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103
Explaining Theories
of Persuasion
S
ince the mid-1930s when Dale Carnegie first published his best-selling book How to Win Friends and Influence People, the notion of how to persuade others has been both a popular and profitable subject. Concurrently, with the rise of mass media and the pervasiveness of propaganda used in both World Wars, the study and understanding of mass-mediated persuasive messages became critical to understand- ing political and social change. Today, the importance of understand- ing the power of persuasive messages is greater than ever. According to Kilbourne (1999), “the average American is exposed to at least three thousand ads every day and will spend three years of his or her life watching television commercials” (p. 58). Clearly, we are inundated with messages of persuasion and influence in all aspects of our lives— relational, social, political, and economic. Accordingly, we believe that having an understanding of how persuasive messages work (or don’t work!) is central for surviving in today’s advertising and media-blitzed society.
❖ PERSUASION DEFINED
Persuasion is typically defined as “human communication that is designed to influence others by modifying their beliefs, values, or attitudes” (Simons, 1976, p. 21). O’Keefe (1990) argued that there are requirements for the sender, the means, and the recipient to consider something persuasive. First, persuasion involves a goal and the intent to achieve that goal on the part of the message sender. Second, communica- tion is the means to achieve that goal. Third, the message recipient must have free will (i.e., threatening physical harm if the recipient doesn’t comply is usually considered force, not persuasion). Accordingly, persua- sion is not accidental, nor is it coercive. It is inherently communicational. Many theories in this chapter are concerned with shifts in attitude, so it is important to make clear what we mean by that term. An attitude is a “relatively enduring predisposition to respond favorably or unfavor- ably” toward something (Simons, 1976, p. 80). We have attitudes toward people, places, events, products, policies, ideas, and so forth (O’Keefe, 1990). Because attitudes are enduring, they are neither fleeting nor based on whims. Yet at the same time, attitudes are learned evaluations; they are not something that people are born with. As such, attitudes are changeable. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, attitudes are presumed to influence behavior. To illustrate, your attitude toward a product will influence whether you buy the product. In this chapter, we present four theories that explore aspects of per- suasive communication. Although portrayed as theories of persuasion, each of these viewpoints can be applied to a wide variety of communi- cation contexts. From well-crafted public relations campaigns designed to foster positive attitudes about a company to telling a story to con- vince a customer that a salesperson is honest, the theories presented highlight the varied ways to conceive persuasive messages. The four theories we discuss in this chapter include social judgment theory, the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), cognitive dissonance, and the narrative paradigm.
❖ SOCIAL JUDGMENT THEORY
Consider your personal and professional network. It is likely easy for you to come up with at least one example of a person with whom you
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workforce is classified as minority, just 14.9% of officials and managers are minorities. In contrast, White men represent 37.6% of the work- force, but 56.9% of officials and managers are White men (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.). Simply presenting these statistics is likely to have sparked a response in you. For some, these figures might spark feelings of indignation about social inequities. For others, the statistics might spark irritation because we are discussing race. The fact of the matter is, your response is a perfect illustration of social judgment theory. Refer to Table 5.1, and consider the sample ordered alternatives questionnaire developed about the employ- ment gap. By completing the instructions, you will have essentially mapped your own attitudes about the employment gap between White Americans and people of color. We will return to this questionnaire shortly. Social judgment theory says that the map of an individual’s attitudes about any given topic is a function of how ego involved that individual is about that topic. When an individual is highly ego involved with a topic, she or he believes that the issue is important, and the person typically holds an intense position (O’Keefe, 1990). Because the topic is one that has personal significance to the individual, it is considered to be central to their sense of self—hence, she or he is ego-involved. Knowing whether a person is ego-involved allows the persuader to make certain predictions about the recipient of a persuasive mes- sage. First, the more ego-involved a person is, the larger the latitude of rejec- tion that person will have. This prediction is based on logic; if you feel strongly about something, you are likely to reject anything that doesn’t match your precise point of view. If you don’t care as much about the topic, you are likely to be open to alternative possibilities. The second prediction is that the more ego-involved a person is, the smaller the latitude of noncommitment. Again, this hypothesis makes sense. If you believe a topic is important, you are likely to have thought about it, leaving little room for having no opinion or no knowledge. If you don’t view the topic as important, you probably haven’t spent much time crafting an opinion about it. Our introduction of social judgment theory stated that people make judgments about messages based on their preexisting attitudes. How does this translate to the real world? Imagine that you work in the human resources department of a major corporation, and you would
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like to persuade the management team to do something about the employment gap between Blacks and Whites in your company. The first thing you need to do is to determine the management teams’ atti- tudes about the topic. Where along our ordered questionnaire do they fall as a group? How ego involved are they? Once we do this form of audience analysis, we can predict how they might respond to particu- lar messages. Quite simply, the theory asserts that messages that fall within the audience’s latitude of acceptance will be viewed positively, and messages that fall within the audience’s latitude of rejection will be viewed negatively. Social judgment explains these responses through two processes, the contrast effect and the assimilation effect (O’Keefe, 1990). The
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Table 5.1 Ordered Alternatives Questionnaire
