person has vested interest in what they have to gain are less persuadedSpeed of speech - increases persuasiveness of message, assume that faster communication is a sign of expertiseMessage repetition - when things seen repeatedly, much more likely to like them, repetition leads to familiarity which leads to likingOne versus two-sided messages - depends on audience characteristics - education and intelligence - well-educated = two-sided, not well-educated = one-sidedDistraction - when what you have to say is a weak argument, don't want audience thinking critically about a weak message, distraction s used when underlying message is not convincing

Sometimes we can forget who said something, results in a delayed impact for a message - decoupling of source from message or vicea versa, collapsing of attitude to a single point because you do not remember the source as well as the message - can remember what but not whoIf people in the study are reminded of who said the message, the sleeper effect goes away

Sometimes commercials are so flashy, attention grabbing that we don't know what is being sold - ads with too much imagery lead to this effect

Can be effective but they must attend to four important problems:Cannot induce too much fear - too much fear will lead people not to listen to the messageMust increase the target's perceived vulnerabilityMust suggest a clear path to prevention (response efficacy)Must suggest easy enactment of the prevention behavior (increase self-efficacy, instill the idea that you can do this, must make it obvious that the person themselves can accomplish this)

Sometimes we respond to persuasion with deliberate, careful, effortful consideration of the arguments, other times, due to limited cognitive resources, we process the persuasive arguments superficiallyDifferent routes to persuasion, depending on the route you take you pay attention to different cues

Central route - process persuasive messages carefully, quality of the arguments mattersPeripheral routes - process persuasive messages superficially, quality of the argument is less important, pay attention to cues that are superficially related to persuasiveness but may not be important cues*Take central route if have high ability or motivation*Take peripheral route if have low ability or motivation*Message is important or interesting - deliberate, controlled processing, nonverbal cues unimportant whereas argument strength is important*Unimportant or uninteresting message - superficial, automatic processing (peripheral route), nonverbal cues important whereas argument strength is unimportant

People who are high in cognition find factual based arguments more helpful, people who are low in cognition find emotion based arguments more helpful

Inoculation - small dose of persuasive message gets you thinking about the reasons not to be persuaded (counterarguments)Forewarning and ReactanceCounterargumentsSelective Avoidance - once you hold a particular position, ignore information that refutes what you have already held position on Biased assimilation – take information no matter where it comes from, assimilate it, store it in memory in ways that fit our already held attitudes, very likely to judge situation in a way that fits our own attitudes

Participant responses to a number of arguments about social issues, want to know whether compatible or not Compatible vs. incompatible arguments – arguments on both sides of issue, what they are hearing is compatible or incompatible with their already held attitude Argument strength decreases whether argument is compatible vs. incompatible People read incompatible arguments for longer than compatible arguments People generate incompatible refutations the most (this is incompatible with what I believe because, this is why this is not a good argument) – convince ourselves more strongly than before that the attitude we hold is the one we should be holding