Persuasion

Two ends on a stick — persuasion brings novelty, be it good or bad. It can spread false

rumours, lead to the correct path with the right push, or break bias on certain topics. A

message with the power of conviction, that may be malintented propaganda, or an approved

education (Myers & Twenge, 2019). A key in communication, persuasion is more prominent

than we may give it credit for, consider politics, dating, religion, consider a child trying to

convince her parents into buying something for her.

What Paths Lead to Persuasion?

Petty and Cacioppo (Petty et al., 2009) and Eagly and Chaiken (1993, 1998) have

theorised the idea of persuasion into two routes, central route to persuasion and the

peripheral route to persuasion.

The Central Route

This way is the clear-cut, systematic way. We are interested in the said thing, it makes

sense, and the idea is favourable, strong and convincing. Nothing to argue about it, so we are

persuaded into it.

The Peripheral Route

A second focus that triggers the persuasion powerful, such as a smiling baby in a

diaper advertisement, or listening to German music convincing one to learn German, is

through the peripheral route, influence by things of little importance.

Different Paths for Different Purposes

Persuasion is persuasive enough only when it changes the behaviour, a promising

candidate gets the impressive number of votes, for he is persuasive. Using the moral strings to

pull, the audience would be most likely to get convinced into the idea — consider religion and
politics, one of the best ways to persuade (Luttrell et al., 2019). And the ones against the idea,

ones that persuaded into the other promise are most likely to find the moral idea repulsive.

What are the Elements of Persuasion?

Who Says? The Communicator

A communicator one already trusts is more convincing than the one the listener is

opposed to the ideas of. A speech about health care, Republicans support Trump, and

Democrats support Obama, even with the point being same (Edwards-Levy, 2015). Being

more credible makes the communicator more persuasive.

An advertisement that seems boring at first glance, with many times on the screen may

be persuasive, or a credit or a source on an ad, may make the advertisement more convincing

after we get used to the name — after it earns the credit. This delayed persuasion is called the

sleeper effect ( Kumkale & Albarracin, 2004; Pratkanis et al., 1988).

A toothpaste commercial has the classic “9 out of 10 dentists…”, and given an

expertise’s report, it is more likely for a customer to consider buying the product. A confident

and calm speech is more persuasive than a stutter (Carpenter, 2012). The idea of a trusted

source makes the thought believable, a popular influencer promoting a product would be more

effective than one we’ve barely came across.

What Is Said? The Message Content

Reason Versus Emotion

When it’s needed, emotional route gets the desired answers, and sometimes does logic.

Consider the recent events, a vivid picture of a dying kid in Palestine would convince one

more than a number of kids dying. An emotional approach works when it’s needed. Or for a
student a logical way of persuasion would be the rise in their grades, and not a praise, which

is emotional, dependent on the audience.

 References

Carpenter, C. J. (2012). A meta-analysis and an experiment investigating the effects of

speaker disfluency on persuasion. Western Journal of Communication, 76(5), 552-569.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10570314.2012.662307

Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (1993). The psychology of attitudes. Harcourt brace Jovanovich

college publishers.

Eagly, A., & Chaiken, S. (1998). Attitude structure. Handbook of social psychology, 1, 269-

322.

Edward-Levy, A. (2015). Republicans like Obama’s ideas better when they think they’re

Donald Trump’s. Huffington Post.

Kumkale, G. T., & Albarracín, D. (2004). The sleeper effect in persuasion: a meta-analytic

review. Psychological bulletin, 130(1), 143. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-

2909.130.1.143

Luttrell, A., Philipp-Muller, A., & Petty, R. E. (2019). Challenging moral attitudes with moral

messages. Psychological Science, 30(8), 1136-1150.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619854706

Myers, D. G., & Twenge, J. M. (2019). Social Psychology. McGraw-Hill.

Petty, R. E., Barden, J., & Wheeler, S. C. (2009). The elaboration likelihood model of

persuasion: Developing health promotions for sustained behavioral change. Emerging

theories in health promotion practice and research, 2, 185-214.

Pratkanis, A. R., Greenwald, A. G., Leippe, M. R., & Baumgardner, M. H. (1988). In search

of reliable persuasion effects: III. The sleeper effect is dead: Long live the sleeper
effect. Journal of personality and social psychology, 54(2), 203.

https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.54.2.203