____ A.
____ B.
____ C.
____ D.
____ E.
____ F.
____ G.
____ H.
____ I.
Read each statement, and put a next to the statement with which you most agree. Then circle the letter of all statements with which you agree, and put an X through all statements with which you disagree. The gap between minority employment and White employment is due to a lack of ability among many minority members. The gap between minority employment and White employment is due to a lack of effort among many minority members. The gap between minority employment and White employment is due to a lack of education among many minority members. The gap between minority employment and White employment is due to a lack of role models for many minority members. The gap between minority employment and White employment is due to a lack of training and development for many minority members. The gap between minority employment and White employment is due to a lack of mentoring of minority employees. The gap between minority employment and White employment is due to an unwelcoming working environment for minorities in most organizations. The gap between minority employment and White employment is due to subtle and unintentional forms of racism. The gap between minority employment and White employment is due to active discrimination.
an individual’s latitude of noncommitment or at the edges of his/her latitude of acceptance (Miller, 2002).
❖ ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD MODEL
Turning to our second theory of persuasion, the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) views persuasion primarily as a cognitive event, mean- ing that the targets of persuasive messages use mental processes of motivation and reasoning (or a lack thereof) to accept or reject persua- sive messages. Developed by Petty and Cacioppo (1986), ELM posits two possible routes or methods of influence: centrally routed messages and peripherally routed messages. Each route targets a widely differ- ent audience. Accordingly, much like social judgment theory, ELM emphasizes the importance of understanding audience members before creating a persuasive message.
Slow and Steady: The Central Route to Persuasion
Petty and Cacioppo’s (1986) model depicts persuasion as a pro- cess in which the success of influence depends largely on the way the receivers make sense of the message. As mentioned earlier, ELM presents two divergent pathways that one can use when trying to influence others. The more complex of the two paths is known as the central route, also referred to as an elaborated route. Centrally routed messages include a wealth of information, rational arguments, and evidence to support a particular conclusion. For example, during each election season, politi- cal hopefuls engage in speeches, debates, and roundtable discussions; each message is filled with elaborated and presumably rational infor- mation regarding the candidate’s viewpoints, platform, and political history. Centrally routed messages are much more likely to create long- term change for the recipient than are peripheral messages (discussed later); however, not all individuals are capable of receiving centrally routed messages. Importantly, ELM argues that centrally routed mes- sages succeed in long-term change only when two factors are met: (a) the target must be highly motivated to process all of the informa- tion being given, and (b) the target must be able to process the message cognitively. For example, if you are not willing to sit through a 2-hour
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televised debate between presidential candidates, then ELM suggests that you do not have the motivation required to process an elaborated message in this instance. Alternatively, imagine that you are motivated to watch the candidates’ debate, but the politicians’ messages are so filled with jargon and complex issues of international policy that you do not understand them. In this case, ELM suggests that despite your motivation, the ability to understand the highly specific and intricate messages being offered is not present. The theory states that without both motivation and ability, an elaborated message is of little value.
