The Theories Of Attitude Change

One way in which attitude change occurs is via cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is an occurrence in which a person experiences psychological distress due to conflicting thoughts or beliefs. The tendency to be affected by cognitive dissonance is affected by culture. In order to lessen this rigidity, individuals could change their attitudes to imitate other opinions or real behaviors.

The use of effective persuasion techniques will not only the marketing and sales personnel to make more sales and meet the targets but also enable them to have an edge over the competitive environment. So of the techniques used in the commercial video from state farm insurance company on one hand show an effective means of communicating to convince the audience while on the other hand, the video is too complex to comprehend for an a normal and uneducated citizen. Here are some of the effective persuasion techniques that have been used in the commercial to reach out and convince their target audience to use and stick to the company’s insurance services. Moreover, these techniques are aimed at making the incumbent customers to become more loyal to State Farm insurance. According to Petty, Richard and Cacioppo (1984), there are two routes effective persuasion no matter the kind of media used to deliver the message to the audience. First, one can persuade effectively by building a central argument(s) in the message. Secondly, the persuader can effectively deliver the message to his or her target audience by trying to appeal to the audience by associating the message with what they can accept favorably. Usually, the favorable peripheral cues in the message lures the

Persuasion is a very strong technique that is used by many throughout history to form some of the greatest works of literature. Ethos, pathos, and logos are the three forms of persuasion. In 2008 a man by the name of Barack Obama created his Victory Speech after a very hard fought campaign. He utilizes the three modes of persuasion to create his very persuasive speech. Persuasion is one of the most crucial strengths to any speaker, especially when applying ethos, pathos, and logos just as Barack Obama did in his 2008 Victory Speech.

Today, one can see the tactic of persuasion being used as a standard avenue to influence a person’s attitude or beliefs by presenting them with different messages that encourage things like using certain brand name products, vote a certain way, or where to take a vacation just to name a few. There are four types of people that include gullible people, skeptical people, firm believers, and people who are leaders who trust others as well as make others follow their ideas. Persuasion is a widespread topic of social psychology and may be done in different ways. There are two types of cognitive processes by which to persuade someone, which are the central route or the peripheral route. For this assignment I used mostly the central route approach as well as using a little of the peripheral route approach. To reinforce the peripheral route approach the use of pathos was also used during the video to play on the emotions of the watcher. This PowerPoint is effective at using the central route of persuasion, peripheral

Modes of persuasion are rhetorical appeals used in writing to persuade an audience (Worthington 58). The rhetoric appeals are divided into three categories; ethos, pathos and logos. Writers and speakers alike must have the ability to use the three appeals within a text to persuade a particular audience. Ethos refers to the author’s or writer’s credibility. The writer or the author has to establish his or her credibility for the audience to consider his or her views. Pathos is appealing through the audience’s emotions. As an author or speaker, it is important to create a certain sense of curiosity and imagination in the audience’s minds in order to have them identify with the speech’s or text sentiments. Logos is the most important of the three

All around our society we witness persuasion. Whether it is a certified dentist selling a toothpaste brand in between our favorite shows on TV, or a church group coming to the door and asking for donations. We see little children begging their parents for a toy, promising they will behave, and the parents give in because they just want peace, quiet, and some time to relax. We have heard of college graduates expressing their qualification for the job, and stating facts about the type of service they are applying for. We look right past it, but in our everyday lives we experience, or even use, the three modes of persuasion. These methods to persuade people were made by a greek philosopher, Aristotle. The first mode is known

We live in a society where everyone is trying to live to a certain expectation set by society. At some point of our lives, we have all been peer pressure into doing something or in some cases thinking. If we sit back and take a minute to analyze our surroundings, we may noticed billboards, newspaper, ads, and television commercials. This is what we come to know as “media”. There are so many techniques they try to use to persuade us into buying that “amazing” product or whatever point they are trying to get across. They could use one of three of the rhetorical appeals, logos, ethos, or pathos. They could use a combination of all three. Persuasion doesn’t only occur through written but also through verbal words or even actions.

Gerard A. Hauser covers a plethora of details on how to create a well-made persuasive argument in his book, an Introduction to Rhetorical Theory; however, he covered three specific essentials that are necessary for persuasion: the components logos, pathos and ethos; purposive discourse and rhetorical competence; identification. I will argue for each constituent, respectively, to prove that persuasion cannot thrive without the aforementioned essentials.

The Elaboration Likelihood Model has been hailed by some as “unquestionably the most influential recent theoretical development in persuasion research” (O’Keefe, 2002). Even if this is the case, it is by no means a perfect theory. One of the most commonly cited criticisms of the elaboration likelihood model is the vacuous nature of the “argument strength” component. Although this criticism is useful for pointing out an area of the model that can be fine-tuned, any perceived shortcomings due to the argument strength concept can be mitigated through a creative application of other areas of the model.

According to the Yale Attitude Change Approach, individuals are more persuaded by messages which do not seem to be designed to influence them. If the argument presented by the politician is intended to persuade the audience into voting for them or conforming to their belief system, then it will be a fail. Another reason why the argument may not have persuaded or convinced the audience is due to the period in which it was articulated. If the speeches are to be given back to back and there will be a delay before people have time to make up their minds, then it is best if the judicious political argument is presented first. Under these conditions, the primacy effect is likely to take place where individuals will remember the first thing that they

There is little evidence that persuasion can be effective because subjects do not integrate the information into their own belief system. The experiment was designed to test the relative importance of attribution versus persuasive manipulations by comparing persuasion treatment with an attribution treatment. The persuasion techniques were designed to be maximally effective by using a credible source delivering a repeated message stating the benefits of change. The attribution techniques were designed to be maximally

1.) Rank’s easy-to-use, analytical tool is called the intensify/downplay model, and its goal is to help you to become more critical and analytical receivers. It defines and gives examples of four major persuasive strategies and six associated tactics that are often used by persuaders today. (Larson, 2007 page 31) Ranks major strategy is to either intensify certain aspects of the product, cause or candidate. His other strategy is to downplay certain aspects of their brand, cause or candidate. (Larson, 2007 page 31) The intensification and downplay strategies include, to intensify their own good points, intensify the weak points of the opposition, downplay their own weak points, and downplay the good points of the opposition. The tactics

Affective based attitudes are formed by observing and interacting with others through the process of associative learning, there are two different types of associative learning, implicitly through Classical conditioning or explicitly through instrumental or operant conditioning (Crisp and Turner2007).

Petty and Cacioppo (1981) have developed the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion which explains the peripheral route to persuasion and the central route. In the peripheral route, persuasive influences are more tangential to the issues at hand. For egg- in a PSA targeted against smoking in youth, the peripheral route will show the teenagers having a better sex life after quitting smoking. (William G. Shadel, January 2009) Central processing occurs when the person at hand is aware about the main message of the PSA and is motivated to consider its content. We will analyze the use of celebrities for both these routes of persuasion and try to find out the effectiveness in each case.

Social psychologists have not only studied the effects of persuasion, but also the elements that contribute to attitude change. Carl Hovland (1953) developed the Hovland-Yale model of persuasion, in which he used a research team from Yale University. They found that there are a considerable number of factors that can influence how likely attitude changes are to occur, however they also noticed that some are more important than others [McGuire et al 1996]. One of the key factors they found that determines whether persuasion occurs is the communicator. Social psychologists have found that persuasion can be influenced depending about who is presenting the argument, which can impact on how an audience receives it. The credibility of the communicator plays a large role in influencing persuasion, in which