Nick Fletcher PY302

How does social psychology help us in understanding the process

involved in persuasion?

This essay will base itself around the Yale attitude change approach, which

has formed the basis of much of the more recent social psychology research in

this area and is also used as the basis of contemporary communications theory in

marketing and advertising (Belch & Belch, 2004). The approach simply asks ‘who

says what to whom and with what effect?’ This gives rise to three main variables

of persuasion: the communicator, the source; the communication, the message

itself; and the audience, those who receive the communication (Hovland et al.,

1953). Within the process itself Hovland et al. discerned four steps to persuasion:

attention, comprehension, acceptance and retention. The persuasive process, if

successful, can cause one (or more) of four outcomes: opinion change,

perception change, affect change or action change. The finer details of how each

aspect of the Yale attitude change approach works are still very much open to

debate, but over the years much research has been done into these details and

these have been able to help us understand many of the processes involved in

persuasion. This essay shall not discuss either Chaiken’s Heuristic-systematic

model or Petty & Cacioppo’s Elaboration-likelihood models of persuasion as,

although explanations of the processes involved in persuasion, these are findings

within the field of cognitive psychology rather than social. For the sake of

simplicity the ‘who’, the communicator, and the ‘whom’, the audience will be

discussed together. We shall then move on to the ‘what’, the communication

itself, and then conclude.

Hovland and Weiss (1952) showed that experts, or credible sources, are

more persuasive than non-experts or sources lacking in credibility. This is

because arguments carry more weight when delivered by someone who knows,

or at least appears to know, all the facts. Also, more attractive or charismatic

speakers are more effective as listeners are more likely to believe people that

they like (Kiesler & Kiesler, 1969). People who speak quickly tend to be more

persuasive than people who speak slowly; this factor ties in with the idea of

credibility as it is mainly caused by the fact that people who speak quickly give

the impression they know what they are talking about (Miller et al., 1976).

Finally, a message is more persuasive if delivered in a powerful linguistic style

(Holtgraves & Lasky, 1999). This factor also links into the idea of credibility; an

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Nick Fletcher PY302

argument that contains few hedges, tag questions or hesitations is more likely to

appear credible than one delivered in a weak linguistic style.

Social psychology has been able to uncover a great deal of information

about persuasion and gender. One rather controversial finding is that women are

more easily persuaded than men (Eagly & Carli, 1981). This could be because

women are brought up to be more socially conforming than men, and as such

may be both more open-minded and more flexible in their views. Further to this,

a study by Sistrunk and McDavid (1971) has shown that women are more easily

persuaded on male-orientated issues and men more easily persuaded on female-

orientated issues. This links into ideas of credibility, a man is likely to think

himself less credible on feminine matters and a woman is likely to think herself

less credible on masculine matters, therefore both are likely to be more easily

persuaded in each case. An excellent study by Carli (1990) has provided many

insights into male-female differences; during the study participants were played a

recording of a persuasive communication read by either a man or a woman in

either a tentative or assertive style. Carli found that male listeners were more

easily persuaded than a tentative woman, possibly because they perceive a

tentative woman to be more trustworthy and likeable than an assertive woman;

conversely, women were more easily persuaded by assertive women, possibly

because they perceive a tentative woman to not be particularly competent or

knowledgeable. There is also a possibility that in the case of a tentative woman

speaking to a man and an assertive woman speaking to another woman the

speaker communicates in the style that the listener expects; the speaker may

have more influence because their behaviour does not violate the listener’s

expectations. Male speakers were found to be equally influential whether

speaking tentatively or assertively to either a male or female listener. Thus social

psychological research has been able to increase our understanding of how the

speakers background, appearance and the way in which the speech is conveyed

affects the persuasiveness of an argument; a fairly comprehensive evaluation of

‘the who’.

