1 Persuade Message Message Persuade Predictive Organizing Parsimony Organizing Parsimony Power Power Why Have Theories of Persuasion? Predictive Falsify Falsify Theory Persuasion Persuasion Defining Attitudes Theories Explanatory Explanatory Intent Intent Social Social Impact Impact Free Free Consistency Approach Consistency Attitudes Summary Summary Defining Heuristic Heuristic Importance Internal Importance Internal Science Science Theories Provocativeness Communicating Provocativeness Communicating Theory Approach Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, you should be able to: • • • • Define persuasion. Understand the four elements that define an authentic persuasion attempt. Discuss why theory is important to the understanding of persuasion. Explain the criteria that are necessary in evaluating any theory. mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 1 8/14/14 11:00 AM Defining Persuasion Section 1.1 The market for fast food and fast casual dining has been quite crowded, but Chipotle has managed to break through and establish a recognizable niche. The company has exploded, opening restaurants across the United States, and the stock has soared. But how has it established a unique brand? How has the company drawn customers to its stores? In other words, how has it persuaded people to buy its products—and keep buying them? Take a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wmH73Diqf5Q. What do you think were the brand’s persuasive elements in the video? Perhaps it was the narrative form (covered in Chapter 8), the chronological story of how one person established a new restaurant in a small store. Perhaps the persuasiveness was based on an appeal to values (covered in Chapter 2), that is, “food with integrity,” with an emphasis on environmentally sustainable food production. Perhaps it was the idea of fresh, high-quality ingredients coupled with the images of the food being prepared by hand. That is, the video combined logical reasons (for high-effort thinking) with images and sound effects (for low-effort thinking, covered in Chapter 6) to encourage potential customers to try the restaurant. The video’s effectiveness could arise from all of these factors, of course, and more. We are surrounded every day by attempts at persuasion. Children persuade their parents to let them have sugary snacks; parents persuade their children to sit still. You might persuade a colleague to help with a project. Friends persuade you to join them for lunch. Automakers persuade us to buy their newest truck model. Beverage companies persuade us to drink their soda. Politicians persuade us to vote for them, and to give them money. Some persuaders want us to give our very blood for a blood-bank drive or a war effort. Persuasion attempts appear everywhere and can be distributed in countless ways. Companies create video clips that they hope will be shared through social media. Brands appear as product placements on TV shows. Persuasive messages even appear on the handles of gasoline pumps. Companies such as Chipotle and Amazon even hire college students to be “brand ambassadors” to generate word-of-mouth marketing on campus. Many, if not most, persuasion attempts are based on intuitive understandings of human nature, anecdotal evidence, and trial-and-error efforts. However, in recent decades, social scientists, in both academia and the private sector, have studied persuasion phenomena in a more scientifically rigorous fashion. This book is designed to give you a foundation in the study of persuasion as social science, with a focus on the theories that guide scientists’ understanding of persuasion. After reading this book, you should understand the most fruitful theories of persuasion, you should be aware of some of the latest advances in persuasion, and, most importantly, you should be able to apply this knowledge in many areas, whether in sales, advertising, public relations, health, politics, or simply your personal life. 1.1 Defining Persuasion We should begin by attempting to define persuasion and distinguishing it from other forms of influence. Clear thinking benefits from clear-cut and precise definitions, but defining persuasion is no easy task. Likewise, an excessive reliance on definitional clarity can hinder critical and creative thinking (Rosenau, 1980). In his excellent text on persuasion theory, Daniel O’Keefe (2002) followed this line of reasoning to identify the common features of persuasion. mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 2 8/14/14 11:00 AM Defining Persuasion Section 1.1 Similarly, Gerald Miller (2013/1980) produced a classic definition of persuasion that sought to define the phenomenon in broad strokes by listing the central components of persuasion without being overly rigid. Let’s look more closely at their efforts below. According to O’Keefe, persuasion involves several elements that must be present for an action, or persuasion episode, to be properly thought of as persuasion. Persuasion must involve: 1. 2. 3. 4. a conscious intent to persuade on the part of a persuader; the transmission of a message; the message receiver’s free will to respond in any way he or she wishes; an impact on the receiver’s attitudes (what O’Keefe calls a “mental state,” [2002, p. 4]); and 5. a successful alteration of the receiver’s behavior as intended by the persuader. Gass and Seiter (2011) also note that people can persuade themselves. That is, the persuader and the receiver can be the same person. Let’s situate these criteria in a simple example. Trent approaches his parents about being allowed to stay out past his curfew to go to a concert. He reminds them that he always abides by their rules, that he’s always responsible, and that he’s asking to stay out past his curfew only because it’s very important to him. His parents discuss the merits of his message between them. While they would not normally be inclined to make exceptions to their curfew rules, they were moved by Trent’s sincere appeal and consequently allow him to stay out past his curfew. Strictly speaking, being successful, as Trent was, in persuading someone is a key element of persuasion. You cannot say persuasion took place if the intended listener did not respond favorably to the persuasion attempt. However, this book pays close attention to instances when persuasion does not occur, when a backlash can take place, and when attitudes are reinforced rather than changed. These types of effects, while unintended (see point #1 in the list), still must be included in the study of persuasion, and we should not run the risk of excluding unintended outcomes as being unimportant. Failures to persuade can be as informative, or sometimes even more informative, than successful attempts to persuade. Consequently, we will modify O’Keefe’s definition to account for this condition, by omitting the need to alter behavior. Our definition retains the impact on a receiver’s attitude, but the