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Social influence and persuasion Chapter 8

Social influence Informational Influence

Normative Influence • • • • •

Going along with the crowd to be liked and accepted Humans have need to belong to social groups, to be accepted improves one’s chances for survival To be accepted People will have to agree on common set of rules, beliefs, values, attitudes etc. Normative influence fulfil need to be accepted and avoid rejection Study by Asch (1955) illustrates power of normative influence – confederates giving answers, people change their answers even of they know its wrong, to be accepted in the group was more important than being correct

FACTORS INFLUENCING CONFORMITY • Conformity increases as group size increases up to a point and level out • The greater the agreement the greater the chance for conformity • The more disagreements the more people will stand up for their own opinions

When people deviate from group norms they may pay a heavy price, including social rejection. People will agree with group by public compliance – inner belief that the group is wrong but outwardly going along with the group in order to not be rejected

Going along with the crowd because you think they are right and know more than you • No-body knows anything – Pluralistic ignorance = looking at others for cues about how to behave while they are looking at you = collective misinterpretation • Two types of situations contributing to informational influence: 1. Ambiguous situations in which people do know how to behave Sherif – group experiment, group norms are beliefs or behaviours that a group of people accept as normal 2. Crisis situations – in which people do not have time to think for themselves, people conform to what others do because they believe those people know what they are doing – others do not really know more than we do. •

Private acceptance = inner belief others are right

2 Motives to conform: 1. believe others are right = private acceptance 2. inner belief others are wrong but conform out of fear of social rejection

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Techniques of social influence: 4 basic principles

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1. Commitment and consistency • • • •

Once people make a commitment they feel pressured to behave consistently with that commitment – feeling obligated Inconsistent behaviour causes psychological discomfort called cognitive dissonance Get a person to commit to what you want and they are likely to do it Trivial commitments lead to substantial compliance on more important things

Defences against

Commitment and consistency Reciprocation Scarcity Capturing and disrupting attention

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Foot in door technique

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Start with a small request to gain eventual compliance with a larger request Complying with a small request appears to make refusing a bigger request later more difficult E.g.,: (Fundraiser and gala dinner)

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How to know when you have been tricked? Ask if you could go back in time would you have made the same commitment? If YES behave consistently if NO do not do it People will become overwhelmed if they did not have choices It is easier to make a commitment once and behave consistently – inconsistent behaviour can lead to interpersonal costs. Public commitment is more binding than private

Bait-and-switch technique

Low-Ball technique

Labelling technique •

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Get someone to comply with a seemingly low-cost request and later reveal the hidden cost Based on commitment and consistency E.g., (cell phone companies)

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Draw people in with a attractive offer that is not available and then switch it to a less attractive offer that is available Feeding into the expectations that person held E.g., (Tupperware)

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2.Techniques based on reciprocation

Door-in-face technique •

If you care for me I will care for you – is one of the foundations of culture and to be obey norms • We feel guilty if we cannot repay a favour in some way – so we behave morally good, but sneaky people exploit this Defences against • Accept initial favour or concession in good faith but define favours as tricks when they are tricks and do not feel obligated to reciprocate, people that take advantage give little and expect a lot. • Ubuntu= people are people through other people •

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Start with an inflated request and the retreat to a smaller one that appears to be a concession This does not work if the first request is viewed ad unreasonable or when first and second request is made by different people Making extreme demands knowing you will not get it and then be more reasonable in demands, people will reciprocate when the second offer seems genuine. E.g. Union wage negotiations

That’s not all technique • • • •

Begin by inflating request but immediately add to the deal by offering a bonus or discount People buy because they feel as if someone did them a favour People feel obligated thus to do something nice and then buy products E.g. homemark,, glomail

Assigning a label to a individual and then making request consistent with that label Based on the self fulfilling prophecy – living up to label other give you Labelling uses importance of self-concept – how people think about themselves can influence their behaviour E.g., (people in malls selling beauty products)

4. Techniques based on capturing and disrupting attention

3. Techniques based on Scarcity • • •

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Scarcity principle: rare opportunities are more valuable than plentiful ones Scarcity is used as heuristic cue in decision making indicating rare is good The scarcity principle works because it takes more effort to obtain rare items than plentiful ones As opportunities become scares we loose our freedom to obtain them, when freedom is threatened – unpleasant emo tions is experienced (reactance) that motivates them to pursue scarce opportunities

Includes: Limited number Technique: only a limited number of stock is left Fast approach technique: attractive offer only available for limited time (Black Friday) Chance of buying product is limited either by how few or by a deadline •

Defences against: do not panic, think clear and calm why you want the item, because it is the last one or because you need it

Persuasion

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Try to capture or distract the target of influence If influences have strong agreements they want to attract attention to so that people should think about the convincing arguments If influences have weak arguments, they distract attention that people should think deeply about the arguments

Includes: Pique technique: one captures people attention by making novel requests, sometimes involves doing something unusual. (beggar at a robot dropping items in car) Disrupt-than-reframe Technique Intro duce an unexpected element that disrupts critical thinking and then reframe the message in positive light.

Defences against: For Pique Technique stop and think before acting For Disrupt-than-reframe Technique, eliminate distractions in order to process the message at deep level.

