PERSUASIVE COMM LU 4Objectives : Pg 61..

What is Persuasiveness?

Elements of Persuasion relates to Communication….

1) Intent – we intend (intentionally or unintentionally) to persuade someone

2) Coercion – forcing someone to change as public compliance (when persuasion happens externally)

3) Context – persuasion happens within a certain context, e.g. I won’t eat monkey brains when I’m not hungry…but might be persuaded to eat it if I’m starving

4) Plurality – a person can persuade one person, or many at a given time

5) Presence – in order to persuade, one needs to be present as persuasion doesn’t happen in a void

6) Media – persuasion can be done through the use of media, e.g. Political parties persuading us to vote for them by advertising on street pole posters.

Lets Define Persuasion.. (pg63)

• Process of Comm

• Person succeeds in

• forming,supporting,changing attitude/behaviour

• Of recipient/s

• The same as original intend of communicator

Do you think Persuasive Comm is Important?

Persuasive People Do/Don’t Do..

Does Motivation play a role in Persuasion? Pg 64

What can we USE to persuade people?

• Process Premises..– Needs : Know exact need – you hve a winner! (pg65)– Attitudes : Either help or restrain u– Consistency : People want to b happy/feel good

NB : Pg 66 : Attitude VS Opinion

Content Premises Verderer & Verderer 3 styles of Persuasion

Other Content Premises (Focus on arguments that are rational)

• Credibility• Logical Reasoning• Emotional Appeal

• Evidence• Reasoning to arrive @ logical

conclusion

CASE STUDY : PG 67

TYPES OF REASONING: (pg68)• Inductive reasoning – Moves from particular to general, e.g. Rise in crime in Gauteng,

thus rise in crime in South Africa

• Cause-to-effect reasoning – When A happens, B will follow, e.g. if you drink too much, you will get drunk

• Criteria-to-application reasoning – Researching the criteria that would make a ‘product’ the best choice and then applying their support to that ‘product’, e.g. Omo has been found to be the best for your whites, thus the researcher supports using Omo

• Deductive reasoning – Moves from general to particular, e.g. Rise in crime in South Africa, thus rise in crime in Gauteng

• Reason from comparison – Looking at similar events and comparing them, e.g. in ABSA low employee morale led to a strike, the same happened in Standard Bank. Thus, Nedbank’s low employee morale could likely lead to a strike

• Effect-to-cause reasoning – Reasoning from the end results and working back to the cause, e.g. There is low morale in an organisation (effect), due to miscommunication from management (cause)

• Reason from symptoms – Persuaders looking at a series of symptoms and draw a conclusion, e.g. in an organisation there might be a lot of sick leave and people taking their annual leave, these are symptomatic of low morale

Forms of Persuasive Comm1) Propaganda

Publicity to promote something / misleading publicity. According to Staker (2005), propaganda is secretly persuading large groups of people, where the persuadee perceives the information as the truth

Seven (7) propaganda methods: 1. Bandwagon (joining); 2. Card-stacking (one-sided); 3. Glittering generalities (power words); 4. Name-calling (attacking); 5. Plain folks (relatable); 6. Testimonials (endorsements); 7. Transfer (relation to trusted others)

Forms of Persuasive Comm

Two types of propaganda:1.1) Command propaganda – requests action NOW1.2) Conditioning propaganda – requests gradual, long term action

Counter propaganda is used to inoculate or immunise people against organised persuasion (such as advertising, political speeches, etc.) - e.g. ‘Proudly South African’ campaign to inoculate South Africans against ‘America: the land of dreams’ propaganda

2) IndoctrinationWithout allowing different ideas, instilling ideas on people

3) BrainwashingContinuous indoctrination in a controlled environment.

4) ManipulationWhen someone abuses his / her power to make someone do something

5) Sanctions (authorise to..)Sanctions are used to pressurise the persuadee to conform. One’s behaviour can be rewarded or punished – e.g. Zimbabwe get aid from USA when they comply with human rights regulations; or EU withdraw their aid to Egypt if Hosni Mubarak does not step down as president

6) SeductionBribery of people to change their minds. E.g. “Buy one get one free”.

Forms of Persuasive Comm

THEORIES AHEAD

= ICE

RANK’S MODEL OF PERSUASION CALLED THE ‘INTENSIFY / DOWNPLAY SCHEME’

The model explains that a persuader intensify his / her own good points, while downplaying his / her bad points.

He / she also intensify the bad points of his / her competition, while downplaying the good points of that competitor.

Persuaders intensify (scheme) through: i. repetition, ii. Association and iii. Composition

Persuaders downplay (scheme) through: i. omission, ii. diversion and iii. confusion

…look at ‘electoral debates’ as an example…

NB!! Pg 74..

Eight (8) theories of PersuasionA theory explains a phenomenon, by using scientific principles

to investigate (that phenomenon).

1. Attitude-change theoryA persuader changes the mind of a person, when the persuader changes their attitude. E.g. People will vote for the death penalty when a politician changes their attitudes from anti- to pro death penalty.

To change a person(s)’s attitude, the persuader needs to move them through a 5-step process – 1.1 get their attention, 1.2 get them to understand, 1.3 they need to accept the new idea, 1.4 commit it to memory (retention) and 1.5 call them to act.

NB!! Pg 78

2. Learning TheoriesWe learn how to behave, because of our circumstances and will change our behaviour if circumstances change.

2.1 Classical ConditioningWhen the persuader gives the right reinforcement, the audience will change their minds, e.g. if you achieve

80% in your next test, your parents will give you money

2.2 Skinner’s BehaviourismPersuaders change an audience behaviour, because of

the change in that audience’s environment. E.g. persuading men to use condoms, because the spread of HIV/Aids in their community is becoming a problem

2.3 Social learning theoryPeople change because of their interaction with one

another. E.g. We learn how to behave in class, because we look at how people in our social group behaves in a class.

NB!! Pg 78

3. Consistency theoriesThis theory assumes that people do not like change and needs stability. We persuade people when they are in a state of dissonance (unhappiness; instability) – e.g. in Egypt, citizens were convinced to revolt against the government, because they were told that their economic stability were threatened by governmental corruption.

We could regain consistency by denying or ignoring that there is a threat, by rationalising the threat or finding excuses for it, by separating items (disconnecting the threat from its relevance to us), by transcendence, by changing items, or by persuasion.

3.1 Balance theoryDissonance happens when two people differ on an issue – e.g. You are pro choice in terms of abortion, while your friend is against abortion…dissonance happens when you talk about the subject. Balance is restored only when either you or your friend concede or compromise.

3.2 Congruency theoryWhen two people agree, they are congruent. If they do not agree, either one or both might feel pressure to change.

3.3 Cognitive dissonance theoryA moral dilemma

3.4 Belief-Hierarchy Theory Values, Beliefs, Attitude guide our choices

NB!! Pg 79

REVISION PG83