receiver doesn’t necessarily have to act in accordance with the persuader’s intent. So, rather than defining “persuasion,” we will define a persuasion attempt. The definition would then read as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. a conscious intent to persuade; the communication of a message; the message receiver’s free will; and an impact on the receiver’s attitudes. Examining each of these elements will help you understand what persuasion is, and what it is not. So, Trent’s intent was to change his parents’ mind about enforcing a curfew on this occasion (element #1). Trent verbally noted that he has always followed their rules but has an important reason for asking for an exception (element #2). The parents are free to say no. That is, they are not being forced to grant an exception (element #3). Trent’s appeal leads them to change their attitude about the curfew, agreeing that an occasional exception is permissible (element #4). mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 3 8/14/14 11:00 AM Defining Persuasion Section 1.1 Intent to Persuade Persuasion must involve an attempt to persuade someone else. In other words, true persuasion cannot be happenstance or incidental. The persuader must be intentional in his or her effort to change someone else’s attitudes. Imagine you are walking through a shopping mall and you see a fashionably dressed attractive person wearing a tiger-print Bluetooth™ headset for a cellphone. As result of seeing this person, you develop a favorable attitude toward that type of headset and consider purchasing one for yourself. This instance cannot be classified as persuasion because the person walking through the mall did not intend to persuade you; you merely developed that favorable attitude based on your own observation. However, if the manufacturer hired a model to wear the product in public places with the expectation that it would create consumer demand, then the situation becomes a persuasion episode. In another scenario, suppose you sit down at the food court and overhear two people discussing how much they enjoyed a new movie that was sure to win prestigious film awards. After listening to them (discreetly, as you munch on your veggie wrap), you decide to see the film. Again, they did not persuade you because they did not attempt to influence you; there was no intentionality on their part. However, if they noticed you eavesdropping and then turned to tell you about the movie and encouraged you to see it, then the instance becomes a persuasion episode. Communicating a Message Persuasion must involve the communication of a message, whether the message employs abstract symbols, such as words, images, and logos, or whether the message involves nonverbal behavior and social cues, such as smiles, clothing, and so on. Just as any print copy or advertisement for a Bluetooth product would be considered a message, so is an attractive model paid to wear a Bluetooth headset considered a message. If no message has been transmitted, then persuasion has not taken place. The message can be as subtle as a brief smile, but a message must be present. Imagine that you are deciding where to pursue a college degree and you gather information about several options from reference guides to make a decision. At this point, you have not been persuaded, even if you have made your choice, because the reference guides are neutral sources; there’s no intent Stockbyte/Thinkstock to persuade you to attend one school or another. Apart from the obvious sign, what But once a college sends you a brochure or you visit its website or encounter some other message might this person be communicating as from a particular college, you can say that you have part of the persuasion attempt? been persuaded. Similarly, if you choose to attend College A because you learned that a friend from high school decided to attend there, you have not been persuaded. Information was learned, but no message was involved. However, if mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 4 8/14/14 11:00 AM Defining Persuasion Section 1.1 someone suggests that you attend a certain school because your friend will attend there, then that suggestion is a persuasive message that is part of a persuasion episode. It is important, therefore, to draw a distinction between learning and being persuaded. You can think of being persuaded as a subset of learning. We can speak of children learning to tie their shoes, which is different from children being persuaded to tie their shoes (Miller, 2013/1980). So, although persuasion involves a response to a message, many responses to information are not instances of persuasion because no message was being delivered with intent to persuade. These can be thought of more generally as instances of learning. For example, my neighbor is an expert gardener, and he taught me how to plant and care for a vegetable garden. The information he shared was not intended to persuade me to start a garden. He was just teaching me what I needed to know about how to prepare the soil, when to plant seeds, and so on. However, sometimes he would say, “We might have a frost tonight, so if I were you, I’d cover my tomato plants.” This particular case of getting me to cover the plants would be an instance of persuasion because his message was intended to persuade me directly. Free Will Persuasion must also involve a person’s free will. A customer is free not to purchase an automobile. An individual is free not to go on a date with someone else. In a democracy, you are free to vote for the incumbent candidate, or not. This is an important point because if you are a determinist, then persuasion does not exist. Albert Einstein said, “I am a determinist. As such, I do not believe in free will” (Viereck, 1929, p. 114). According to Einstein, we think we have desires and wishes and that we follow them, but those wishes themselves are determined: “Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control” (Viereck, 1929, p. 117). © Steve Rhodes/Demotix/Demotix/Corbis Does offering an ice cream cone for free come close to being an instance of coercion? Can anyone truly resist? You have no reason to study persuasion if you believe that people are not truly free to respond to your persuasive appeal. If you believe that behavior is predetermined to the extent that people are not actively making change, then there is no reason for persuasion to occur because there are no actions or choices to influence. In this view, actions are merely the result of preceding actions and so on, like a giant pinball game with thousands of pinballs bouncing off the posts and off each other. If, on the other hand, you believe that people truly are free to make significant choices, that their will, or volition, can change, then you believe that people can be persuaded and that they can resist efforts at persuasion. This is an important point because it also means that the receivers of a persuasive message