Types of Elaborated Arguments. It should be apparent that understanding one’s audience is critical when choosing the appropriate route; it is also imperative to understand the audience when constructing an elabo- rated argument (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). In other words, it isn’t enough to view your audience as motivated and able when considering the central route of persuasion. You must also consider how the audience members will likely react to the quality and arrangement of the argu- ments presented. Elaborated arguments can be measured as strong, neutral, or weak. Strong arguments create a positive cognitive response in the minds of receivers while also positively aligning the receivers’ beliefs with those views of the persuader (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). Strong arguments inoculate the audience against counter-persuasion and are most likely to create long-term attitude change that leads to predict- able behavior. Repetition is thought to enhance the persuasive effect of strong arguments; conversely, interruptions will diminish their effec- tiveness. Neutral arguments generate a noncommittal cognitive response from the receiver. In other words, no attitude change occurs, and the ambivalent receiver may instead turn to peripheral cues, or shortcuts to persuasion. Finally, weak arguments produce a negative cognitive response to the persuasive message. This negative response will not only prevent attitude change, it may, in fact, have a reverse or boomerang effect, thereby reinforcing the opposing point of view.
Taking a Shortcut: The Peripheral Route to Persuasion
Noted earlier, elaborated messages are ineffective when targeted participants are not capable and interested in the information (Petty &
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sending anonymous donations to political campaigns or charitable organizations. Importantly, however, “people usually feel greater commitment to a cause if they are publicly committed to it” (p. 369). One very common sequential procedure that underscores the commitment principle is the foot-in-the-door tactic (Cialdini, 1994). Here, a persuader convinces you to do something small first, like wear a cam- paign button. Then, the persuader asks to put a campaign sign in your yard; next the persuader may ask you to make a donation or to host a reception. The strategy is to convince you to agree to a small, seemingly innocuous request first. Once you agree and commit yourself to the campaign, it becomes harder to refuse larger requests because there is a threat of appearing inconsistent with your commitment. Persuading through contrast or using contrast effects requires the communicator to set up uneven points of comparison (Cialdini, 1993, 1994). For example, asking a coworker if she could do you a “giant favor” and then contrasting the statement with a simple request (“Would you page me if FedEx drops off a package while I am in a client meeting?”) sets up a disparity. By inflating the coworker’s expectations for the “giant favor” requested and then contrasting it with a simple favor, it is more likely to result in compliance. Retail salespeople also use this contrast principle by “reducing” prices or by showing customers the most expensive item first (because anything else will seem cheaper in comparison). Liking messages stress affinity toward a person, place, or object (Cialdini, 1993, 1994). That is, if we like you, we will like your ideas. Today’s sneaker and soft drink companies often rely on such messages of liking. By using Britney Spears to sell Pepsi or Michael Jordan to sell Nike Air Jordan shoes, these companies expect that if you like Britney or Mike, you will also like their product (and will, they hope, buy it). Messages of reciprocation try to influence by emphasizing a give- and-take relationship (Cialdini, 1993, 1994). For example, it is easier to persuade your sister-in-law to babysit your children if you have done something similar for her. Advertisers also use reciprocation; “Buy these steak knives in the next 10 minutes, and we will give you a free cutting board!” Here, the advertiser tries to influence the receiver by throwing in some extras. If you do this for us, we’ll give you a freebie. Similarly, scarcity is a peripheral message that preys on people’s worry of missing out on something. This “Quick! Get it before they’re all
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gone” approach creates a sense of urgency for receivers. Home shopping networks and department stores use this strategy by imposing time limits on the sale of items; presumably, you won’t be able to purchase the deluxe salad spinner after the sales event expires. Realtors also use this approach; alerting prospective buyers that an offer has been placed on a property creates a sense of urgency and may start a bidding war. A house that was “of interest” now seems that much more appealing when it may disappear from the market. Finally, the peripheral cue of social proof relies on the age-old notion of peer pressure (Cialdini, 1993, 1994). Although you might mis- takenly believe that only teenagers succumb to “everyone’s doing it” mentality, adults are also swayed by messages of social proof. Within the workplace, for instance, many corporations participate in charity drives such as with the Red Cross or the United Way. Here, employees who participate in blood drives or fundraising are given pins to wear or balloons to display, thereby gaining influence by putting subtle pres- sure on other employees to “get on board.” If unaware of these techniques in the past, you should now be able to identify these seven peripheral cues—they are everywhere! Again, however, it is important to stress that these peripheral messages empha- size fleeting emotional responses and are not likely to create long last- ing change.
