cours10

• Attitude Change & Persuasion

  Relevance<|>Yale Approach<|>Newer Theoretical Models<|>Subliminal Influence and Resistance<|>Cognitive Dissonance
• Third-Person Effect (Davison, 1983): Phenomenon where the majority of people believe that they (and others close to them) are less influenced by mass media than the average population (the "third" persons). Perhaps as a form of self-valuation. accorind to some empirical data.
• Mostly appears with negative media content (e.g., depictions of violence, cigarette advertising)
• Possible reversal ("first-person effect") with positively assessed media content (e.g., state health information on the harmful effects of smoking, animal rights marketing).
• Third-Person Effect (Davison, 1983)


  Phenomenon where the majority of people believe that they (and others close to them) are less influenced by mass media than the average population
• The Yale Approach to Attitude Change (Hovland et al., 1953)


  Key question: "Who says what to whom?" Relevant aspects of persuasive communication: Source of the message, Characteristics of the message, Characteristics of the recipient
• Characteristics of the source of the message that support attitude change (Hovland et al., 1953)

  • Expertise/credibility
  • Mainly effective for new topics, not for changing existing attitudes (Kumkale et al., 2011)
  • Personal relevance as a moderator!
  • Popularity and Attractiveness
  • Similarity (+ in evaluation/taste, - in facts; Goethals & Nelson, 1973)
  • High speech speed
  • Powerful presentation style (absence of hesitation, verbal hedges, confirmation questions like "isn't it?"; Sparks & Areni, 2008)
  • Hypocrisy (neg.)

  
• The Sleeper Effect (Kelman & Hovland, 1953)


  Striking finding: Propaganda films intended to improve the attitude of American soldiers in WWII towards their British allies showed an counter-intuitive, increasing effectiveness over time after viewing. Explanation: The message itself remains in memory, but the (questionable) source of the message is forgotten over time, thereby losing its restrictive influence on the persuasiveness of the message.
• The Sleeper Effect - Election advertising with exploding lie detector (Lariscy & Tinkham, 1999)


  1. Participants see attack plus defense

  2. Participants see only the attack

  3. Dependent Variable: Self-assessed voting behavior immediately after viewing the election advertisement and after several (1-5) weeks
• Characteristics of the Message Supporting Attitude Change (Hovland et al., 1953)

  • Quality of the message (personal relevance as a moderator!)
  • Two-sidedness of the message (esp. with well-informed recipients; with hostile recipients; provided the counterarguments can be safely refuted; McGinnies, 1966)
  • Medium should match the difficulty of the message (written for difficult to understand messages, audiovisual for simple messages)
  • Message does not appear as an attempt to influence
  • Repetition of the message (Repetition increases assessment of the truthfulness of a statement (Arkes, et al., 1991); on TV effect rather in the sense of reinforcing existing positive attitude, works weaker with completely new products (Telis, 1987; Campbell & Keller, 2003))

  
• Fear Appeal


  The degree of fear triggered by the message is in a curvilinear relationship to the degree of attitude change. Inverted U-shape! Explanation: With low fear no motivation for attention, with very high fear distraction by the fear itself, denial of the danger (Ruiter et al., 2006).
• Anti-AIDS campaigns lead to more positive attitudes towards safer sex when no fear-inducing arguments are included (Albarracin et al., 2005).
• When personal vulnerability is accepted, even a slight emphasis on the severity of risk leads to behavior change (Das et al., 2003).
• Characteristics of the Recipient of the Message Supporting Attitude Change (Hovland et al., 1953)

  • Age (probably dependent on life phase -> U-shape with highest influenceability in early and late adulthood; Visser & Krosnick, 1998)
  • Low intelligence
  • Low need for cognition (Haugtvedt & Petty, 1992)
  • Medium self-esteem (Rhodes & Wood, 1992)
  • Distraction

  
• Information Processing Model of Persuasion (McGuire, 1969)

  The persuasive effect of a message is the result of at least five steps: (1) Attention; (2) Understanding; (3) Accepting; (4) Retaining; (5) Behavior. In order to bring about a change in attitude, each of the five steps must be successfully completed.
• Attitude change correlates only weakly with the memory of the arguments (=reception)
• Attitude Change & Persuasion

  Relevance<|>Yale Approach<|>Newer Theoretical Models<|>Subliminal Influence and Resistance<|>Cognitive Dissonance
• Third-Person Effect (Davison, 1983): Phenomenon where the majority of people believe that they (and others close to them) are less influenced by mass media than the average population (the "third" persons). Perhaps as a form of self-valuation. accorind to some empirical data.
• Mostly appears with negative media content (e.g., depictions of violence, cigarette advertising)
• Possible reversal ("first-person effect") with positively assessed media content (e.g., state health information on the harmful effects of smoking, animal rights marketing).
• Third-Person Effect (Davison, 1983)


