The Psychology of Persuasion - Essay Example

PERSUASION AND INFLUENCE The Social Judgment theory TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION SOCIAL JUDGMENT APPROACH Social Involvement Theory Ego Involvement Discrepancy TECHNIQUES OF PERSUASION ANALYSIS APPLICATION OF PERSUASION (EXAMPLES) CONCLUSION REFERENCE INTRODUCTION One of the essential everyday activities is persuasion. Persuasion is the one of the ways in which a person convinces to get some thing done. It starts from form our daily activity, soon after shower, what to eat, what dress to wear and what shoes to put on. Being open to TV adds and billboards, we come across thousands of people everyday, and it is natural for us to be influenced by colour, adds, billboards, media bulletins and lunch gossip. Persuasion is on of the oldest art practiced by leaders, thinkers, prophets and kings to win people's heart and justify their cause. Aristotle, Plato and Cicero were one of the greatest persuaders of their time, who have become immortal because of their persuasive skills. Persuasion is done in many ways to change one's thinking about contemporary issues and the modern way of living. People do not resist advertising for the reason that it creates the illusion of truth. Ironically everyone is vulnerable to it, but no one accepts it. There is no doubt that advertising creates illusion and promise such things, which in reality do not exist luring consumers to buy things, which often they do not need at all. A product is a promise with expectations, which are created by marketers to do sales and make money through the promise of fulfillment. Human brain is conditioned to feel bad when it comes to cheating, but it is the persuasive advertisements which are universally accepted by majority of us and even after the break of the promises, consumers still keep on shopping. It is easy for people to do what they want to do, but it is much harder to convince them what they do not want to do. In order to persuade a person for some thing he/she is not willing is not easy task, which needs a lot of hardwork and persuasion to make a reluctant person agreeable. Persuasion is an attempt to change a person's mind to one our own way of thinking. The researchers have mentioned three different possibilities to seek influence through persuasion, which are: attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. The interrelation between beliefs attitude and behaviour are interrelated which will be explored in this discussion as, persuasion essentially deals with belief and behaviour change. The attitude can be negative, positive or polarized serving different purpose depending on the purpose and intentions. SOCIAL JUDGMENT APPROACH It is normal for human being to compare and contrast and prefer one thing to other. The judgmental approach is about judging, comparing and evaluation. It is common for us to compare our home, our children, our country and culture to other people children, homes, countries and culture. The reason for this judgmental approach is, that it gives us an illusion of pride that our thinking and our choice is the best, even if we are clearly wrong. Our belief and attitude and judgments are always relative which in plain words mean negative or positive. Positive attitude leads us to positive belief and behaviour resulting in successful of persuasion, while negative attitude will provide the opposite result. These judgmental approaches of human attitude are essential to give us the understanding, why red is red and black is black or why day is called day and night is night and why one product is more liked than other and so on. Social Involvement Theory The involvement theory assumes that people tend to have stimuli in meaningful way to create a psychological dimension which gives rise to two judgmental distortion: contrast and assimilation. According to social judgment theory a person's most preferred position is often his own opinions, as this creates the concept of righteousness. A person attitude closer to our views is liked by us, while a person holding a view different than ours, often stands as our opponent, even if he is right, yet our own judgment distorts the truth. It is the desire of every individual to be liked by everyone or at least by the majority. The best way is to be agreeable to all, which normally politicians follow. One easy way to be liked by every one is to tailor the message in such way, that every one interprets it in his own way. People like a speaker who tends to agree with them rather than one who criticize them and disagree to their views. Normally this kind of information is tailored and it's meaning keep on changes from person to person and place-to-place and suiting every one's need. The government polices or official orders normally have ambiguous language and can mean any thing or may not mean anything, however politicians are skilled in telling what people want to hear. A popular leader will always speak, what they want to hear and will keep on promising different things to different people in their language. A great leader is always a great orator and persuader, Christian Apostles, prophets and cult leaders are a few examples who have charismatic personality and skillful in the art of persuasion. Good news is often told with smile, while bad news is told in a somber way with much more reluctance as newscasters are aware that they are generating bad feelings and bearer for bad