Transcript document
Structuring Messages and
Message Appeals
Language Variables
Denotative Meaning – Literal meaning
of the word; “dictionary definition”
Connotative Meaning – Emotional or
attitudinal responses attached to and
evoked by the word
– Connotations can be positive and negative
Considerations for
Denotative Meaning
Level of Abstractness can lead to
misunderstanding
Technological Terms (Jargon)
Euphemisms are used to make language
pleasant to the receivers by substituting
vague terms for more harsh specific ones (i.e.
“Throwing up” vs. Puke, Spew or Chunder)
Legalese (Jargon) difference of language
meaning to lawyers vs. laypeople
Book suggests ways to reduce
misunderstanding (page 212)
Connotative Meaning
Recall Osgood’s 3 major dimensions of
meaning: Evaluative (good-bad), Activity
(active-passive) and Potency (strong-weak)
How can connotative language impact
persuasive communication?
– Language Intensity (manipulated through
adjectives, nouns and adverbs)
– Powerful vs. Powerless Style Speech
Language Intensity
(emotional and evaluative language)
General Findings:
– Male speakers using intense language are more
effective persuaders than female speakers
– Audiences neutral to a topic are more influenced
by highly connotative (opinionated) language
• Because this demonstrates that the speaker is
passionate about the topic (holds a strong attitude)
– Got High credibility? Feel free to be intense.
Don’t? Don’t.
– Intense language can help reinforce existing
attitudes
– Polarizes receiver’s response based on initial
perceived similarity (makes this distinction more
pronounced)
Powerful and Powerless Style Speech
Impacted through:
– Intensifiers, Hedges, Questioning or Hesitation
General Findings:
– Overall, Powerful style speech causes people to
rate speakers as more credible
– Bonus: Credibility and Attraction will increase with
low levels of hedges and hesitations
• Why?
– People do not want members of their own gender
to appear powerless (powerless decreases cred)
– The Importance of powerful speech styles is
intensified when the message is written
Message Organization
Organized messages are rated higher in
credibility and are more persuasive
Spatial order – arranging information “in
space”
– Example: starting at the front of the bus we have
the headlights, then moving inside we have Otto,
the driver, in the middle of the bus we have a few
rugrats, and at the rear are the brake lights
Message Organization (cont’d)
Temporal Order – Arranging information “in
time” (like chronological order)
Deductive Order (from general to specific)
Inductive Order (from specific to general)
Problem-Solution Order – Presenting a
problem, then giving the solution
– The worst approach is presenting a problem and
not proposing a solution
Message Organization (cont’d)
Psychological Order – Predicting the
psychological reactions of the audience
– Example: Monroe’s Motivated Sequence
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Attention
Need
Satisfaction
Visualization
Action
Message Organization (cont’d)
Toulmin Model
– Provides a pattern for structuring arguments,
outlining three elements:
• Evidence – Information (data, testimony, etc.) that is
relevant to the argument
• Claim – Statement that the persuader wants the
audience to believe
• Warrant – explains why the data is linked to the claim
– Can be implied or explicitly stated
– Strong warrants are logically sound
Three Primary Characteristics of
Persuasive Appeals (Aristotle)
Logos – The logical appeal of the message
Pathos – The emotional appeal of the
message (passion)
Ethos – The perceived “ethics” of the source
(credibility)
Although persuasive strategies will usually
focus primarily on one of these three factors,
all three should be considered when
developing persuasive messages
Forewarning and After-Warning
(Allyn & Festinger, 1961; Benoit, 1998)
Forewarning has been shown to have an important
effect on message evaluation
When receivers are forewarned about a source’s
position or intention they are more likely to begin
internal counterarguing
– Especially when they believe the source’s position is
incongruent with their own
– Research indicates that prior knowledge or experience
relating to the message content affects counterarguing since
people will use internally generated messages based on this
past experience when evaluating a message (Hamilton &
Stewart, 1993)
Although forewarning can diminish the
persuasiveness of a message, afterwarning has no
impact (Kiesler & Kiesler, 1964)
One-sided vs. Two-sided Messages
2-sided messages are usually preferable,
especially when:
– The audience is more educated
– The audience disagrees with the source’s position
– The audience may be exposed to messages
opposing the source
– A celebrity is endorsing a product
1-sided messages are preferable when the
audience already agrees with the source