Janis (1954) has postulated that people with low self esteem are

persuaded more easily than those with high self-esteem; this intuitively strong

observation is probably grounded in the fact that people with low self esteem are

likely to be unsure of their opinions making them easier to change. Also, if the

speaker has high self esteem, this will show through in their speech and will

make them appear more credible. This effect will be increased if the listener has

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Nick Fletcher PY302

significantly lower self esteem than the speaker. However, this is one finding

within the Yale attitude change approach that has since been refuted; the work of

McGuire (1968) has shown that people with high self esteem are just as easily

persuaded as those with low, those with moderate self esteem are actually the

easiest to persuade. This intuitively confusing curvilinear relationship is a fine

example of how social psychology helps us understand the nature of persuasion;

without careful study of phenomenon such as these it is easy to take intuitive

appeal for fact.

In terms of age, there have been two main studies over recent years,

Visser & Krosnick (1998) and Tyler & Schuller (1991), that have yielded several

conflicting hypotheses concerning the relationship between age and attitude

change1. The increasing persistence hypothesis argues that in early adulthood

susceptibility to attitude change is high but decreases as one gets older. This

negative linear relationship suggests that attitudes reflect the accumulation of

relevant experiences. Another hypothesis argues that attitudes are cemented in

early adulthood, suggesting that susceptibility to attitude change follows an S-

shaped curve when considered alongside age. There is also a hypothesis that

suggests a U-shaped curve, the life stages hypothesis, where young and old

adults are highly susceptible to attitude change whilst middle-aged adults are

not. These are just a few examples of the hypotheses that have been postulated

in these studies, but they are able to illustrate how there are still many

unanswered questions in this area. It must be noted here that each of these

hypotheses has intuitive appeal, which highlights how important continued social

psychological study is to the understanding of the process of persuasion.

Intuitively, the most important part of any sort of persuasive

communication is ‘the what’ or the content of the communication itself.

According to findings by Hovland, Lumsdaine & Sheffield (1949) it is best to use a

one-sided argument when the audience is in general agreement with your

argument, and best to use a two sided argument when the audience is in general

disagreement with your argument. This is because when the audience is on your

side it is best not to put ideas in their heads contrary to your argument; you may

bring to light or strengthen factors they had not yet fully considered which could

undermine your argument. In this case a balanced argument is not required,

rather than changing the beliefs of your audience you are hoping to strengthen

them. However, if the audience in is general disagreement with your position, not

to acknowledge any points contrary to your position will make it seem as though

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Nick Fletcher PY302

you have not considered both sides. This will affect your credibility in their eyes

and so the audience will be less inclined to adopt your position. Furthermore, the

more intelligent an audience, the more important it is to present a balanced

argument (McGinnies, 1966); even if a highly intelligent audience generally

agrees with your position it is still important to produce a fairly balanced

argument, as the intelligent audience will dismiss a solely one-sided argument as

propaganda. A less intelligent audience is less likely to think around the content

of the communication and are more likely to accept it at face value, hence the

benefit of using a one-sided communication with such audiences.

Miller & Campbell conducted studies into primacy and recency effects (1959),

finding that if you are speaking in a two speech debate where the speeches are

given back to back and the

1 These hypotheses come from study into developmental psychology; however, their

results are important to both developmental and social psychology hence their inclusion

in this essay.

audience are able to consider their position before giving a verdict it is best to go

first as there will be a primacy effect; the audience is likely to be more influenced

by what they hear first. However, if the speeches are given with break in

between and the audience is asked for their verdict immediately after the second

speech, it is best to speak second as there is likely to be a recency effect; where

the audience are likely to better remember what they heard second.

Persuasion can also be enhanced by shock tactics, by communications that

instil fear into the audience. For example, in order to persuade people to stop

smoking, it may be useful to show pictures of diseased or cancerous lungs in

order to instil fear of death into them which will make them more likely to give up

(Leventhall, Singer & Jones, 1965). Persuasion can also be aided by use of

evaluative biased language, for example, a study by Eiser and Pancer (1979)

showed that a short essay on adult authority that used words that implied a

favourable evaluation of pro-authority position (e.g. polite) and words that

implied an unfavourable evaluation of the anti-authority position (e.g.

disobedient) caused attitude change in the pro-authority direction. Both these

effects are caused by the creation or enhancement of a subconscious association

within the mind of the audience between the subject and the evaluative language

or shocking content. However, evaluatively based language will not always aid

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Nick Fletcher PY302

persuasion, especially when the audience is generally opposed to your position,

as they may feel indignation at such slandering of their position.