tidings are never liked. Similarly in complex issues, such as wars are colored in black in white to persuade public, such as is just war, war of freedom and son, while the reality is far from truth. Ego Involvement The Ego Involvement refers the importance of an issue to an individual personal involvement regardless of being right or wrong. We do no re-act consistently to remarks made by the people around us and our reaction varies from individual to individual depending upon the strength of the relation. The people who do no speak our language or do not come from our clan, tribe or race are normally considered outsiders. It is natural for human being to like or dislike outsiders and treating them as our equals, inferior or superior. In all such kind of situation our ego is involved and we react either positively or negatively, regardless of being right or wrong. The three typical features of ego involvement are: The latitude of non-commitment; latitude of rejection; and extremity in views. The reason is that the involved person have greater chance of rejection as people are normally resistant to ego-involved persons as mentioned by Sherif" "Regardless of the discrepancy of the position presented, we predict that the more the person is involved in the issue, the less susceptible he will be to short-term attempts to change his attitude." When some one is personally involved in an issue, consequences are less cared for and persuasion becomes less convincing. Discrepancy The discrepancy in communication refers to "the distance between the position advocated in the persuasive message and the attitudinal position of the message recipient". The greater are the lapses in the latitude of acceptance, the greater will be change in attitude, with greater discrepancy leading to negative result. It is common for us to distort the messages we receive, and assimilate it according to our own judgment. In every day life people make persuasive judgment comparatively. We often distort the incoming information, however it depends on our own position, where do we stand in that issue. We do not like people, whose attitude or beliefs are different from us, the closer someone is to our thinking and beliefs, and we tend to like that person. Our own attitude is the most powerful molding tool to judge other people and change our attitude. Normally small repeated lapses are less forgiven compared to radical change. TECHNIQUES OF PERSUASION A successful persuasion must not fall within the latitude of rejection, and the person should be not personally involved, as adding ego to persuasion will make it easier to reject. However one inherent problem is the flow of information, which is often distorted and assimilated when people receive it, which makes persuasion hard to achieve. According to social Judgment Theory the successful persuasion should follow the following order: A: The received information must fall with in the latitude of acceptance. The change cannot occur within the latitude of rejection as the new information is put in, the recipient either stops listening to it or it creates a negative, which a persuader will never want at any cost. Thus any direct (attack) approach is doomed for failure. A persuader must find a more acceptable way, where agreement is possible and work with in that latitude. The ideal way is to discover these latitudes through consistent communication with careful observation. B: Avoiding Ego involvement. The lesser a persuader involves his/her ego, the greater are the chances of success. One such example of ego involvement is parent teacher argument, where teacher has one claim and parents have another. Such kind of discussions never goes forward to come to the real issue, and instead revolve around the child. The stronger the ego involvement, the lesser un-reasonable a persuader can be. In this kind of persuasion, a persuader is immediately stuck in non-issues and the listeners will have lesser latitude of acceptance, tilting more towards the latitude of rejection and distorting the truth leading to negative persuasion. C: Assimilation increases the chance of acceptance. Assimilation increase the chance of acceptance as it is considered a view closer to one's own view, while the contrast (difference) will increase the possibility of rejection. The reason is that we take even a slight contrast as a great difference, if the persuader stands across the fence; a minute difference is great difference taking us farther from reality. Thus in communication, a person latitude acceptance is the determining factor for the persuasion to take place. D: The new information must not have any discrepancies, neither it can be assimilated nor can be it contrasted. Any information presented must be consistent with no possibility of finding gap or inconsistencies. The discrepancies will lead to unending gap in the whole argument, which makes the persuasion weak and unacceptable. The information should be presented in such a way that it is not possible to compare and contrast, and will make the persuasion solid and successful. ANALYSIS Despite the enormous applause there has been instances, where some of the predictions of social judgments have been proved wrong such as, it has been found by that people's latitudes were more predictive compared to general persuasion. However the theory is clear about judgmental assimilation and contrast, yet a bit unclear, why such process affect attitude. There is no