are actively involved in the process. They are not merely passive, mindless listeners on the mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 5 8/14/14 11:00 AM Defining Persuasion Section 1.1 receiving end of a persuasion attempt. This has led some scholars to identify persuasion as a form of co-creation in which the listeners persuade themselves (Perloff, 2013; Woodward & Denton, 2009). For example, did the ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s® really have to “persuade” you to eat a cone of their chocolate fudge brownie ice cream? Do you have to be persuaded to watch your favorite TV program? Is it hard for your friend to talk you into buying tickets to watch your favorite sports team? These types of examples illustrate the fact that people can be quite involved in their own persuasion process. Keep in mind, though, that merely deciding to take a nap because you want to do so, or eating an orange because you like the flavor and nutritional benefits, are not instances of persuasion. Sure, your will and your attitudes are involved, but there was no persuasive message. We tend to think that a person’s free will should be respected in the persuasion process. The existence of lemon laws for defective products and store return policies suggest that purchases and other persuasion outcomes should respect the will of the consumer. Buyer’s remorse is a term commonly used to describe instances when a consumer’s attitudes toward a product change, and along with it, their desire to own the product changes. Likewise, the Latin phrase caveat emptor, or “buyer beware,” recognizes that a consumer is free to purchase a product, but that she should exercise caution or due diligence for making the voluntary decision to proceed with the purchase. All of these ideas reflect the conviction that people have free will in the way they respond to persuasion attempts. If a person does not respond to a message of his or her own free will, then that situation is not an instance of persuasion. Unlike persuasion, coercion involves behavior change with little, if any, free will. You can think of persuasion on one end of a continuum of free will and coercion on the other end. In any particular episode, a person can have a relatively greater or lesser independence of will that influences how he or she responds to a persuasion attempt. If that person has little choice but to respond in a particular way, then you can’t really say that she was persuaded. For example, we’re not persuaded to pay a fee at a highway tollbooth. We do so often because we must, unless we want to take a less desirable route. We usually don’t sign the disclaimers at the end of a software package like Adobe® Creative Suite® or Microsoft® Office because we want to sign away our rights; we do so because we have little choice; we must either sign or be without software vital to a 21st-century marketplace. A child may not want to eat his broccoli, but given the prospect offered by his mother of not having a bedtime snack for a week, he does so. When we’re left with little option, of free will, the act of persuasion becomes questionable. Acts that restrict free will then bring in the controversial factor of coercion, when people might change their behavior against their will. Miller (2013/1980) noted that many seemingly persuasive messages imply the threat of coercion, leading him to conclude that coercion can be an element of persuasion. For example, a child might respond favorably to a parent’s persuasive message concerning the need to clean his bedroom, but the threat of punishment lurks in the background. The possibility of unpleasant outcomes, such as a ban on video game play, no permission to go to a friend’s house, or no trip to an ice cream store, is a factor in the child’s decision to obey a parental “request.” Without the parent’s power to bring about unpleasant consequences, the parent’s message might not be so “persuasive.” Likewise, the parent’s power to provide rewards can be a factor in the message’s success. These rewards mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 6 8/14/14 11:00 AM Defining Persuasion Section 1.1 might include extended time for video game play, permission to play at a friend’s house, or a trip to an ice cream store. This, too, could be seen as coercive. As you can see, punishments and rewards can be different sides of the same coin, and the coin in this case is power. If the child cleaned his room when he really did not want to do so, you would be hard pressed to argue that the child was exercising his free will. If the punishment and rewards are so strong that they induce behavior, then the exercise of power is coercive. However, many persuasion scholars maintain that implied coercion is still a form of coercion and not persuasion. So, rather than draw the defining boundary to include implied coercion, we will exclude implied coercion from the defining elements of persuasion. Messages that include a threat of coercion are just that: coercion. Impact on Attitudes Persuasion involves a person’s attitudes. An attitude is a learned tendency to respond favorably or unfavorably to some object (Eagly & Chaiken, 1993; Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). In other words, the way you respond to a person, a place, a thing, a behavior, or an issue, and so on, is the result of your evaluation of that object. In common language, we often refer to our “opinion” toward something, or whether we “like” something, or how we “feel” about it. These words are variations of the term attitude. If no prior attitude exists, then a persuasive message can result in attitude formation, sometimes referred to as impression formation. If the message strengthened a preexisting attitude, whether positive or negative, then the episode was an instance of attitude reinforcement. If the message resulted in a change in attitudes, then the episode was an instance of attitude change. If attitudes were not involved in a suspected persuasion episode, then you more likely have an instance of either conformity or compliance gaining. Persuasion is different from compliance gaining. In compliance gaining, a receiver may engage in a behavior without any change in attitudes. Sometimes, you might hold open a door for someone, just because they asked you to do so, even when you’re in a bit of a hurry. Or, you let someone cut in front of you in traffic, just because they had their turn signal on. Perhaps you’ve bought candy bars from your neighbor’s child during a fundraising campaign, even though you could have bought similar candy bars, or even more delicious ones, a little cheaper at a supermarket. Are these examples instances of persuasion? Certainly there was an intent to get you to hold a door, or yield to a mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 7 Stockbyte/Thinkstock If you bought lemonade from this little girl, would this be an instance of persuasion or just compliance gaining? 