Walster and Festinger conducted a study in 1962 that showed that people

are more easily persuaded by communications that do not appear designed to

persuade them. This is because if a listener realises that an attempt at

persuasion is being made, they may develop suspicions as to any ulterior motives

the speaker may have. It is also possible that the listeners defences towards a

change of perspective may not be in place if they unaware of the attempt at

persuasion; their minds may be more receptive and open to the new ideas.

Furthermore, a listener who knows a persuasive attempt is being made will be

less susceptible to subconscious changes in associations through use of

evaluatively based language.

Social psychological study has been able to uncover and explain a great

deal of the social variables concerning persuasion. Obviously there is much left to

explore, most notably within the variable of age; but comprehensive evaluation

of factors such as gender, assertiveness and other personal characteristics of

speaker and audience, as well as the structure and presentation of persuasive

communications themselves has been achieved, backed up by testable results

from research and experiments. However, whilst well able to explain many of the

processes surrounding persuasion, social psychology is ill-equipped to explain the

processes involved within persuasion; this area is confined to the field of

cognitive psychology. To conclude, social psychology is a useful practical tool

when designing a persuasive communication, it allows us to use factors

concerning the nature of the audience and the method of delivery to our

advantage, but it is not so useful in terms of the academic explanation of the

mental processes of persuasion.

References:

Belch, G. & Belch, M. (2004). Advertising and promotion: An integrated

marketing communications perspective.

Eagly, A. & Carli, L. (1981). Sex of researcher and sec-typed communications

as determinants of sex differences in influenceability: A meta-analysis of social

influence studies. Psychological bulletin, 90, 1-20.

Eiser, J. Pancer, S. (1979). Attitudinal effects of the use of evaluatively-based

language. European journal of social psychology, 4, 89-92.

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Carli, L. (1990). Gender, language, and influence. Journal of personality and

social psychology, 59, 941-51.

Holtgraves, T. & Lasky, B. (1999). Linguistic power and persuasion. Journal of

language and social psychology, 18, 196-205.

Hovland, C., Janis, I. & Kelley, H. (1953). Communication and persuasion.

Hovland, C., Lumsdaine, A. & Sheffield, F. (1949). Experiments in mass

communication.

Hovland, C., & Weiss, W. (1952). The influence of source credibility in

communication effectiveness. Public opinion quarterly, 15, 635-50.

Janis, I. (1954). Personality correlates of susceptibility to persuasion. Journal of

Personality, 22, 504-18.

Kiesler, C. & Kiesler, S. (1969). Conformity.

Leventhall, H. Singer, R. & Jones, S. (1965). Effects of fear and specificity of

recommendations upon attitudes and behaviour. Journal of personality and social

psychology, 2, 20-29.

McGinnies, E. (1966). Studies in persuasion: III. Reactions of Japanese students

to one-sided and two-sided communications. Journal of social psychology, 70, 87-

93.

McGuire, W. (1968). Personality and susceptibility to social influence. In

Borgatta, E. & Lambert, W. (eds.), Handbook of personality: theory and research

(pp. 1130-87).

Miller, N. & Campbell, D. (1959). Recency and primacy in persuasion as a

function of the timing of speeches and measurements. Journal of abnormal and

social psychology, 59, 1-9.

Miller, N., Maruyama, G., Beaber, R. & Valone, K. (1976). Speed of speech

and persuasion. Journal of personality and social psychology, 34, 615-25.

Sistrunk, F. & McDavid, J. (1971). Sex variable in conforming behaviour.

Journal of personality and social psychology, 2, 200-207.

Tyler, T. & Schuller, R. (1991). Ageing and attitude change. Journal of

personality and social psychology, 61, 689-87.

Visser, P. & Krosnick, J. (1998). Development of attitude strength over the life

cycle: Surge and Decline. Journal of personality and social psychology, 75, 1389-

410

Walster, E. & Festinger, L. (1962). The effectiveness of ‘overheard’

persuasive communications. Journal of abnormal and social psychology, 65, 395-

402.

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