Compare and Contrast Two Methods for Achieving Attitude Change through Persuasion

1. Who – Describe the Characteristics of the Persuader: What influences our ability to become persuaded by someone? What specific characteristics must this person possess? Be sure to address the impact of credibility, physical attractiveness, and likeability in your response. Why do we respond well to those who possess such characteristics? Would we respond the same to an unattractive, angry, or non-credible person? Why not?

Two prominent researchers, B.F. Skinner and Albert Bandura, have developed theories which provide differing perspectives and explanations regarding the learning behavior of individuals. The purpose of this writing is to explore the theoretical perspectives of Operant Conditioning Theory developed by B.F. Skinner and Social Learning Theory developed by Albert Bandura. An overview of both theories is presented, followed by a discussion of their similarities and differences.

The first essential of persuasion involves the structure of the argument being posed by one who is trying to provoke others to action. In order to convince someone of a new argument, idea or moral, one must use the proper methods: logos, ethos and pathos. According to Hauser, “The method

Neimeyer, Rebecca Macnair, April E. Metzler, and Karen Courchaine (1991) are researcher at University of Florida and they came to the conclusion that individuals with high levels of prior bias, when forewarning is enhanced and creates a resistance to persuasion, whereas it has the opposite effect on individuals with more balanced cognitions (Neimeyer, Macnair, Metzler, & Courchaine, 1991). This differentiation forms an inconsistency for researchers, since ‘‘nearly every independent variable has increased persuasion in some situations, had no effect in others, and decreased persuasion in still other contexts’’ (Neimeyer, Macnair, Metzler, & Courchaine, 1991). To account for these inconsistencies, researchers use ‘‘The Elaboration Likelihood Model or ELM to addressed the impact of forewarning (forewarned, unwarned) and argument quality (strong, weak) on subjects to get an honest response (Neimeyer, Macnair, Metzler, & Courchaine, 1991). And according to ELM, the results of forewarning would vary as a direct effect from cognitive responses (Neimeyer, Macnair, Metzler, & Courchaine, 1991). Although, it is not only forewarning that could cause to resistance to persuasion but person could be motivated by the warning to be more considerate in their own positions as participants, while generating points of view in supporting their own stands and opposing alternative

This essay is assessing how attiutides are changed. Attitudes are beliefs that a person holds about certain subjects that have often had an impact on them. The essay will discuss the different methods that are using by outside stimuli to attempt to change a persons pre-exisiting attitudes. As well as this it will look at the different cognitive processes that a necessary for a person to change their attitude and how strongly the attitude is held will determine how the brain process the attempts to change them. The strength of the attitude is also one of the factors for determining whether or not the attitude can be changed. There can also be conflict between the attitudes that are held and the behaviour that is shown which can have

Persuasion is the act of changing individuals’ attitudes or behaviours; this is all around us in everyday life especially in the media. Persuasion has shown to be effective however there are some attempts that fail, in this essay I will explain why persuasion doesn’t always work. The factors I will look at are reactance, counterarguing, avoidance, forewarning and attitude inoculation.

The topic of influence tactics has been studied by researchers for a long period of time, but there is no consensus on the conceptualization of influence tactics and how they can be measured (Higgins, Judge, & Ferris 2003). Higgins et al., (2003) identified eight interpersonal influence tactics, including assertiveness, ingratiation, rationality, sanctions, exchange, upward appeals, blocking, and coalitions. They also suggest that some influence tactics can help individuals to be successful in their careers such as ingratiation and rationality. For instance, one can use some of effective tactics like ingratiation and self-promotion in an interview, however self-promotion could have negative consequences in performance evaluation. Also, the

M. (1999). When manipulation backfires: The effects of time delay and requester on the foot-in-the-door technique. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 29, 211-221

"Hope and fear are two of the most effective tools of persuasion". Martin Luther King Jr. We're in the year 2017 and our black men are still facing the same injustice and inhuman acts as our ancestors. As a black man you can't get pulled over for a minor driving citation without fearing for your life. At the point the judicial system is either killing our men or putting them in jail. African American men are incarcerated at six times the rate of white men. In America for a white man to go to jail he has to commit a heinous crime like murder or rape but a Black man can be jailed for something as small as standing in front of a corner store or a street corner. Black men are constantly stoped and frisked, get unlawful vehicle searches, and

E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1977) Forewarning, cognitive responding, and resistance to persuasion. Journal 0.f Personality and Social Psychology, 35, 645-655

As mentioned previously, resistance to persuasion is the primary goal of the inoculation theory. Inoculation is a preventative as it is reinforcing cultural truisms by facing smaller

Nisbett and Timothy DeCamp Wilson (1977) in efforts to add supporting evidence to an ideal similar to the Halo Effect. They staged two interviews with participants where the interview in both was a man that had a distinct accent (Nisbett & Wilson,1977). The interviewer in one group was as charming as he could be in his “appearance and mannerisms and accent” (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977). In the other, he was instructed to basically act more strict and harsh to the subjects. The resulting difference in ratings of the interviewer’s personality and other factors by the participants spoke to how people immediately judge someone based on how they presented themselves through multiple characteristics.

The Foot in the Door Effect is essentially where an individual requests a potential participant to engage in a simple task in the hopes that they are more likely to engage in a more difficult task afterwards. The belief behind this effect is that the individual requested to engage in the simpler task or tasks will develop a sense of confidence or willingness after the task has been completed. Essentially, after each smaller task, the participant will more likely be willing to engage in the difficult task. This is what is considered to be a confidence builder and it allows for the individual to feel more confortable in performing the difficult task. The Foot in the door effect is also considered to be a technique relatively consistent based on its initial task. In comparison to the Foot In The Door Effect, the Door In The Face Effect can be defined as the persuaders attempt to convince their participants to initially undertake a difficult task prior to engaging in less difficult tasks in hopes for increasing compliance. The belief behind this effect is that the participant will be more likely to engage in smaller tasks after initially being requested to engage in a larger task. The prior request to engage in the more difficult task may be thought of as the

Attitudes are conceptualised as stable entities or temporary constructions (Bohner and Dickel, 2011). The following article moves on to describe in greater detail the potential influences of attitude and attitude change with the aim of highlighting possible reasoning behind these. Furthermore, to define a particular attitude as a ‘stable entity’ is to suggest that one’s attitude is derived from a preconceived idea or memory. To the contrary, a ‘temporary construction’ is to construct an attitude in an instant following a particular event or stimulus. Whilst Visser and Mirabile (2004) claim that attitudes are a stable entity, and in contrast Shwarz (2007) believes attitudes are a temporary construction, Eagly and Chaiken (2007) take a moderate stance by defining attitudes as a psychological tendency, expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour.

Persuasion is described as the deliberate process that intends to change an individual’s attitudes, behaviours or beliefs from their previous initial views and ways of behaving in society. Persuasive communication is widespread and evident all around us, including in central areas of politics, marketing and media. Burkholder et al’s (2003) findings support the idea that there are cultural differences evident in the effectiveness of persuasion, in which they found that shortly after the end of the Iraq war, surveys indicated that although Americans favoured the use of military action against Iraq by 2:1, Europeans opposed it by the same margin. There are four key factors that help influence persuasion amongst the masses, depending on their