Types of Peripheral Messages. As with centrally routed arguments, peripheral messages can be evaluated as positive, neutral, or negative (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). Positive peripheral messages are those that are perceived favorably by the audience and create a positive affective state. Positive peripheral messages have a chance at yielding weak, positive changes in attitude. For example, if you are a fan of The West Wing and Martin Sheen publicly endorses Candidate X over Candidate Y, you may feel more positively about Candidate X. Notably, however, a change in attitude does not necessarily predict a change in behavior. For instance, you may believe that voting is an essential civic duty for American citizens; yet you may not vote in your local primary election because you don’t think you are knowledgeable of the candidates. Here, we can see incongruence between a belief (voting is important) and behavior (failing to vote). Neutral peripheral messages leave the receivers feeling emotion- ally ambivalent; they really don’t know or care about the cue used to
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predicts that influence is often an intrapersonal event, occurring when incongruence between our attitudes and behavior creates a tension that is resolved by altering either our beliefs or our behaviors, thereby effecting a change.
Schemata: Creating Familiarity or Discomfort
According to Festinger (1957, 1962), when presented with a new or unfamiliar stimulus, individuals use schemata —that is, cognitive struc- tures for organizing new information. Essentially, for new information to be understood or useful, we must find schemata with which to link
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Figure 5.1 Elaboration Likelihood
No
Ambivalence or Weak, Negative Change
No No
Message
Strong Positive Attitude Change
Yes
Yes
Yes
Ability? Does the situation allow for processing?
Motivation? Is the message relevant?
Type of Argument? Did the persuader use a strong argument?
No
Weak, Positive Attitude Change
Yes
Peripheral Cue? Was a positive peripheral cue used?
Ambivalence or Boomerang Effect
SOURCE: Communication and Persuasion (p. 4) by R. E. Petty and J. T. Cacioppo, 1986, New York: Springer-Verlag. Reprinted with permission of Springer-Verlag GMbH & Co. KG and the authors.
the new stimulus to previously understood experiences. For example, when trying frogs’ legs for the first time, many people claim that dish tastes “just like chicken”; in this case, the previous experience of being familiar with the taste of chicken serves as schemata for relating the taste of frogs’ legs. Importantly, however, when newly presented information is incon- sistent with our previously established beliefs (i.e., schemata), we will experience an imbalance or dissonance (Festinger, 1957). It is this dis- sonance that becomes a highly persuasive tool because, according to Festinger, humans feel so uneasy with holding contradictory beliefs and actions that they will make every attempt to minimize the discom- fort. In other words, when individuals behave in a manner that is incongruent with their beliefs, dissonance is created; dissonance cre- ates discomfort. Because humans do not like to feel unnerved, individ- uals actively seek to change the situation to restore a balance between thought and action.
