attitudes and attitude change 2 - emma bridger

• the pervasiveness of persuasion

  • various estimates suggest that the average person is exposed to anywhere from 300 to 3000 adverts a day
  • lots of mythic figures from advertising, but probably closer to 100s
  • important to understand what they are trying to influence us
• buzz marketing

  • form of covert marketing used in social media
  • relies on work of mouth from peers or trustworthy sources
  • to work it needs to be perceived as genuine
  • buzz can multiply a messages impact exponentially - like a virus
  • more effective than mainstream media at reaching younger audiences
• when is advertising/ mass media effective

  • 2 step flow model
  • opinion leaders - act as mediators and majority of society - influentials + a critical mass of easily influenced individuals
  • alternative to the hypodermic needle model - mass media has a direct and powerful influence
  • war of worlds mass panic
• 'opinion leaders' in action

  • short documentary on ugandan leader/ war criminal joseph kony
  • fastest video ever to reach 100m views (in 6 days)
  • celebrity endorsements
• elaboration likelihood model

  • petty and cacioppo
  • most influential theory describing attitude change
  • theories about:
  • distinct cognitive pathways of processing a persuasive message
  • why they are used
  • outcomes on attitude change
• elaboration likelihood model

  • two ways of processing persuasive message:
  • central route: deep processing of information
  • peripheral route: superficial processing
• elaboration liklihood model

  what determines the route?

  • motivation (interest, importance)
  • ability (noisy environment, enough knowledge)
  • opportunity (e.g. time)
• central route

  • cost
  • insurance cost
  • safety rating
  • reliability
  • carbon emissions
• elaboration likelihood model

  peripheral route

  • colour
  • speed
  • sex appeal
  • celeb
  • more expensive than neighbors
• elaboration likelihood model

  audience: high motivation and ability to think about model

  route: central

  processing: deep processing, focused on quality of argument

  persuasion outcome: lasting change resists fading and counterattacks
• elaboration likelihood model

  audience: low motivation or inability to think ab message

  route: peripheral

  processing approach: superficial, focused on surface features such as communicators attractiveness

  persuasion outcome: temporary change suspectical to fading and counter attacks
• cognitive dissonance

  • festinger
  • we seek harmony and consistency in our attitudes and behaviours
  • based on effects of two cognitions
  • dissonance: state of tension that motivates us to change one of the cognitions/attitude
• cognitive dissonance

  e.g. "i smoke fags" and " fags damage my health

  how to solve dissonance

  1. changing one of beliefs (E.g. smoking is not that bad)
  2. change behaviour by giving up smoking
  3. add justifying cognitions "i smoke low tar brands'
  4. trivialize the inconsistency by ignoring or playing down evidence
• cognitive dissonance

  • classic study of behaviour induced compliance
  • festinger and carlsmith
  • students asked to perform a very boring task for an hour
  • students were given either £1 or £20 to tell other students that the task they performed was interesting
  • later these students wee asked to rate how enjoyable the task had been < this is the attitude of interest
• cog dissonance: problems

  • inducing people to act in opposition to their attitudes is not easy
  • although dissonance techniques are powerful, very difficult to carry out on a mass scale
• Compliance

  • Refers to a change in behaviour that is requested by another individual or group (but was possible to refuse or decline)

  • Distinguished from obedience (response to specific order from authority figure) and conformity (response to peer pressure)
• robert cialdinis principles of persuasion

  • scarcity - we want what there is less of
  • authority
  • liking - we say yes to those we like
  • consensus (social norms) - what are other people doing
  • reciprocity
  • commitment and consistency
• cialdini's principles of persuasion

  • if people first agree to a small request, likely to comply with a larger request later
• foot in door technique:

  Field experiment (Freedman & Fraser, 1966)

  – Group of women received a request to answer some questions about their use of soap products (small request)

  – After answering the questions, larger request was made: would they permit 6 people to enter their home and take an inventory of their cleaning products

  – A second group received the larger request without the preceding small request to answer the soap survey
• foot in door technique:

  Results

  – Experimental Group: 53% agreed– Control Group: 22% agreed

  • May not always work (Foss & Dempsey, 1979): initial request too small or second request too large

  •Why does it work?– Principle of consistency: People prefer not to contradict themselves in both actions and beliefs (Bem, 1967; Cialdini & Trost, 1998)
• door in face technique: A large initial request, which the recipient is sure to turn down, to soften target up for a smaller request
• door in face technique:

  Field experiment (Cialdini et al. 1975):

  – Students approached on campus; request to volunteer to spend 2 hrs per week, for 2+ years, as unpaid counsellors at a juvenile detention centre.•

  No one agreed– Then they were requested on just one occasion to escort a group of offenders from the detention centre on a two-hour trip to the zoo

  • 50% agreed– Only 17% in the control group who received only the second, smaller request agreed
• door-in-the-face technique:

  Why does it work?– Participants perceive the scale-down as a concession from there quester, and as consequence feel the pressure to reciprocate

  To avoid 2 successive rejections (avoid negative feelings)(Turner et al)