Fallacies in Reasoning
Messages are sometimes designed to
exploit fallacies in reasoning that are so
common that they seem systematic
– It is hard to uncover the influence of such
appeals
– A very common strategy deals with transfer
Transfer
“Transfer” is the linking of otherwise unrelated
objects or symbols together to transfer
characteristics such as: positioning a product
with an American Flag
Ad Hominem attacks (name calling) are a
form of transfer, linking a person or idea to a
negative symbol in order to raise suspicion
A more subtle form of transfer would involve
connotative language: A politician supports
budget cuts is called “thrifty” by supporters,
but “stingy” by the opposition
Transfer (cont’d)
Testimonials are another form of
transfer:
– Celebrity Endorsements
– Plain-Folks Appeal
• “if it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for
me”
Logical Fallacies (cont’d)
Social Proof - a bandwagon appeal
uses social proof, and the implicit
argument is: “everyone else is doing it,
and so should you”
Extrapolation – tendency to make huge
predictions about the future based on a
few small observations (also called
“slippery slope”)
Message Appeals
Emotional Messages are very
persuasive, they:
– Grab receiver’s attention
– May decrease counterarguing
– May be more vivid, memorable, and
image-provoking
– May be difficult to oppose
Message Appeals (cont’d)
Types of Emotions
– Biologically based emotions
• Reptillian (sex, aggression)
• Individualistic (anger, fear)
• Prosocial (attachment, bonding)
– Socially based Emotions (love, pride, guilt,
shame, envy, jealousy, pity, scorn)
– Cognitively based emotions (Curiosity, surprise,
interest, boredom)
– Moral Emotions (feelings of justice)
Message Appeals (cont’d)
Fear Appeals
– All other things being equal, the more frightened
people are by a communication, the more likely
they are to take preventive action
• Recall, source must provide a “coping mechanism”
through which the receiver can eliminate the fear
• Person must believe the coping mechanism will
effectively address the threat
• Person must believe they are capable of performing the
recommended behavior
Message Appeals (cont’d)
Humor Appeals
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Found to influence attention
May increase recall
Better for non-durable products and services
Better for younger, better-educated, upscale,
male, and professionals
– Humor appeals do not increase credibility or
attitude change
– Humor should be related to the product or its use
or function
Message Appeals (cont’d)
Warmth Appeals (kindness, nostalgia, pride,
togetherness etc.)
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Are used in interpersonal settings
Cause physiological responses (GSR)
Ideally placed after a humorous appeal
Relate to liking and recall of the ad, and
sometimes (to a lesser extent) to the intention to
buy the product
Nonverbal Communication:
All communication that transcends
the spoken or written word (Knapp)
Nonverbal as Universal language?
Although much nonverbal communication is
culturally specific, some has evolutionary
significance
Research using the Facial Action Coding
System (FACS)—which is used to study facial
expressions and the messages that they
convey—suggests that: anger, fear, disgust,
sadness, happiness, and surprise are
universally recognized emotional displays
Reactions to other aesthetic characteristics
(seen as desirable or undesirable) may also
have resulted from biological (evolutionary)
origins
– Ex: Child abuse and the Neoteny
3 Different Relationships between
verbal and nonverbal communication
Substituting Relationship: replacing the
action meaning “yes” for the word “yes”
Conflicting Relationship: as a receiver you
should rely more heavily on the nonverbal
aspect of communication
– Leakage
Accenting Relationship: the nonverbal
message further stresses the verbal one
Some areas of Nonverbal Research
Paralanguage: Vocal cues
Kinesics: Body Movements
Facsics: Facial Expressions
Ocalics: Eye Movements
Haptics: Touching
Proxemics: Spatial Communication
Olfactics: Smell
Aesthetics: Height and Attractiveness
Chronemics: Time-related Patterns
Artifacts: Objects used to convey meaning
(rolex, power ties)
Paralinguistic Codes
Vocal cues that tell us about the personality of
the speaker, emotional states, sincerity, etc.
Play a significant role in persuasion
People are mostly persuaded by:
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Fluent, non-hesitant speech
Shorter response latencies
More pitch variation
Louder and faster speech
Paralinguistic Codes (cont’d)
Paralinguistic communication generally
consists of voice qualifiers and vocalizations
Voice Qualifiers
– Speech rate, pitch, articulation, etc.
Vocalizations
– Sounds without specific meaning (speech
disturbances—inhibiting fluent speech)
– Ah, uh, umm, eh, etc.