8/14/14 11:00 AM Defining Persuasion Section 1.1 car, or purchase some candy bars. And the instances involved messages of some sort, whether a simple question, a flashing light, or a first-grader’s sweet and toothless grin. Your free will was involved, too, even though we all find it hard to turn down a cute little neighborhood kid who you run across nearly every day. You were free to pretend you didn’t hear the person who asked you to hold open a door; you could have accelerated when you saw the turn signal. You even could have lied to your neighbor’s kid and said you were allergic to chocolate and nuts. However, your attitudes probably remained unchanged. Your attitude toward the person who asked you to open the door did not change, and your attitude toward the action of holding the door open did not involve a change in attitudes, either. Likewise, your decision to let another driver pull in front of you did not require a change in your attitudes. Your attitude toward your generous chocolate purchase did not change before you bought the candy bars (although it might change after the fact, as you will learn in Chapter 10). Your attitude toward your neighbor’s kid did not change during the fundraising request. Well, maybe your attitude toward the child changed just a bit; maybe you began to feel the child was devious and underhanded, flashing you a seemingly innocent and cute smile every day, all the while plotting just how to make an easy sale to a gullible neighbor. aetb/istock/Thinkstock The weather can influence your attitudes about a range of unrelated topics. mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 8 So, while we see that these instances involved many of the elements of persuasion, they did not involve your attitudes, which means they were not true instances of persuasion. These types of instances are referred to as compliance gaining. You comply with a request without any change in attitudes. As you can see, compliance gaining shares many of the characteristics of persuasion, but because attitudes are not involved, they are considered to be a form of social influence but not persuasion. You can have an influence on someone without necessarily persuading that person. As you know, sometimes it is just easier just to go along with a request, whether that request is overt, or explicit, or merely understood, or implicit. You might sign a petition without really feeling anything positive or negative about an issue. Or, you might recycle a bottle without truly being environmentally minded. Many times we engage in a behavior without any internal attitudes being involved in the decision, which means that behavior was not truly an instance of persuasion. It is possible for a person to respond to some cue in the environment automatically, that is, without 8/14/14 11:00 AM Defining Persuasion Section 1.1 even being aware of it. The phenomena of these nonconscious (not unconscious) responses are sometimes referred to as priming (Bargh & Chartrand, 1999) or as automatic behavior. Perhaps fast-paced music at a restaurant leads you to eat faster, or slow music at a department store leads you to spend more time shopping. It might be that a salesperson nods his head while speaking to you, and you, without even noticing it, begin nodding your head, too, which leads you to be more accepting of the sales pitch. In these cases, there is a message, or more properly, a cue, that influences your behavior, and the cue is intentional on the part of the persuader. However, these instances may or may not involve your attitudes. Nodding your head may lead to a more favorable attitude toward the salesperson or the product, but music tempo, while it can influence your chewing behavior, may not have a noticeable impact on your attitudes. More importantly, though, because these phenomena occur outside your conscious awareness, your active free will is not involved. Further, once a person is made aware of one of these cues, they lose their effectiveness (Schwarz & Clore, 2003). In one classic study, telephone survey respondents were asked to look out the window and tell the interviewer what the weather was like before they began the “real” interview. One of the interview questions asked people how satisfied they were with their lives in general. When respondents saw that the weather was sunny (after a couple of weeks of gloomy cloudy weather), they said they were more satisfied than people who saw that the weather was cloudy (after a few days of rainy overcast weather). However, for people who were first reminded that the weather can affect a person’s mood, checking the weather did not produce any difference on how satisfied they were with their lives. In other words, a person’s attitude toward his life was influenced by the weather, unless he was consciously able to correct for that influence (Schwarz & Clore, 1983). In another study, people were made to feel disgust by watching a 3-minute scene from a popular movie. Then they were asked to go to a different room and read six scenarios that presented a moral dilemma and indicate how morally wrong each scenario’s action was. However, before entering the room, half of the people were asked to wash their hands with soap and water, and these people were less critical of potentially immoral behavior (Schnall, Benton, & Harvey, 2008). Unlike coercion, people are not forced to do something that is against their will, so in that respect their free will is not violated. Unlike compliance gaining, people are unaware of the influence of the cue and their response. Indeed, their response is not part of some active decision-making process. So, because nonconscious responses do not involve free will, and because they sometimes do not involve attitudes, they are a form of influence, more generally, but not a form of persuasion specifically. The distinctions between persuasion and other forms of influence can be expressed along two dimensions of the definition of persuasion, those of the target’s free will and the target’s awareness, as seen in Figure 1.1. As you can see, persuasion involves the highest levels of both the target’s awareness and the exercise of his free will. mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 9 8/22/14 2:58 PM The Importance of Theories Section 1.2 Figure 1.1: Social influence + Awareness Coercion Threat/ Reward Compliance Gaining Persuasion Priming/Automatic Behavior 0 0 Free Will + 1.2 The Importance of Theories Before you continue to read, ask yourself, “What is your reading of this text right now an instance of?” You’ve sat down to begin reading what promises to be a remarkable and informative introduction to the field of persuasion as social science, but just what have you done? What is this an example of? Is this an instance of an eager individual engaging in professional or personal development? Of a society’s gains in literacy making personal and social improvement possible? Of the free-market system