The Relationship Between Beliefs and Behaviors
Three possible relationships between beliefs and behaviors exist: irrelevance, consonance, and dissonance (Festinger, 1957). Briefly stated, irrelevance simply refers to beliefs and behaviors that have nothing to do with each other. For example, Cory’s beliefs about preserving the environment and his position on gun control are completely unrelated. Thus, irrelevance is the absence of both consonance and dissonance. Second, consonance occurs when two stimuli or pieces of information are in balance or achieve congruence. For example, if Cory believes that recycling is an important way to maintain the environment, and he recycles everything from plastic bottles, to Styrofoam peanuts, to junk mail, it could be said that Cory has consonance between his beliefs (recycling benefits the envi- ronment) and his actions (he avidly recycles household waste). According to Festinger (1957), individuals prefer consonant relation- ships; that is, we strive to feel consistency between actions and beliefs. Conversely, dissonance occurs when two stimuli or pieces of infor- mation contradict each other (Festinger, 1957). Continuing the previous example, if Cory believes that the environment is a precious commodity that deserves protection yet he drives an SUV for his 40-mile commute
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their previously held beliefs, for example, that pro-life supporters are religious “fanatics.” With regard to selective interpretation, CDT predicts that individuals will carefully decipher ambiguous information so that it is perceived to be consistent with our established beliefs. To illustrate, before Rosie O’Donnell publicly identified herself as gay, many of her fans inter- preted her actions to be consistent with that of a heterosexual woman, such as her crush on Tom Cruise and her adoption of several foster children. When she revealed that she is, in fact, gay, her magazine read- ership dropped (O. Poole, 2002)—possibly because some subscribers could no longer hold the illusion that her ambiguous behaviors were those of a heterosexual woman. Finally, CDT maintains that individuals selectively retain information that upholds their viewpoints while more easily dismissing or forgetting information that creates disso- nance. Accordingly, we conveniently forget how much was spent on that rundown beach house.
Persuasion Through Dissonance
By now, it should be understood that CDT assumes humans prefer congruency between beliefs and behaviors. When we engage in an action that opposes our attitudes, we experience distress known as dissonance. Depending on the importance of the issue and the degree of our discomfort, we are motivated to change our beliefs or behaviors (i.e., be persuaded). CDT is often considered a postdecision theory, meaning that individuals attempt to persuade themselves after a decision has been made or course of action has been enacted that the decision or behavior was okay (Gass & Seiter, 2003). The notion of buyer’s remorse is an obvious example. After spending more than you feel comfortable with on a new home, car, vacation, or some other luxury item, you probably had to rationalize, or convince yourself, that the purchase was “worth” it. Thus, you try to reduce the dissonance created after making a decision to buy. Yet the ques- tion still begs: How can communicators use CDT as a tool to persuade others? Recall that, according to CDT, motivation results from an individual’s internal struggle to change beliefs or behaviors to restore consonance (Festinger, 1957). Consequently, if a persuader can create or exploit dis- sonance while also offering a solution to minimize the disparity, it is
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likely that the receiver will adopt these suggested new behaviors (or change beliefs). In the case of buyer’s remorse, sellers and real estate agents can capitalize on principles of CDT by reinforcing the wisdom of making certain choices. Realtors often encourage buyers to make a list of pros and cons before even looking for that new home with breathtaking views, a gourmet kitchen, or a sunken Jacuzzi tub (Light, 2002). This way, buyers can reduce dissonance that typically occurs after their bid is accepted by reinforcing their decision to purchase with the list of advantages. Home inspections and contingency clauses in the agreement of sale also help prospective buyers feel better about their decision to purchase. Advertisers have also been using principles of CDT for decades, convincing consumers to buy their clients’ products. For instance, the diet industry has made billions of dollars by preying on the average persons’ insecurities about their appearance and body image. Most adults know that they should engage in exercise or physical activity on a daily basis; yet the majority of us don’t. And although we may not be motivated enough to get off the couch and onto the treadmill, we are motivated to relieve the dissonance by purchasing so-called miracle products such as fat blockers, diet supplements, cellulite creams, and even low-carb beer. Thus, by presenting an easy alterna- tive, these manufacturers help consumers to minimize their discom- fort by realigning their beliefs and behaviors, if only on a temporary basis. Within an organizational context, CDT predicts that by increasing employee commitments and loyalties, employee turnover could be reduced and satisfaction improved. That is, “once we’ve invested our time and energy or poured our hearts and souls into a cause, a person, an idea, a project, or a group we find it too difficult to let go” (Gass & Seiter, 2003, p. 69). If you have already invested years, overcome finan- cial burdens, or forged meaningful relationships with coworkers, you are much less likely to leave an organization—regardless of pay or other adverse circumstances. Instead, you suppress second thoughts about other career opportunities, rationalize your corporate loyalty, and may even intensify your efforts to prove to yourself and others that the job is worth it. We would like to offer a few words of caution, however. Take care when trying to capitalize on others’ inconsistencies as a persuasive
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Not all successful advertisements are long-term campaigns, however. One of the most memorable ads during the 2003 Super Bowl was Reebok’s “Terry Tate Office Linebacker” ad, which demonstrated a unique way of maintaining office procedure: using a football player to handle discipline. The humorous vignette had little logically to do with athletic shoes, but it did tell a story. Current strategic marketing involves making products or brands “the central characters in their own story... brands within a marketplace could then usefully be conceived as romantic, tragic, heroic, or satirical” (Shanker, Elliott, & Goulding, 2001, p. 30). As we explain subsequently, Fisher’s (1984, 1987) view of com- munication contrasts much of Western thought that emphasizes rational decision making. Yet by juxtaposing a narrative worldview with a rational worldview, we hope that you will give some thought to this strikingly different way of considering communication and influence.
