Persuasion
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Conscious planned attempts to change attitudes. 

Leon Festinger and Cognitive Dissonance 

Attitudes can be shaped by behaviors. 

Dissonance - discord, discomfort, or distress due to things being out of balance or not fitting together. 

Cognitive Dissonance - we realize (cognition) that we have behaved in way not consistent (dissonant) with other cognitions. 

What matters most in producing attitude change is perception of responsibility for unfortunate or unpleasant outcomes - whether consistent with cognitions or not. 

Routes to Attitude Change

Central route involves nature and quality of message itself - what is being communicated. 

Peripheral route - issues beyond content of message. 

Peripheral route more important when relative weak messages are conveyed. 

Highly credible source more persuasive than less credible source. 

Expertise - greater perceived expertise of communicator, greater the persuasion. 

Trustworthiness enhanses communicator's credibility. 

Coercive Persuasion

Persuasion techniques become coercive when they suppress an individual's ability to reason and make choices in their own best intersts.(Wade & Tavris, 1998) 

When person is put under physical or emotional distress. 

When person's problems defined in simplistic terms, and simple answers are offered repeatedly. 

Leader offers unconditional love, acceptance, and attention. 

New identity based on the group is created. 

Subjected to entrapment. 

Access to information severly controlled. 

Compliance - Basic Principles (Cialdini, 1994)

Liking/Friendship - In general, we are more willing comply with requests from friends or from people we like than with requests from strangers or people we don't like. 

Commitment/Consistency - Once we have committed to a position or action, we more willing comply with requests for behaviors that are consistent with that position. 

Reciprocity - We generally more willing comply with request from someone who previously provided favor or concession than to request from someone who has not. 

Scarcity - We value & try to secure opportunities, people, or objects that are scarce or decreasing...more likely comply with requests that focus on scarcity of such items. 

Authority - Usually more willing comply with requests from someone who is legitimate authority or who seems to be one. 

Compliance - Tactics

What tricks do you have up your sleeve for getting other people to say yes? Robert Cialdini studied compliance professionals -salespeople, advertisers, lobbyists, fund-raisers, politicians, and con artists among others - to learn techniques that work. 

Ingratiation - tactics based on friendship or liking: 

 Causing others to like us. 

 Self-enhancing tactics 

 Making ourselves as physically attractive as possible 

 Showing friendliness toward person associating ourselves with positive events or people person likes 

Other-enhancing tactics 

flattering person 

agreeing with person 

showing interest in them 

Tactics should not be obvious or overdone - may fail or backfire. 

Foot-in-the-Door and the Lowball - Tactics based on commitment or consistency. 

Foot-in-the-Door Technique 

Start with trival request and when accepted move on to larger request 

Research indicates it really works 

Probably based on inconsistency - people want to be consistent. 

Lowball Technique 

Offer very attractive deal, if person accepts, something happens making it "necessary" to change deal - sales manager rejects it. 

Rational thing to do is walk away. 

People often agree to changes in deal they accepted - made an initial commitment, which hard to change. 

Door-in-the-Face and That's-Not-All Approach - Tactics based on Reciprocity. 

Reciprocity - we tend to treat people as they have treated us. 

Door-in-the-Face 

 Opposite of Foot-in-the-Door. 

 Start with a very large request. 

 After large request refused, much smaller one made - the one the requester wanted. 

We feel subtle pressure to reciprocate to downsizing by saying yes. 

The tactic is often successful. 

That's-not-all Technique 

Initial request is followed, before person can make up mind, by something that sweetens the deal - that little "extra". 

People often feel compelled to reciprocate. 

Playing Hard to Get and the Fast-Approaching-Deadline Technique 

In general, the rarer or harder to obtain something is, the more valuable it is perceived to be. 

Playing-Hard-to-Get 

Individuals try create impression they are very popular or very much in demand. 

Puts pressure on romantic partners or employers to say yes to requests by person. 

If you don't agree to request, appears you will lose a valuable partner or employee. 

Fast-Approaching-Deadline Technique 

Presumably it will be impossible to obtain something after a certain deadline. 

"Final Sale" - "Final Clearance" - "Last Chance" 

Compliance - Basic Principles

Liking/Friendship 

Commitment/Consistency 

Reciprocity 

Scarcity 

Authority 

Compliance - Tactics

Ingratiation 

Foot-in-the-Door 

Lowball 

Door-in-the-Face 

That's-Not-All Principle 

Playing Hard to Get 

Fast Approaching Deadline 

Dissonance theory

Historical context: First "cognitive" theory in social psychology was Festinger's (1954) social comparison theory; dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957) then dominated the field for about 15 years.

Principles of dissonance theory: two incompatible cognitions --> creates tension --> attempts to reduce dissonance (by changing one, the other, or by integrating both cognitions).

In the most typical case, a strongly held belief is dissonant with a single behavior. The most interesting cases are those in which dissonance is reduced by changing one's belief. (This is a process in which the usual attitude --> behavior relationship is reversed.)

