okeefe_persuasion_2016

Persuasion: Theory and Research, Third Edition is a comprehensive overview of social-scientific theory and research on persuasion. Written in a clear and accessible style that assumes no special technical background in research methods, the Third Edition has been thoroughly revised to reflect developments in persuasion studies. New discussions of subjects such as reactance and the use of narratives as vehicles for persuasion, revised treatments of the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior, and two new chapters on social judgment theory and stage models provide your students with the most current work on persuasion in a clear, straightforward manner. In this edition, author Daniel J. O’Keefe has given special attention to the importance of adapting (tailoring) messages to audiences to maximize persuasiveness. Each chapter has a set of review questions to guide students through the chapter’s material and quickly master the concepts being introduced.

Source

Paper related to this workshop and moc-persuasion.

Persuasion: Theory and Research

Daniel J. O’Keefe

Short Summary

A summary of each chapter of the book.

Chapter 1 Persuasion, Attitudes, and Actions

  • The concept of the persuasion - about definitions: Fuzzy Edges and Paradigm Cases
    • Five common features of paradigm cases of persuasion
    • A definition after all - a successful intentional effort at influencing another’s mental state through communication in a circumstance in which the persuadee has some measure of freedom
  • The concept of attitude
    • As mentioned above, the mental state that has been seen (in theory and research) to be most centrally implicated in persuasion is that of attitude.
    • attitudes represent relatively stable evaluations that can influence behavior, they are a common persuasive target.
    • attitude measurement techniques, attitudes and behaviors, encouraging attitude-consistent behavior, etc.
  • Assessing persuasive effects
    • Attitude change: Attitude measurement procedures obviously provide means of assessing persuasive effects
  • This introductory chapter has elucidated
    • the concepts of persuasion and attitude,
    • described some common attitude assessment procedures,
    • sketched the relationship of attitudes and behavior,
    • and discussed the assessment of persuasive effects.
Chapter 2 - 8, extant social-scientific theory and research about persuasion

Chapter 2 Social Judgment Theory

  • The central tenet of social judgment theory is that messages produce attitude change through judgmental processes and effects.
    • More specifically, the claim is that the effect of a persuasive communication depends upon the way in which the receiver evaluates the position it advocates
    • Hence attitude change is seen as a two-step process:
      • First, the receiver makes an assessment of what position is being advocated by the message.
      • Then attitude change occurs after this judgment—with the amount and direction of change dependent on that judgment.
  • In some ways social judgment theory is too simplified to serve as a complete account of persuasive effects.

Chapter 3 Functional Approaches to Attitude

  • The basic idea is that attitudes may serve various functions for persons, that is, may do different jobs, meet different needs or purposes.
    • The relevance of this idea for understanding persuasion is that the most effective technique for changing an attitude may vary depending on the attitude’s function
  • Despite some conceptual unclarities, work on the functional approach to attitudes has pointed to some fundamentally important aspects of attitude and persuasion.
  • In cases in which attitudes are primarily driven by an interest in object appraisal, persuaders will want to attend closely to the receiver’s basis for assessing the attitude object.

Chapter 4 Belief-Based Models of Attitude

  • The central theme of belief-based approaches is that one’s attitude toward an object is a function of the beliefs that one has about the object.
    • The summative model of attitude is based on the claim that one’s attitude toward an object is a function of one’s salient beliefs about the object.
    • For any given attitude object, a person may have a large number of beliefs about the object.
    • But at any given time, only some of these are likely to be salient (prominent)—and it is those that are claimed to determine one’s attitude.
  • A recurring theme in theoretical analyses of persuasion is the idea that to maximize effectiveness, persuasive messages should be adapted (tailored, adjusted) to fit the audience.
  • And one of the most common ways of persuading others is by making arguments that change the recipient’s beliefs in some way
  • First, the evaluation of an existing salient belief might be changed.
  • Second, the strength (likelihood) of an existing salient belief might be changed.

  • Third, the set of salient beliefs might be changed.

  • The general idea that the beliefs one has about an object influences one’s attitude toward that object is enormously plausible, and, correspondingly, it seems obvious that one natural avenue to attitude change involves influencing beliefs.
  • –> might be useful for persuasive techniques

Chapter 5 Cognitive Dissonance Theory

  • A number of attitude theories have been based on the idea of cognitive consistency—the idea that persons seek to maximize the internal psychological consistency of their cognitions (beliefs, attitudes, etc.).
  • Dissonance theory does not offer a systematic theory of persuasion (and was not intended to).
  • But dissonance theory has served as a fruitful source of ideas bearing on social influence processes and has stimulated substantial relevant research.

Chapter 6 Reasoned Action Theory

  • The behaviors of central interest to persuaders are voluntary actions, ones under the actor’s volitional control.
  • The most immediate determinant of such an action is presumably the actor’s behavioral intention—what the person intends to do.
  • Influencing behavior, then, is to be accomplished through influencing persons’ intentions.

  • Reasoned action theory (RAT), a framework that provides a broad, general account of the determinants of intention—thereby identifying underlying targets for persuasive messages.

  • Note: perceived behavioral control (PBC)

  • Reasoned action theory has undergone extensive empirical examination and development over time.
  • It is unquestionably the most influential general framework for understanding the determinants of voluntary action.

Chapter 7 Stage Models

  • Persuasion characteristically has behavior change as its eventual goal
  • Stage models of behavioral change depict such change as involving movement through a sequence of distinct phases (stages).

  • People at different stages are taken to need different kinds of messages (interventions, treatments, etc.) to encourage them to move to the next stage.

