Transcript COM 242- Persuasive Effects of the Media

Intentional PersuasionPersuasive Effects of the
Media
What is Persuasion?
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The three dimensions of persuasion
Change in attitude
Change in behavior
Persistence of behavior over time
How Media Messages Persuade
without even Trying
• Entertainment messages can exert a
powerful influence on attitude and
behavior
• Possible to change someone’s attitude or
behavior without even consciously trying
to do so.
 Happy days - libraries around the country
reported to have a 500% increase in
library card applications after the character
‘the Fonz’ applied for a card in one
particular episode.
The Day After…
• The Day After - two researchers
discovered that exposure of the movie was
sufficient to change attitudes about the
seriousness of the nuclear war
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnXIfC
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The Day After Tomorrow
 The Day After Tomorrow- researchers
reported that after seeing the film, people
were willing to give 50% more money
toward the effort to mitigate changes in
climate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Snvqs
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Central Route to Persuasion
a. highly rational and cognitive route to
persuasion
b. careful scrutiny of messages
c. tendency to think up many
counterarguments
d. counter attitudinal messages-when the
message is different from the position that
the person holds
Peripheral-route to Persuasion
• less scrutiny of messages
• Certain cues in the message lead people
to accept the persuasive proposition
* Persuaded while watching movies and
programs that were designed to entertain
 Advertisers use creative ways to entertain
audience, people will process the ad as
another entertaining bit of media
 Viewers are more willing to change
attitudes and behavior with little thought
and scrutiny
Weapons of Influence
Reciprocation
Commitment and Consistency
Social Proof
Liking
Authority
Scarcity
Reciprocation
•We should try to repay in kind, what another
person has provided us
•By the virtue of the reciprocity rule, we are
obligated to the future repayments of favors,
gifts, invitations and the like
Consistency
Consistency in toy sales
•Increase advertising before Christmas
•Undersupply the toy being advertised
•Parents have to get a substitute toy
•Increase advertising of the same toy after
Christmas
•Kids will want it even more than ever and
parents have to keep their word
Commitment
•Once a stand is taken, there is a natural
tendency to behave in ways that are
stubbornly consistent with the stand
•Will be even more committed to something if
they wrote it down (acts as tangible proof)
Commitment
Marketers use commitment in testimonial
contests
●“I like the company because ....”
●Consumers would tend to believe in the product
more
●https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2oybrnUtlY
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Social Proof
We determine what is correct by finding out what
other people think is correct
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Social Proof
Product is “fastest growing”, “largest-selling”
●The message that marketers want to give is, “look
at all the people who decided to buy. It must be
the correct thing to do”
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Liking
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We tend to agree to the requests of people that
we know and like
Liking
Tupperware Party
The Tupperware reperesentator is a friend to
everyone invited to the party
●By providing the representative with a percentage
of the sales, the company arranges for its
customers to buy from and for a friend rather than
an unknown salesperson
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Authority
We are trained from birth to believe that
obedience to proper authority is right and
disobedience is wrong
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Authority
Marketers commissioned the respect accorded
doctors by hiring actors to play a role of doctors
on behalf of the products
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Scarcity
•Opportunities seem more valuable to us
when they are less available
Scarcity
“limited number” tactic
●Deadline tactic (“while stocks last!”)
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Intentional Persuasion in the
Media
Questions to Consider
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How well do these messages work?
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If they do work, what are the theoretical
principles behind their success?
Using Entertainment to Improve
Public Health:
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Problems
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May not be met with
enthusiasm on the part of
the creators or the
producers
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Believe it interferes with
their creative license
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Turns entertainment into
advertising
Some Evidence for the
Effectiveness of Advertising:
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Newspaper: Single-page ad  Min.
revenue = 10x the cost of the ad
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TV
– Northwest Mutual Life Insurance Company ~
improved name recognition
– Mattel ~ increased value by a factor of about
25
Some Evidence for the
Effectiveness of Advertising:
• Mattel’s Children Issues
– Charles Atkin  heavy viewers of TV ads =
more likely to consume and to ask their
parents to buy the products they see
advertised
• 1965 Barbie Commercial
• 2006 Barbie Commercial
– Action for Children’s Television (ACT) 
lobbied Congress to prohibit children-directed
advertising
Key Ingredients of the Power of
Media Persuasion
Power of the Source
(Credibility)
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2 Chief Components of Credibility:
1. Expertise- is the message source a real
expert in the topic that is being discussed?
2. Trustworthiness- is the source of the
message reliable and truthful?
Power of the Source
(Credibility)
• Case Study:
– Reynold’s cigarettes case study:
• The advertisement featured Patrick Reynolds- the grandson of the
Reynolds family-founder of a tobacco company (Camel, Winston
and Salem)
• Mentioned about the many cigarette-caused diseases and deaths in
his family
• He even provided detailed statistics on the diseases- adds impact to
the seriousness of the issue
• Tells others about his current medical condition
Power of the Source
(Credibility)
Audience perceives that the
message source has little to
gain from delivering the
message- the source will be
perceived as more trustworthy
Message Features
• Guilt
– Making the audience feel guilty for not responding to a persuasive appeal
– Relatively easy to make people feel guilty
– Guilt appeals are especially persuasive in the context of interpersonal
communication
– People are motivated to do things because they feel guilty
– Although people avoid people who make us feel guilty, there is no one person
that a person can blame in a media campaign
• Humor
– Being funny makes it easier to be persuasive
– Humor attracts attention to the message, creates a favorable attitude and
produces a general feeling that the message is less critical
– Humor might backfire- people might be more attracted to the joke instead of the
actual message
– However, humor is better tolerated than repetition