Important form of social influence is persuasion, the attempt to change ones mind, attitude and beliefs

Three components to persuasion

Aristotle's elements necessary to persuade an audience Proposed it more then 2000years ago (the speaker, the subject of the speech and the hearer) = Rhetoric Three elements • Pathos = emotional appeal • Logos = intellectual appeal • Ethos = charisma •

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Who says what to whom? 1.Who – source of the message – person giving the speech 2. Say what – actual message – the content of the speech 3. To whom – the audience – who hears the speech Failure and success of persuasion rely on three components

Components of persuasion

The source – person who delivers message Source credibility Expertise how much the source knows Trustworthiness – whether the source will be honest to tell you what he/she knows • Experts can influence us because we assume that they know what they are talking about, but they cannot be persuasive unless we trust them • Sleeper-effect = over time people separate the messenger from the messengers • How fast a speaker talks has effect on creditability Source likability • We are also persuaded by sources we like • Similarity and physical attractiveness play role • Halo effect – because a person processes one desirable quality it is assumed that the person possesses many other desirable qualities • what is beautiful is good • • •

Convert communicators – people perceived as creditable sources because they are arguing against their own previously held attitudes and behaviour – drug users

Who says what to whom?

Say what – the message characteristics of a persuasive message Reason vs emotion 2 approaches to present a persuasive message 1. one can present cold hard facts 2. appeal to emotions People in good mood is more receptive to persuasive messages • The use of humour puts people in good mood. Pay attention to humorous messages • Fear is another tactic used to persuade – moderate fear appeals as I leads to attitude change which is most persuasive One sided vs two sides messages • Does the presenter offer only one side of the argument or on both sides • One sided messages is more effective when the audience embers us less educated, two sided messages work best with people with high cognitive functioning Repetition Persuasive message is often showed repeatedly, when having neutral or positive response to persuasive message first time mere exposure can make message more persuasive , if person hated the message from the start mere exposure makes it worse. Even if person likes the message they do not wat to hear it too much this causes advertisement wear- out = inattention and irritation that occurs after the audience has encountered the same advertisement too many times – Clintellife • • • • •

To Whom the audience Characteristics of audience cannot be ignored like how intelligent they are Some people are easier to persuaded than others and some certain persuasion techniques work better than on others. Intelligence • Moderate intelligent people and people with moderate self-esteem are easier to persuade than people who are highly intelligent • Receptivity: get the message and understands it • Yielding: is whether you accept the message Need for cognition: Tendency of people to enjoy effortful thinking People high in need of cognition are more persuaded by strong arguments Concerns about public image: People high in public selfconsciousness are more persuaded by name brands and styles Cultural differences: Message consistent with cultural values are more persuasive individual vs group Overheard messages – are more persuasive, the placement of products in movies and games are more successful than adds Distraction: Is effective if the message is weak, put less effective is message strong •

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Two routs to persuasion

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Central Route – systamatic processing – deliberate processing • •

Involves conscious deliberate processing Persuasion that occurs along with the central route involves careful and tho ughtful consideration of the content of the message

Motivation to process messages is related to 1. personal relevance – whether there is an expectation that the issue is of significant consequences 2.need for cognition – this with high need for cognition more likely to process at a deeper level • Just because people are motivated does not mean they will process it

1. elaboration likelihood model ( on encountering a message are you ready for it )and the Heuristic model both suggest two routs of persuasion via either conscious or automatic processing Works on duplex mind

Peripheral route – processing - automatic • •

Involves automatic processing Persausion along this route is influenced by simple uses such as attractiveness of the source

Two factors influence ones ability to process information 1. distractions, disrupts ability to think 2. knowledge – deliberate central route processing depends on sufficient knowledge to appreciate a message or to understand what is wrong with it Attitudes change can take two routes • people who think about message travel down the central route- deliberate – durable and powerful attitude change • Where people who do not think about message travel the peripheral route – automatic and have weak, temporary change and does not predict future behaviour well

Types of cognitive processing 1. quality of the argument (weak or strong) – strong arguments work best with central route (ELM) when they where not distracted 2. initial attitude of audience – strong messages leads to strong positive attitudes, weak messages can lead to attitude change in opposite direction (negative view)

3.Perhipheral cues – when people are not motivated or able to process a message people look at peripheral cues: expert knows best • More arguments the better • Expensive products are good • What Is beautiful is good • Rare products are good

Resisting Social Influence Techniques

1. Attitude inoculation: cannot resist attitudes if not expose to them, make use of logic arguments by considering small doses of arguments against their position. People become immune to later full blo wn attempts to change their attitudes – when people resist persuasion they become more confident in initial attitudes 2. Forewarned is forearmed – an advanced warning of a persuasive message can lead to negative attitude change and is known as the boomerang effect, people will do the exact opposite of what they are persuaded to do, when forewarned people analyse what they see and hear 3. Stockpile resources – we use all our recourses at our disposal to deal with persuasions, high cognitive energy will reject statements that sound false where low cognitive energy are susceptible to false statements Other include: • Being alert of product placement – avoiding advertisements on tv • Resisting peer-pressure- attitudes change due to emotional appeals, people change attitudes due to pressure from peers – thus playing on fear of being rejected and desire for freedom and autonomy....