– Word/phrase repetitions, stuttering, slip of the
tongue, sentence correction, grammatical error
(related to anxiety or ignorance)
5 Gestural Codes (Ekman &
Friesen)
Emblems
– Nonverbal acts that have a direct verbal
translation or dictionary definition usually
consisting of a word or two
– Culturally specific
• Nodding yes, no; “OK”, waving goodbye in Italy
Illustrators
– Kinesic acts accompanying speech that are used
to aid in the description of what is being said
– Can be used to trace the direction of speech (the
fish that got away)
5 Gestural Codes (Ekman &
Friesen; cont’d)
Regulators
– Nonverbal acts that maintain and control the backand-forth nature of speaking and listening
between two or more people
– Nods of the head, eye movements, and body
shifts are all regulators used to encourage or
discourage conversation
• Malachy
Adaptors
– Movements that accompany boredom, show
internal feelings or regulate a situation by meeting
physical or emotional needs
– Two types of adaptors: Self (scratching, biting
fingernails) and Object (playing with keys,
rubberbands, rocking chairs)
5 Gestural Codes (Ekman &
Friesen; cont’d)
Affect Displays
– Facial gestures that show emotions and
feelings such as sadness or happiness
– Smiling, pouting, winking, etc.
Nonverbal Behaviors associated
with Persuasiveness
Body Movements
Eye-Contact Rate
Distance and Touching
Delivery Style
Speech Rate
Voice Qualities
Nonverbal Behaviors associated
with Persuasiveness (cont’d)
Body Movements
– DO: Make increased eye contact, nodding,
smiling, illustrating
– Avoid distracting adaptors, vocalizations
– Indicators of extroversion:
• High energy level/enthusiasm
• Affiliation (forward lean, direct body orientation)
Nonverbal Behaviors associated
with Persuasiveness (cont’d)
Eye-Contact Rate
– This is culturally-specific
– In U.S., people who maintain high levels of eyecontact appear trustworthy and receivers believe
they are friendly and sincere
– Normal rates: 29-70% (percent of total time
interacting)
– 20-40% actually is detrimental to persuasiveness
– 60-90% eye contact will increase persuasiveness
Nonverbal Behaviors associated
with Persuasiveness (cont’d)
Distance and Touching
– Specific implications are culturally-bound
– Generally, increased proximity is associated with
intimacy, liking, arousal and attraction
– Two proposed models dealing with proximity:
• If complying to the request requires effort or cost, then
being too close can make the receiver defensive
(Patterson)
– Panhandling implications?
• Normative expectations and attractiveness (liking) of the
source (Burgoon) – moving closer + liking increased
persuasion
Nonverbal Behaviors associated
with Persuasiveness (cont’d)
Speech Fluencies and Delivery Style
– Two types of nonfluencies:
• Repetitions ( Competence and Dynamism)
• Vocalized Pauses ( Competence)
– Conversational vs. Dynamic Delivery
• People have stereotypes about each delivery
• Americans prefer Conversational
Nonverbal Behaviors associated
with Persuasiveness (cont’d)
Speech Rate
– Rates:
• Slow: 102-111 wpm
• Moderate: 140 wpm
• Fast: 191 wpm
– Only Extremely Fast speech decreases
comprehension
• Micromachines; radio disclaimers
– Moderate to fast levels:
• Speakers appear competent and socially attractive
• People seem to prefer speech rates 1-1.5 times faster
than their’s
– Implications for campaign design?
Nonverbal Behaviors associated
with Persuasiveness (cont’d)
Voice Qualities
– People possess vocal stereotypes, make
judgments based on these
– Addington listed 7 characteristics: Nasality,
breathiness, thiness, flatness, tenseness,
throatiness, orotundity (deep resonating
quality; think Michael Clarke Duncan:
– People generally don’t like
throaty, nasal or tense voices
Interactional Patterns and
Communication Accomodation
Two communicators become more
similar to each other as they talk when:
– They need approval
– They want to be efficient
– They want to identify with another person
or group
• Realize that you can use this to your advantage
Power, Status and Dominance
Source has most potential for influence, when
the receiver believes the source has power,
status or dominance
Three variables relevant to this image:
– Height
• Males: extra $400 per inch!!
– Does this include NBA? Hmm…
– Clothing
• Power Ties
– Artifacts – objects used to immediately signify
status
• Rolex, a “Jag” or “JagUar”
Power, Status and Dominance
(cont’d)
Territory and Space:
– People with power use gatekeepers
– People with power can invade subordinate’s
space at will
– People with power can initiate touch
Body Movement and Gaze behavior
– People with power maintain longer periods
of eye contact—subordinates show
deference by looking away
– People with power can adopt a more
relaxed posture
Power, Status and Dominance
(cont’d)
Speaking Turns and Interruptions
– Louder, deeper voice communicates
greater size and strength
– Dominant people talk more, and interrupt
others more
Use of Time
– People in power make others wait, and do
not feel obligated to apologize
Next Time…
-Deception
-Persuasion in Interpersonal Relationhips