doubt that Social judgment approach is essential to understand attitude and persuasion, and how a person receives and assimilates information providing a better understanding of human behaviour. APPLICATION OF PERSUASION (EXAMPLES) The social judgment theory has been applied in variety of areas. The number of persuasive mediums has grown enormously ranging from advertising, internet, tele-marketing, with many agencies in the persuasion business, such as marketing people, lobbying groups, social activist, speech writers, image consultants, all of them propagate different kinds of persuasions. But they all have one thing in common, influencing the mass and changing their attitude and behaviour and persuade them for their own cause. The prophets in the ancient history often appealed to the people to sway the opinion. In the early days of Christianity Saint Paul and Saint Augustine also adopted Cicero and Aristotle rhetorical style, preaching and persuading pagans toward their religious teaching. In the ancient Greece and Rome, every thing depended on people's opinion, wealth and fame could be given and taken away by persuading the populace. Cicero was one such great and influential orator, who enjoyed enormous influence in changing opinion at the royal court. Politics is one chief example of persuading public to create favorable public opinion. For example during cold war President Regan created Soviet Union image of evil empire and convinced majority of world including Pope John Paul to his own views. Russians have always been presented as devilish, fiendish and lazy in US media which is far from true, but people believe in it, despite being lacking fact, while in reality Russians reached space earlier than America. President Bush persuaded American public for Iraq Invasion on the pretext for WMD presence and liberating Iraq from dictator. The case was presented in the UN with some manipulated facts, however with the passage of time, Bush could not prove his case and discrepancies started to appear in his statements with US casualties going up. As a result he no longer enjoys that wide spread support as he used to have. In a study, how prejudice affects the White American by forming stereotypes about minorities. The participants were asked to review a minority scholarship and asked to rate it for liking. Every application had trait description, which described stereotype-ness. The participants with high level of prejudice formed more negative ranking compared to those who were less biased. When the participants were provided with more traits, the image was more negative, thus the study shows that prejudice and discrimination are inescapable and we categorize other people according to our social judgments rather than facts. It also depicts that a person whom we do not like is considered more different than he actually is. It is generally well known that older people have more bias than the younger people And the reason for such attitude is the time in which they were brought up, earlier time when bias was more common and accepted attitude. In an experiment it was examined that older people are more biased due to their stereotyping of African American, while younger people were found to be less prejudiced. Ironically older people were even told not be biased; yet they proved more biased. The reason is that older people made their judgment on their pre-conceived perception of African Americans, no matter how much they are taught to change their attitude, they will still not listen as it has become part of their nature. Persuasion has been used an effective propaganda weapon from ancient times. During the English Civil War launching a war was always a "Just War" so does Roman did and slaughtered and enslaved millions. During the colonial times, the English colonized continents on the pretext of civilizing the world "white man's burden". During the WWI, both sides used extensive propaganda. As WWI was a long and bloody war, public opinion can no longer be ignored, it was essential for Allied governments to form public opinion through media and keep the morale up. As a result, in 1917 UK government established a new propaganda department, which through strict and controlled censorship disseminated propaganda material in the shape of press reports, leaflets, brochure and films that were officially approved by British government to form the public opinion. Hitler's book Mien Kamf is a classic example of persuading Germans that they are superior and born to rule the world. From 1933 onwards, the German propaganda machine started to disseminate Nazi messages proclaiming to tell the facts in the shape of propaganda. The Nazi propaganda method was concise, solid and concrete stressing love (among the Germans) and hatred towards non-German world. In Russia the Bolsheviks created agitation by spreading Marxisim and persuaded the Russian public to rise in revolt against the Czar, in which they were successful. In modern politics, persuasion has been used as an effective tool to form public opinions to further the political agenda in many ways, directly and indirectly and often is told in convincing ways with a pretext of telling the facts to the public. In the recent conflicts the British public was reminded of "Falkland spirit" with a promise of reduction in inflation, offering a carrot for government support. On the Iraqi side Saddam Hussain was portrayed as a crusader and defender of Islam with