  Phenomenon where the majority of people believe that they (and others close to them) are less influenced by mass media than the average population
• The Yale Approach to Attitude Change (Hovland et al., 1953)


  Key question: "Who says what to whom?" Relevant aspects of persuasive communication: Source of the message, Characteristics of the message, Characteristics of the recipient
• Characteristics of the source of the message that support attitude change (Hovland et al., 1953)

  • Expertise/credibility
  • Mainly effective for new topics, not for changing existing attitudes (Kumkale et al., 2011)
  • Personal relevance as a moderator!
  • Popularity and Attractiveness
  • Similarity (+ in evaluation/taste, - in facts; Goethals & Nelson, 1973)
  • High speech speed
  • Powerful presentation style (absence of hesitation, verbal hedges, confirmation questions like "isn't it?"; Sparks & Areni, 2008)
  • Hypocrisy (neg.)

  
• The Sleeper Effect (Kelman & Hovland, 1953)


  Striking finding: Propaganda films intended to improve the attitude of American soldiers in WWII towards their British allies showed an counter-intuitive, increasing effectiveness over time after viewing. Explanation: The message itself remains in memory, but the (questionable) source of the message is forgotten over time, thereby losing its restrictive influence on the persuasiveness of the message.
• The Sleeper Effect - Election advertising with exploding lie detector (Lariscy & Tinkham, 1999)


  1. Participants see attack plus defense

  2. Participants see only the attack

  3. Dependent Variable: Self-assessed voting behavior immediately after viewing the election advertisement and after several (1-5) weeks
• Characteristics of the Message Supporting Attitude Change (Hovland et al., 1953)

  • Quality of the message (personal relevance as a moderator!)
  • Two-sidedness of the message (esp. with well-informed recipients; with hostile recipients; provided the counterarguments can be safely refuted; McGinnies, 1966)
  • Medium should match the difficulty of the message (written for difficult to understand messages, audiovisual for simple messages)
  • Message does not appear as an attempt to influence
  • Repetition of the message (Repetition increases assessment of the truthfulness of a statement (Arkes, et al., 1991); on TV effect rather in the sense of reinforcing existing positive attitude, works weaker with completely new products (Telis, 1987; Campbell & Keller, 2003))

  
• Fear Appeal


  The degree of fear triggered by the message is in a curvilinear relationship to the degree of attitude change. Inverted U-shape! Explanation: With low fear no motivation for attention, with very high fear distraction by the fear itself, denial of the danger (Ruiter et al., 2006).
• Anti-AIDS campaigns lead to more positive attitudes towards safer sex when no fear-inducing arguments are included (Albarracin et al., 2005).
• When personal vulnerability is accepted, even a slight emphasis on the severity of risk leads to behavior change (Das et al., 2003).
• Characteristics of the Recipient of the Message Supporting Attitude Change (Hovland et al., 1953)

  • Age (probably dependent on life phase -> U-shape with highest influenceability in early and late adulthood; Visser & Krosnick, 1998)
  • Low intelligence
  • Low need for cognition (Haugtvedt & Petty, 1992)
  • Medium self-esteem (Rhodes & Wood, 1992)
  • Distraction

  
• Information Processing Model of Persuasion (McGuire, 1969)


  The persuasive effect of a message is the result of at least five steps: (1) Attention; (2) Understanding; (3) Accepting; (4) Retaining; (5) Behavior. In order to bring about a change in attitude, each of the five steps must be successfully completed.
• Attitude change correlates only weakly with the memory of the arguments (=reception)
• Model of Cognitive Responses (Greenwald, 1968)


  It's not the reception of the arguments of persuasive communication that causes an attitude change, but the cognitive responses stimulated in the recipient by the arguments. Messages convince when they primarily trigger affirmative thoughts; they do not convince when they primarily trigger rejecting thoughts.

  
• Distraction hinders information processing


  Should therefore weaken the effect of persuasive communication
• The Elaboration Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986)

  Depending on the extent of processing motivation and processing capacity, attitude changes in response to persuasive communications are mediated via two types of information processing: (1) Central route to persuasion (high elaboration, careful and critical consideration of the arguments); (2) Peripheral route to persuasion (heuristic information processing, mere exposure, classical conditioning)

  
• Subliminal Advertising


  Subliminal advertising that works with stimuli not perceptible to the conscious mind.
• Participants in the Cola group reported significantly more thirst than participants in the control group.
• Participants believed to notice improvements. However, these did not correspond to the actual heard tape, but only to the assumed tape (Placebo effect).
• Subliminal advertising can also influence (drinking) behavior, mostly has only weak effects, works best when the respective motives are already stimulated, interacts with personality, is not allowed in RO (and other countries; Advertising must be easily recognizable as such).
• Reactance (Brehm, 1966)


  Unpleasantly perceived state that occurs when freedoms are perceived to be curtailed. Leads to defensive reactions to regain lost leeway.