Experiments: A. Paradigm of forced compliance (self-persuasion):

Festinger & Carlsmith (1959)--in the reader;

Cohen (1962) [essay on police force for 50c, $1, $2, $5, $10];

Aronson & Carlsmith (1963) [children, toys, mild vs. severe threat];

Zimbardo et al. (1965) [army reservists eating grasshoppers, friendly vs. harsh officer].

The crucial ingredient in these studies is that all conditions created sufficient force to make people comply with these odd requests, but in some conditions people perceived to have "good reasons" to do so (e.g., severe threat, $10 reward), creating little or no dissonance, whereas in other conditions they had no good reasons (creating high dissonance). The people with high dissonance had to reduce it, and because all other paths were blocked, they changed their attitudes/beliefs (about police, the toy, grasshoppers, etc.) in the direction of their behavior.

B. Paradigm of overjustification:

Lepper, Greene, & Nisbett (1973)--in the reader. In this situation, children who already like to draw receive an additional reason why they do it ("overjustification"), namely, an award. Under this new self-interpretation, they don't draw anymore because they like it but because they want they award; as a result, their drawing is less fun (and less good).

In the standard dissonance paradigm, people change their cognitions because they feel they don't have enough reason/justification for acting the way they did; in the overjustification paradigm, they change their cognitions because they feel they have too many reasons/justifications for acting the way they do.

Conditions for changing one's belief: (a) behavior appears chosen; (b) behavior blatantly violates belief; (c) behavior cannot be undone; and (d) an extraneous justification is blocked. In such a case, a person may change an attitude, rationalize a very odd behavior, or even start liking fried grasshopper.

Dissonance Stories

Stretching before jogging

In March 1990, CBS Morning News reported a startling finding, namely, that stretching before engaging in physical activity can harm athletes. The results of a large study showed that people who always stretch a moderate amount suffer no fewer injuries than those who never stretch; and those who stretch deeply actually suffer more injuries than those who never stretch. CBS also went into Central Park and interviewed joggers, those who stretched and those who didn't, asking what they thought about those data.

1. Which group will experience dissonance?

2. Which are the two dissonant cognitions?

3. What are their options to reduce the dissonance?

4. Which options seem blocked (at least at this point)?

5. How will they reduce dissonance?

Missing a TV show

Compare the following two scenarios:

Gina wants to watch a particular TV show, but the meeting with her advisor takes longer, so she misses the show. She could have ended the meeting early, but for some reason she didn't. Her advisor didn't really keep her; she just didn't leave.

Brent wants to watch a particular TV show, but the meeting with his advisor takes longer, so he misses the show. He couldn't really have ended the meeting early, because his advisor invited him out for coffee.

1. Which one is more likely to experience dissonance?

2. Which are the two dissonant cognitions?

3. What are the options available to reduce the dissonance?

4. Which options seem blocked?

5. How will the person reduce dissonance?

Buying a printer

Darrian is deciding between two computer printers. He is not completely sure how to decide, so he basically lets the salesperson make the choice. After he writes the check and hands it to the cashier, he looks back towards the two printers when he hears a customer rave about the one he didn't buy.

Sally is deciding between two computer printers. At first, she doesn't know how to decide, but eventually she does like one better and decides to buy it. After she writes the check and hands it to the cashier, she looks back towards the two printers when she hears a customer rave about the one she didn't buy.

1. Which one is more likely to experience dissonance?

2. Which are the two dissonant cognitions?

3. What are the options available to reduce the dissonance?

4. Which options seem blocked?

5. How will the person reduce dissonance?

Eating Pizza

Lennie is out on a movie date with somebody he likes. His date hates complainers, so Lennie presents himself as a very laidback, carefree, undisturbed person. After the movie he feels hungry, so they pass by a pizza stand and Lennie buys a slice of pizza. After the first bite he notices that the pizza tastes funny. He takes another bite, and now it's pretty obvious: the cheese is rancid.

1. Will Lennie experience dissonance?

2. Which are the two dissonant cognitions?

3. What are the options available to reduce the dissonance?

4. Which options seem blocked?

5. How will Lennie reduce dissonance?

Franklin's trick

Benjamin Franklin once won over a legislator who seemed to dislike him with the following method: He knew that the legislator owned a rare and valuable book. So he sent the legislator a polite note, asking whether he, Franklin, could borrow the book for a few days. The legislator sent the book promptly and ever since showed quite a fondness for Franklin.

How would dissonance theory explain the legislator's curious change of heart?

1. Which are the two dissonant cognitions?

2. What are the options available to reduce the dissonance?

3. Which options seem blocked?

4. How did the legislator reduce his dissonance?

Other Notes in this Category

1. Attitudes
2. Attitudes and Behaviour
3. Attribution
4. Conformity
5. Crowds and Territoriality
6. Goffman - Symbolic Interactionist
7. Impression Formation
8. Inference Model
9. Intuition model
10. Is there a conformity personality?
11. Obedience
12. Persuasion
13. Prejudice
14. Self Concept
15. Self-attribution processes
16. Social Influence
17. Stereotypes and Stereotyping
18. The Primacy-Recency effect
19. Zimbardo

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