Fisher’s Narrative Assumptions
Five assumptions drive Fisher’s (1987) explanation of the narra- tive paradigm. First and foremost, Fisher proposed that what makes humans unique and distinct from other creatures is our ability and drive to tell stories. Importantly, narration, does not refer to “fictive composition whose propositions may be true or false” (p. 58); instead, narration includes the symbolic words and actions that people use to assign meaning. Fisher evoked the Greek term mythos to explain human communication primarily as a collection of stories expressing “ideas that cannot be verified or proved in any absolute way. Such ideas arise in metaphor, values, gestures, and so on” (p. 19). According to this view, not even the keenest expert knows everything about his or her area of specialization; there is an element of subjectivity in even the most “logical” of messages. Instead, your values, emotions, and aes- thetic preferences shape your beliefs and actions. As such, individuals relay messages and experiences through stories as an attempt to capture these subjective experiences. Second, the narrative paradigm suggests that because individuals’ lives and understanding of reality are centered on these subjective narratives, people need a way to judge which stories are believable and which are not (Fisher, 1987). Here, Fisher argued that individuals
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use narrative rationality— a logical method of reasoning by which a person can determine how believable another’s narrative is. Narrative rationality relies on good reasons as the basis for most decision making. As opposed to relying solely on argumentative logic, good reasons allow us to validate and accept (or reject) another’s narrative based on the perceived truthfulness and consistency. Thus, coherence and fidelity are two ways to make this narrative judgment of “good reasons.” When the narrative being used appears to flow smoothly, makes sense, and is believable, we say that there is narrative coherence. Similarly, when the narrative appears truthful and congruent with our own expe- riences, we say that there is narrative fidelity. To accept a narrative, an individual must perceive the narrative’s fidelity first; without fidelity, coherence is irrelevant. A related third assumption is that what a person accepts as a “good reason” is based on that individual’s culture, character, history, values, experience, and the like (Fisher, 1984, 1987). In other words, what appears to have coherence and fidelity to one person may not appeal to another who comes to the narrative relationship with a different set of values and experiences. Fourth, the narrative paradigm proposes that “rationality is determined by the nature of persons as narrative beings” (Fisher, 1987, p. 5). Rather than conceiving of reason as rooted only in fact and logical argument, Fisher argued that rationality—and therefore persuasion—stems from humans’ ability to create a coherent story. Thus, piling on the facts about a political candidate’s legislative record isn’t what is persuasive for voters; what will influence constituents is a candidate’s ability to share his or her experiences via narrative. Finally, the narrative paradigm presumes that the world as humans know it is based primarily on sets of both cooperative and competing stories (Fisher, 1987). Importantly, individuals must use the logic of good reasons to choose among these narratives, thereby creat- ing and recreating their social reality. Because “human communica- tion... is imbued with mythos—ideas that cannot be verified or proved in any absolute way” (p. 19), Fisher believed that individuals must rely on narratives as the creation and recreation of a common understanding. The narratives we choose can fundamentally affect our life.
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