at work? Of copyright laws and protections supporting the creation of knowledge? Of advances in technology making information more accessible to people? Of a student jumping through academic hoops just to receive a degree? Or, is this an instance of a professor pontificating or waxing wise on esoteric information? The list could go on and on. To think in terms of theory, you must ask yourself the following question: “Of what is it an instance?” (Rosenau, 1980, p. 33). When you encounter what might be an attempt to influence someone, you should ask yourself, “What is this an instance of?” Doing so will help you move beyond a particular case so that you can organize and interpret what you find. Your act of beginning to read this text—this single piece of data, or information—could be interpreted in many ways. How it is interpreted depends on the perspective that you start with. If you are an educator, you might interpret this in terms of literacy, or the transfer of information. If you are a lawyer, you might interpret this in terms of copyright law or a limited monopoly over information. If you are an information technology developer, you might interpret this as an instance of communication technology improving modes of access to information. If you are an economist, you might interpret this as the result of an improvement in economies of scale. The meaning attached to this piece of information depends on the perspective of the person observing it and the theory that is used to interpret it. mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 10 8/14/14 11:00 AM The Importance of Theories Section 1.2 Defining Theory A good theory is a way of organizing and interpreting information. The theory first identifies the phenomenon it aims to explain. Let’s say the phenomenon is called Z. Next, the theory identifies the important ideas (or “constructs”) that scholars should pay attention to. It might say that, of all the letters of the alphabet, scholars should pay attention to A and B and can safely disregard the letters C through Y. After identifying the important ideas, the theory then describes how those ideas relate to each other. The theory might say simply that A causes Z. Or the theory might say that A and B together cause Z. Or the theory might say that A causes Z, but only when B is absent, and so on. For a more concrete example, let’s say Teresa wants to boost sales of her organic apple butter (Teresa’s Taste of Home) at a weekend farmers’ market, and she has found an existing theory on selling organic products. The theory says that the sale of organic products depends on three things: the price, the taste, and the consumer’s awareness of the quality of the ingredients. So, the theory tells her that she should pay close attention to those three ideas, or constructs, and by implication that she doesn’t have to pay as much attention to other elements, such as the shape or color of the jar, the apple butter’s brand name, which farmers’ market venue she chooses, and so on. Then, the theory describes how these three elements of price, taste, and consumer awareness of quality relate to each other. The relatively high price is a deterrent to sales, but only when potential customers haven’t tasted the apple butter and when they aren’t aware of the trouble she goes through to source high-quality apples and rare spices. When customers are familiar with the great taste and they know how special some of the spices are, then they are willing to purchase her apple butter. Likewise, if customers are unfamiliar with the taste and the value of the ingredients, then the price must be reduced to stimulate sales. To test the theory to see if it is true, Teresa does not want to lower the price, so she hands out samples at the farmers’ market, and she also displays a large table card that highlights the value of the spices she uses. Without a theory to guide her efforts, Teresa could try any number of things we mentioned until she stumbled upon some combination of elements that worked. A theory, then, is like a lens in the sense that it brings some elements into focus more than others, emphasizing certain elements at the expense of others. A theory also organizes the information by describing the relationships among those elements. In other words, they outline relationships among constructs, usually in the form of variables. A variable is simply something that varies. If it does not vary, it cannot be a variable. As you will see more fully in Chapter 4, a variable is something that can be manipulated or be measured. An independent variable (like A) is thought of as a cause, or factor, that explains the behavior of a dependent variable (like Z), sometimes labeled an effect, or outcome. A moderating variable is something that influences the strength of the relationship between A and Z. You can think of a moderating variable as a type of volume control that can increase or reduce the relationship between A and Z. The relationship between the price of Teresa’s organic apple butter and sales is moderated by the availability of information about the ingredients. A mediating variable is a path or means from A to Z. You can think of a mediating variable as a bridge that enables A to have an effect on Z (see Figure 1.2). mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 11 8/14/14 11:00 AM The Importance of Theories Section 1.2 Figure 1.2: Different types of variables used in theory Independent Variable Dependent Variable The independent variable is like a cause and the dependent variable is like an effect Dependent Variable A mediating variable functions like a bridge from the independent variable to the dependent variable Dependent Variable A moderating variable functions like a volume knob to strengthen or weaken the independent variable’s effect on the dependent variable Mediating Variable Independent Variable Independent Variable Moderating Variable Let’s say the theorized relationship between the apple butter’s high selling price and lower sales is mediated by the principle of supply and demand. That is, a higher price leads to reduced sales because customers’ supply of dollars is limited. However, sometimes it is the case that raising a price leads to higher, not lower, sales. In this case, this occurs because the relationship between price and sales is mediated by the pricing-quality mental shortcut (i.e., “if it’s expensive, it must be good.” See Chapter 6). A boundary condition is a limit to when the theorized relationships occur. Perhaps, the theory of organic product sales works very well at a weekend farmers’ market but not as well at a discount supermarket. In this case, the type of venue would be a boundary condition. Theories tell us what to look for when we examine persuasion. They help us identify the central or important features of a persuasion episode. Theories also help us make sense of our observations within these persuasion episodes. After you finish this book, you