Hovland-Yale theory

• what is persuasion

  a process which intentionally influences a person's choice of behaviour or attitudes
• hovland yale model

  hovland was recruited to increase levels of support towards the end of ww2

  found that effective persuasion was achieved by focusing on 'who says what to whom'
• hovland yale theory of persuasion

  whether a message persuades people to change their behaviour depends not on the message itself, but who gives it and who receives it
• 3 steps of the model - source , audience , message
• source - experts or non experts
• message - 2 sided for high IQ - fear factor
• audience - high IQ is harder to persuade - low IQ is easier - low self esteem is easier
• the source must be credible
• the credibility can be affected by :

  expertise - personal experience - attractiveness - popularity - similarity
• the message : must be targeted correctly to influence people of different intelligences - an audience would find a one sided presentation less persuasive
• audience - those with less intelligence become more confused by two sided messages and are less persuaded by them.

  audience - those of more intelligence are less persuaded by one sided arguments.
• HOVLAND and WEISS 1951

  • students given articles to read on controversial topics including anti-histamine drugs, steel shortages, atomic submarines.

  group 1 saw articles on these topics from a highly credible journal and group 2 saw articles from a low credible journal
• hovland and weiss findings

  Opinion approval ratings were much higher for the high credibility sources and that people changed their mind more often with high credibility sources
• strengths of the model

  + the theory is correct in predicting emotional appeal as it is only persuasive when recipients believe they can cope with change
• research to support the model

  Sturges and Rogers - presented young people with information about the dangers of smoking. Low/high threat, low/high hope

  the most persuasive was the one which had high threat and ALSO high hope
• weaknesses of the model

  Contradictory evidence - people with high self esteem were actually easier to persuade than those with low self esteem
• eval of hovland and weiss

  + practical applications - can make health campaigns more effective. - for short term changes use credible sources - for long term changes should focus on credibility features
• eval of hovland and weiss

  -- the sample was generalised and limited - all students from Yale

  -- they were a captive audience - people might not be concentrating in everyday life - ecological validity may be low