Saddam pictures in uniform and prayer. The TV channels all over the world follow a specific agenda, for example in the recent Iraq invasion majority of the Americans favored the war, but as soon as Al-Jazeera appeared and showed destruction in Iraq, things started to change. Both American and AL-Jazeera have their own specific policies to follow, which are portrayed as presenting facts and information, however aim of both media is to sway the public opinion. During the War of Kosovo, both side fought war over media. NATO justified itself by mentioning "Just cause", while Milosevic took the international media, the CNN and BBC to NATO missed targets and showed them injured people. The basic aim on both sides was to persuade the world of their righteousness. All cults revolve around one single person, who is distinct from others who claims to owe special knowledge or link with a powerful deity. One particular emphasis in such situation is that leader knows "what is best for you" and members have to nod yes and act on his commands. Cult leaders are absolute manipulative and controlling, demanding ultimate submission portraying themselves sometimes as prophets and sometimes they are aggressive leaders who resort to any form of violence, in a case of disobedience. And it is often repeated obeying leader is obeying God; this is a common message among all cults. It is the cult leader who decides, what to see, and what to think and what to do. In order to achieve it various techniques are used ranging from rigid obedience to consistent prayers and emotional group activities to create cohesion among the groups, offering members little time to think or question the authority. The normal method of persuasion is fear, displeasing God or leader, intimidation, rejecting the member, making him/her social outcast, losing salvation, hell, reward in heaven, all of these forms of persuasion techniques are practiced to maintain loyalty and devotion in the group. In day-to-day life we are often judgmental. For example, good traits such as intelligence, honesty are associated only with attractive individuals, that's why young and good looking politicians gets more votes, Clinton is one such example, even though he was cheating till the last minute, yet public was in his favour due to his good looks. Even teachers discriminate on the basis of looks; attractive children are not always good performers nor are they really intelligent, but good looks are automatically associated with intelligence and smartness. The brand names also carry association to persuade consumers to desire and buy these products. Even the brand names are chosen carefully to create the desired effect, so is the their depiction in the media. Famous celebrities are shown using specific brands, which may be far from true in that actress real life, but the brand is made a class symbol and makes its more sellable. That's why companies are willing to pay huge payment for a short add, as they know in the end it is the consumer, who will pay the bill. Normally drug companies name drugs according to the drug chemical composition and do not bother about difficult names, however if the intension is converting a drug into a consumer product, strategies are changed. For example, the name Viagra suggests vigor and strength, also rhyming with Niagara, synonymous with free flow or powerful surge. The message has clearly reached all the doctors and equally understood by the general public as well and Viagra proved beyond wild dreams. On the contrary its competitor, Eli Lilly opted for a soft name "Cialis" which stand for spontaneity and intimacy. One basic reason for the success of Titanic movie was its title song with very emotionally charged lyrics and movie scenes, as a result any one watching the video was curious to watch the movie, no doubt, the producer gathered heaps of dollars by persuading the viewers through a different technique. One recent trend among the marketers is to use movies for their product promotion. They place their products in actors hands directly, which is called "paid product" message, aimed to influence the movie watchers. This technique is different from normal TV product programs as it is not direct, but it influences consumer unknowingly. CONCLUSION Persuasion has been used in countless ways in history to change the public opinion. Persuasion in the middle ages was considered an essential quality for an educated man. From the time of ancient Greece to the imperial Rome and through Reformation, persuasion has been used by preachers, teachers, and scholars and in modern times, persuasion is used in various forms from advertising to education and military for different aims. Other than social judgment there has been different approaches, which have different ways to persuade, yet none of the theory is complete and miss one or two things, but all of them are dependent on transmission and reception with one common purpose, to understand the process of persuasion. In the modern times more than ever persuasive techniques are used to influence the public opinion. From TV to Internet and satellite channels, today persuasion is used more vehemently to change populace mind and will continue to rule our world as long as we live. Reference A Richard E. Petty, John T. Cacioppo (1996), Attitudes and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches, Westview Press. Cialdini, R. 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