undoubtedly will encounter new cases of what may or may not be persuasion in your personal experience or in the news. With proper training in theories of persuasion, you will be able to make sense of new phenomena because you will already possess the theoretical frameworks for handling new information. It’s very important, therefore, to know what makes for a good theory, which we will now look at more closely. mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 12 8/14/14 11:00 AM The Importance of Theories Section 1.2 Communication scholars Steven Chaffee and Charles Berger (1987) identified seven criteria for evaluating theories: 1) explanatory power, 2) predictive power, 3) parsimony, 4) falsifiability, 5) internal consistency, 6) heuristic provocativeness, and 7) organizing power. Let’s look at each of these elements individually. Explanatory Power A good theory must be able to explain a range of phenomena or cases that concern it. A theory will let you explain a broad range of cases concerning the phenomenon you are studying. The phenomenon should not be so specific or narrow that it applies only to a few cases. For example, you might develop a theory of “why a side of French fries at Lou’s Hamburger Haven contains 30 fries on Tuesdays but only 20 fries on Fridays,” but that theory would be too narrow to be useful. A theory that explains the outcome of persuasion efforts in the 2016 U.S. presidential election is also too narrow in scope. A good theory should be able to explain the outcome of efforts in all, if not most, modern U.S. presidential elections, not just one. An even better theory could explain the outcomes of national elections in capitalist democracies around the world, and not just in the United States. The theory of organic product sales should be broad enough to explain the sales of not just Teresa’s apple butter, but also of a host of other organic products you might find at a farmer’s market. Predictive Power Explanations that occur after the fact, or post hoc, can be rather air tight, but a good theory will also let you make predictions so that you know what to expect in the future. Anyone can develop a theory to explain something after it occurs, but a good theory will let you make predictions. A prediction, normally called a hypothesis, is a statement that predicts some sort of a relationship among variables. The organic sales theory let Teresa predict that giving out samples of apple butter and displaying product information would increase sales without having to reduce the price. Parsimony Parsimony means “economical” or “concise.” Translated in this context, it means a good theory should be as simple as possible with regard to the phenomena that it seeks to explain. Because we deal with generalities or patterns, theories must be simple and clear. Complex theories make it too difficult to make predictions. Occam’s razor, sometimes known as the law of parsimony, holds that a theory should be as simple as possible. You should try to reduce complexity as much as you can. This is because simpler explanations often are more useful, and they can be applied in a greater variety of situations. You can achieve greater simplicity by ignoring minor things that aren’t necessary for having a clear understanding. Nevertheless, remember that “a good theory should be as simple as possible, but no simpler”—a saying often attributed to Albert Einstein. In other words, you shouldn’t make an explanation so simple that we sacrifice our understanding of whatever we are studying. mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 13 8/14/14 11:00 AM The Importance of Theories Section 1.2 Falsifiability A good theory must be falsifiable, or testable. If you can make predictions, you should be able to make observations that will let you see to what extent the theory is true. In other words, theory and the facts it seeks to explain should line up well. If you cannot gather evidence to test a theory, then you have no dependable way of knowing if it is true. Teresa was able to measure her sales to see if they improved when she handed out samples and displayed product information. If her sales did not improve, all things being equal, she could conclude that the theory was not true, at least not for organic apple butter. In short, if a theory has explanatory power and predictive power, you should be able to design a way to test it. Keep in mind, however, that an exception, or a single case, does not disprove a generality. If Teresa’s sales didn’t rise by implementing the organic sales theory, that wouldn’t necessarily mean you should discard the theory. People are reflexive, which means that they are self-aware, and thus they can reflect on and modify their behavior in any number of ways. Because theories operate at a simplified abstract level, they deal with generalities, or patterns, and you should not take an exception to be a failure or disconfirmation of a theory. That is, a theory deals with likelihoods, or probabilities, that a relationship exists. You shouldn’t think of a theory as something that applies in an absolute sense but rather as a generalization that can apply in many, but not all, instances. esenkartal/iStock/Thinkstock Although a good theory describes concepts and how they relate to each other, we can run the risk of thinking that people function in a “mechanical” manner. Why is this dangerous? Similarly, be careful not to commit an ecological fallacy. An ecological fallacy is when we think that some general characteristic of a group applies to every member of that group. For example, if you read in a consumer magazine that the 2013 Ford™ Focus model has a good repair history, do not assume that the blue 2013 Ford Focus you see on a dealer’s lot will necessarily be trouble free. This is even more important to remember when you deal with humans. After all, we are studying people, who are incredibly complex beings functioning in massively complex societies. Internal Consistency A good theory must also be internally consistent in the sense that the different elements must relate to each other in a logical fashion. In other words, the relationships that the theory explains should make sense logically. Once you gather evidence or examine cases, you should be able to interpret the information clearly according to the way the theory lays out the relationships. For Teresa’s apple butter, it is logically reasonable, according to economic theory, to assume that consumers do not want to pay too much for a product if they think they can purchase a similar, substitutable, product somewhere else. However, if consumers think they cannot purchase a similar product, then they will be more likely to purchase Teresa’s product. Providing a sample taste underscores the product’s uniqueness, showing the consumer that the apple butter is not mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 14 8/14/14 11:00 AM The Importance of Theories Section 1.2 like just any other