  • The idea that behavior change requires movement through a sequence of stages sounds like a very plausible idea,
    • but it turns out to be surprisingly difficult to redeem that abstract idea in empirically and conceptually sound ways.

Chapter 8 Elaboration Likelihood Model

  • The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) suggests that important variations in the nature of persuasion are a function of the likelihood that receivers will engage in elaboration of (that is, thinking about) information relevant to the persuasive issue.

  • Depending on the degree of elaboration, two types of persuasion process can be engaged (one involving systematic thinking and the other involving cognitive shortcuts)—with different factors influencing persuasive outcomes in each.

  • The elaboration likelihood model may be seen to contribute two key insights about persuasion.
    • One is the recognition of the variable character of topic-related thinking engaged in by message recipients.
    • The second is the recognition that a given variable may play different roles in the persuasion process.

Chapter 9 The Study of Persuasive Effects

  • Experimental research on various factors influencing persuasive effects is explored in Chapters 9 through 12.

  • Persuasiveness and Relative Persuasiveness
    • The larger point is that the research under discussion here can certainly provide useful information to message designers about how to enhance message persuasiveness (by creating messages of one sort rather than another), but it does not offer evidence bearing on the absolute persuasiveness of any given kind of message.
  • Two General Challenges in Studying Persuasive Effects
    • Generalizing About Messages
    • Variable Definition
  • Experimental research examining the influence of various factors on persuasive outcomes offers the prospect of useful insights into persuasive processes and effects,
  • but the task of creating dependable generalizations from such research can be more challenging than might appear at first look.
  • –> limitations

Chapter 10 Communicator Factors

  • Communicator Credibility
    • Credibility (or, more carefully expressed, perceived credibility) consists of the judgments made by a perceiver (e.g., a message recipient) concerning the believability of a communicator.
    • Communicator credibility is thus not an intrinsic property of a communicator; a message source may be thought highly credible by one perceiver and not at all credible by another.
    • Expertise and Trustworthiness as Dimensions of Credibility
    • Education, Occupation, and Experience
    • Nonfluencies in Delivery
    • Citation of Evidence Sources
    • Position Advocated
    • Liking for the Communicator
      • Some indirect evidence indicates that the receiver’s liking for the communicator can influence judgments of the communicator’s trustworthiness, although not judgments of the communicator’s expertise.
      • This evidence, derived from factor-analytic investigations of credibility judgments, is the finding that various general evaluation items often load on the same factor as do trustworthiness scales.
      • Humor
  • Liking
    • the general principle that liked persuaders are more successful can be misleading
    • Extant research evidence suggests at least three important caveats concerning the effects of liking for the communicator on persuasive outcomes:
      • The effects of liking can apparently be overridden by credibility,
      • the superiority of liked over disliked communicators is minimized as the topic becomes more personally relevant to the receiver,
      • and disliked communicators can at least sometimes be significantly more effective persuaders than can liked communicators.
  • Other Communicator Factors
    • Similarity
      • The effects of similarity on persuasive outcomes are complex and indirect, and no single easy generalization will encompass those varied effects.
    • Physical Attractiveness
      • Physical attractiveness appears to affect persuasive outcomes not directly but rather indirectly, especially (though not exclusively) by means of its influence on the receiver’s liking for the communicator.
  • The Nature of Communication Sources
    • –> chatbot, as a text-based messager
  • Multiple Roles for Communicator Variables
    • limitation

Chapter 11 Message Factors

This part is almost the same to the ones listed in this part of the workshop.

  • Message Structure and Format
    • Conclusion Omission
    • Recommendation Specificity
    • Narratives
    • Prompts
  • Message Content
    • Consequence Desirability
    • One-Sided Versus Two-Sided Messages
    • Gain-Loss Framing
    • Threat Appeals
  • Sequential Request Strategies
    • Foot-in-the-Door
    • Door-in-the-Face

Chapter 12 Receiver Factors

  • research concerning the effects that various recipient characteristics have on persuasive outcomes

  • Individual Differences
    • Topic-Specific Differences
    • General Influences on Persuasion Processes
    • Summary: A great many individual individual-difference receiver characteristics have been examined for their possible relationships to persuasibility. For most such characteristics, the research evidence is commonly not extensive, and dependable generalizations seem hard to come by.
  • Transient Receiver States
    • Mood
      • –> use jokes to light the mood?
    • Reactance
      • Reactance is a motivational state that is aroused when a person’s freedom is perceived to be threatened or eliminated
      • When a person believes that his or her freedom may be diminished, the person will be motivated to restore (defend, exercise) that freedom—perhaps by acting counter to the impending pressure
    • Other Transient States
  • Influencing Susceptibility to Persuasion
    • Reducing Susceptibility: Inoculation, Warning, Refusal
      • inoculation –> connection to Frequency over duration?
      • warning –> reflection to G.S.
      • refusal skills training aims at equipping the receiver with certain communicative abilities
    • Skills Training
    • Increasing Susceptibility: Self-Affirmation
@book{okeefe_persuasion_2016,
  author    = {O'Keefe, Daniel James},
  address   = {Thousand Oaks, CA},
  booktitle = {Persuasion theory and research},
  edition   = {3rd},
  isbn      = {9781452276670},
  keywords  = {Sozialpsychologie},
  language  = {eng},
  lccn      = {2015000192},
  publisher = {SAGE},
  title     = {Persuasion : theory and research},
  year      = {2016}
}

Notes mentioning this note

Workshop Persuasion for Chatbot Design
The following content (summary) was generated by an LLM. Workshop Overview: A summary of a workshop held on 2023-12-06, focusing...

Here are all the notes in this garden, along with their links, visualized as a graph.