Persuasive Communication - Full Notes (Grade: 9.2)
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Course
Persuasive Communication (774221001Y)
Institution
Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
Study notes containing all the material from lectures, micro-lectures and book needed for Persuasive Communication.
Course taken during the 2nd year of Communication Science (Bachelor).
Course grade = 9.2, Exam grade = 9.2.
Also includes illustrations from models and theories seen in the c...
• Persuasive communication – deals with the way we are in uenced by messages + the
e ectiveness of the messages.
• The information we see in uences us subtly
• w/o people being aware that their opinions, preferences and behaviour are being
shaped.
• Two assumptions:
1. Starting point of the message is the receiver
• Why? eventually we would like people to do what we want them to do
2. We require a message in order to persuade
• No persuasion w/o a message
• Guaranteed persuasion is non-existent
• BUT using scienti c knowledge increases the chance of creating persuasive messages
• Relevant ndings include:
• Educational and advertising campaigns are often NOT very successful
• Large di erences between individuals
• People hardly ever name advertising as a reason for their behaviour (e.g. brand choice,
quit smoking).
• Measures of retrieving info from memory: Recall + Recognize
• Although most ad messages we cannot recall, we do recognize more when shown
again.
A. AIDA Model of Persuasion
Kellogg
A: Attract ATTENTION
I: Maintain INTEREST
D: Create DESIRE
A: Get ACTION
(S): SATISFACTION (added later)
• Used in advertising and marketing
• Describes the steps that can result in the recipient of a message being in uenced.
• Problems:
1. Model is too rigid & rational
• No steps are skipped or pass through another sequence.
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, • No cognitive e ort mentioned.
2. Sees receiver as passive – as if ‘absorbs’ info
• 1960s onwards start being seen as active – they use their cognitive system to
process new info.
B. Lasswell’s Model
Who - says what - in what channel - to whom - with what e ect.
• Harold Lasswell (1940s)
• E ectiveness of information is best understood by asking the characteristics of the:
1. Who: Source – perceived communication – person issuing the message
2. What: Content of info – verbal and non-verbal aspects
3. Which: Channel – medium used to transmit message
4. To whom – intended recipient – part of audience
• With certain characteristics (e.g. age and gender)
• With personal factors (e.g. involvement with issue)
5. What e ect – the extent to which their opinions, preferences are in uenced
• Immediate vs. LT change
• Forming new beliefs vs. changing existing ones.
C. The Yale Model of Persuasion
• Carl Hovland (1950s)
• The Yale model – studied the possible e ects of particular characteristics of content, the
source and recipients.
• Source (Who) = expertise, trustworthiness, likeability, status
• Content (What) = type of appeal. order of arguments, explicitness of appeals.
• Recipient (To whom) = intelligence, personality, persuasiveness
• 4-step process model
1. Attention = Pay attention to info contained in message
• W/o attention = NO persuasion
• Why? the information is not taken in.
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, 2. Understanding = Message presented in a way that you can understand it
• It should not be di cult
3. Acceptance = accept message and
develop a more positive attitude
towards the advertised product
• Product evaluated positively ( + )
4. Retention = Must retain your new
attitude after receiving message.
• Attitude towards the product will
remain positive over time
• Behaviour is in uenced
permanently (behavioural change)
D. Inoculation Theory
• Sets out how people can protect themselves against information intended to in uence
and change their opinion
• McGuire describes the process of persuasion in a similar way as the origins of the Yale
model.
• Nevertheless, he identi es 6 steps rather than 4:
⭐ Presentation
⭐ Attention
⭐ Comprehension
⭐ Yielding (accepting the arguments put forward)
⭐ Retention
⭐ Behavior
• In McGuire's view, these steps can in uence each other.
• The intelligence of a recipient could be:
• Positively ( + ) related to the comprehension & retention of a message.
• Negatively ( - ) related to yielding (especially in the case of weak arguments).
• McGuire used the medical term 'inoculation' to indicate that especially weak
arguments act like a ‘virus’.
• They trigger a cognitive reaction which protects + reinforces + helps to
maintain an existing attitude.
E. Cognitive Response Theory
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, • Further developed McGuire's ideas
• Examined the way in which info is processed + how it a ects attitudes.
• Such info is often coupled in compared with existing attitudes & preferences + possibly
even integrated into them.
• Those are the internal processes which determine whether a person's attitude +
behavior will be modi ed.
1.2. Communication-Persuasion Matrix
A. Communication-Persuasion Matrix 1989
• William McGuire (1960s)
• Helps to make an overview of how variation in message characteristics has di erent e ects
on each step.
• Helps making informed choices on campaign content and design
• Examples*
• Consists of input & output factors (13).
• Why useful?
1. Makes you aware of the cumulative e ects of input factors and of how input
factors interact = what factors are relevant.
2. Regards behavioural change as a process.
• There are many steps between exposure and permanent behaviour change.
• The input factors might a ect each output factor di erently (+ , – , or no
e ect)
3. We can systematically overview scienti c knowledge on the e ects of input
factors on output factors
4. Helps to identify weak spots of some input factors (& which input factors solve (+
strengthen) them.
B. Types of factors
• 2 types of factors:
A. Input: components out of which communication can be constructed – can be manipulated.
B. Output: show in uence on receiver (from exposure to behavioural change).
A. Input (I.V.) – Factors that construct a campaign (under control of the one creating the
message)
• They in uence in the message.
1. Source: sender that conveys message – spokesman
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