apple butter. Displaying the unique and rare spices used in the apple butter also reinforces the claim that the product is unlike any other apple butter. So, when consumers are made aware that the product is unique, they will be more likely to pay a higher price for it. This is an example of how to evaluate a theory’s internal consistency. Heuristic Provocativeness To be heuristically provocative means that the theory stimulates new ideas and thinking that expand our knowledge in that area. In other words, a good theory guides us toward new discoveries. The organic sales theory might generate new ideas to be tested. Teresa might choose to provide a side-by-side comparison test with an inferior product to showcase her apple butter’s superior taste. Or, instead of relying on text printed on a piece of card stock, she might create a video that vividly demonstrates how the spices are prepared and the labor-intensive process involved in creating the apple butter, which might lead to even higher sales. The most heuristically provocative theories tend to be the most popular theories because they let researchers set clear directions for generating new discoveries. Organizing Power A good theory also helps to organize existing knowledge, perhaps offering a fresh way of looking at what we already knew or linking bodies of knowledge that we thought were unrelated. As you will learn in Chapter 6, social scientific persuasion research was at an ebb in the 1970s because scholars had a hard time interpreting evidence in terms of the old sendermessage-receiver model. At issue was this question: How can two people view the same message, and one be persuaded while the other is not? Out of this quandary, insightful scholars developed dual-process models (Chapter 6) that explained this phenomenon while also helping to understand the previous evidence obtained under the older models. Persuasion in Focus: Science and Persuasion In this book, we will mostly focus on theories “about” persuasion. But persuasive arguments, in making their case, often implicitly incorporate theories from various fields of science, as well. For instance, germ theory has been used in persuasive ads for products like soap, Dixie® cups, paper towels, and even vacuum cleansers (Levere, 2007). In the mid-19th century, scientists developed the germ theory of disease. Joseph Lister, Louis Pasteur, and John Koch were some of the most important contributors to the theory’s development (Harvard University, 2014). Collectively, they showed that diseases like anthrax, cholera, and tuberculosis were caused by specific microorganisms, and they looked to chemicals or extreme heat to target and kill these germs. This ushered in a new era of epidemiology, the development of antibiotics, and new attention to hygiene both in medicine and in the general population. Let’s apply the criteria necessary to test the legitimacy of germ theory: (continued) mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 15 8/14/14 11:00 AM The Importance of Theories Section 1.2 Persuasion in Focus: Science and Persuasion (continued) • • • • • • • Explanatory power—It shows how disease is transmitted and advises on ways we can avoid this transmission. Predictive power—It predicts that future diseases will be transmitted, unless prevented by the use of hygienic tools and antibiotics. Parsimony—It is simple. Microorganisms, which can only be seen under a microscope, can be shown to be transmitted. Through the use of various antiseptics and antibiotics, we can show them being destroyed. Falsifiability—The theory can be tested. If you see microorganism in one sample and later see a correlation with the development of some disease, you’ve made a time-dependent, causal relationship. If not, it has failed. Internal consistency—It is logical, as it has shown that germs can multiply and move from one place to another. A (tuberculosis germ) causes B (serious lung infection), and C (antibiotics) can kill A (tuberculosis). Heuristic provocativeness—Although Pasteur initially analyzed germs by looking at decay in milk, germ theory was later seen to be more generally applicable, especially for tackling a variety of human ailments. Organizing power—Germ theory transformed medical science and practice, and it changed the way we examine and treat disease. Even further, it has changed human hygiene, as it is now generally understood that there is risk in living with too many germs! Once a theory has legitimacy, it often finds applications in broader cultural contexts. For example, the following two commercials use germ theory as a foundation for their message. As you watch them, think about how acceptance of germ theory makes the ad work: • • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ_99UieN0c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ugdCR8rjm0 • http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=117985 In addition, the following article demonstrates how the popularity of the term “antibacterial” has impacted the use of various products, and how that might have backfired: Critical Thinking Questions 1. 2. —Cheri Ketchum, Ph.D. How might the products that use germ theory in their ads need to adjust their persuasive messages? How and why might you want to use theories, especially from science, to add weight to your persuasive argument? References Harvard University. (2014). Germ theory. Contagion: Historical views of diseases and epidemics. Retrieved from http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion/germtheory.html Levere, J. (2007, October 26). A campaign focuses on germs, not budgets. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/business/media/26adco.html?_r=0 mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 16 8/14/14 11:00 AM The Importance of Theories Section 1.2 Summary of Theories Theories tell us what to focus on, giving us guidance as to what information we might ignore. Theories are necessarily abstract or reductionist in the sense that they simplify complex information (Rosenau, 1980). They move the scholar’s focus away from a host of concrete phenomena that appear to be complex to a more simplified look at the general features that the phenomena share. In other words, by identifying important variables and describing relationships, theories reduce complexity in a way that helps you understand the phenomena that you observe. Theories help us know what to overlook. Albert Einstein said, “Whether you can observe a thing or not depends on the theory which you use. It is the theory which decides what can be observed” (Heisenberg, 1990, p. 99). So, theory tells us what to look for. It tells us what might be important enough to pay attention to. Because good theories are predictive, they tell us what to expect, letting us propose hypotheses that can be tested (see Figure 1.3). Figure 1.3: Criteria for good theories Explanatory power Organizing power Heuristic provocativeness Predictive power Theory Internal consistency Parsimony Falsifiability Source: Adapted from Chaffee, S. H., & Berger, C. R. (1987). Theories also tell us what we have found. In other words, they guide the way that we make sense of data. Because good theories are explanatory, they help us make sense of what we observe. If you had no theory, then you would be at a loss as to how to interpret every event that occurred to you. You develop theories from your earliest existence. As part of the socialization process, you learn generalities and responses that guide how you interact in new situations. When someone on a bus offers you a breath mint, you can interpret that gesture as an instance of sharing. When someone lets you step in front of them in a grocery line, you can interpret that action as an instance of courtesy. If your past experiences have led you to be suspicious of other people, then you might interpret those actions in a different light. The point is, however, that our theories guide how we interpret new information. mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 17 8/14/14 11:00 AM Summary and Resources Theories help us make sense of what we experience. Otherwise, we experience life as just a jumble of events. Theories provide a framework for organizing information in a way that gives us understanding. The world is constantly changing, and one of the key values of theories is that they can help us make sense of new information. Just as theories help us make sense of what we experience, theories help persuasion scholars decide what should be examined and tested. If you only examine isolated cases without a theoretical underpinning, then you can be dumbfounded by any new development that might come your way. However, if you have a solid grasp of the major theories of persuasion, then when you encounter new events, you can incorporate them in a way that is easy to comprehend. In sum, theories tell you what to look for, and they help you make sense of what you have found. The theories presented in this book have been selected because they meet the criteria for good theory. These theories explain matters of persuasion clearly, logically, and parsimoniously in a way that has enabled scholars to test them in a rather rigorous fashion. And, they have guided researchers in generating and organizing a robust body of knowledge in the field. Summary and Resources Summary • • • • Persuasion must involve 1) an attempt to persuade on the part of a persuader; 2) the communication of a message; 3) the message receiver’s free will; and 4) an impact on the receiver’s attitudes, with a subsequent effect on the receiver’s behavior. Compliance gaining is a form of influence in which the person retains his or her free will, but it does not usually involve a change in attitudes. Coercion is a form of influence that violates a person’s free will and does not involve a change in attitudes. Automatic responses do not involve a person’s conscious will and often do not involve attitudes. Nevertheless, these are forms of social influence, broadly speaking. Thinking in terms of theories is important for several reasons. First, thinking in terms of theory helps us to be more sophisticated in the study of persuasion. Second, theories tell us what to look for when we examine persuasion. Finally, theories help us make sense of our observations. Good theories can explain a range of cases and enable scholars to make clear predictions that can be tested against the evidence. Good theories also are simple enough to focus on key constructs and are internally consistent. They also organize existing information in a way that makes sense, and they guide the development of research ideas in new areas. Questions for Reflection and Application 1. Recall a time when someone tried to persuade you to do something. Describe the persuasion attempt, and then identify each part of the attempt in terms of our definition of a persuasion attempt. 2. Miller (2013/1980) said that persuasion involves coercion, even if the coercion is just lurking in the background. O’Keefe did not include coercion as a feature of persuasion. Based on what you’ve learned in this chapter, is there a relationship between coercion and persuasion? Why or why not? What personal example can you use to illustrate this point? mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 18 8/14/14 11:00 AM Summary and Resources 3. Try your hand at creating a theory that explains why someone would or would not add a comment on an online news story. Now, create a theory that explains why someone would or would not add a comment to a Facebook post. Can one theory explain both phenomena, or do you need two distinct theories? Explain your answer. 4. Find five advertisements for clothing. Each advertisement must come from a different website or magazine. Can you develop one theory that would identify and explain the features in all five of the advertisements? Now, do the same thing for advertisements for personal technology. Will the same theory work for these advertisements? Why or why not? 5. Take the theory you created in either question #3 or question #4 and evaluate it according to each of the criteria for theory. Key Terms attitude A learned tendency to respond favorably or unfavorably to some object. hypothesis A statement that predicts some sort of a relationship among variables. attitude formation (impression formation) An instance in which a persuasive message creates an attitude where no prior attitude existed. mediating variable The variable that represents the path to how an independent variable influences a dependent variable; resembles a bridge that enables the independent variable to have an effect on the dependent variable. attitude change An instance in which a persuasive message results in a change in attitudes. attitude reinforcement An instance in which a persuasive message strengthens a pre-existing attitude, whether positive or negative. boundary condition A limit to when theorized relationships occur. coercion Involves behavior change with little, if any, free will. compliance gaining A form of social influence in which a receiver may engage in a requested behavior without any change in attitudes. dependent variable The variable that represents the effect or outcome of the independent variable. ecological fallacy An instance in which we think that some general characteristic of a group applies to every member of that group. mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 19 independent variable The variable that represents the cause or factor that explains the behavior of the dependent variable. moderating variable The variable that represents something that influences the strength of the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable; resembles a type of volume control that can increase or reduce the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable. persuasion An instance in which there is a conscious intent to persuade on the part of the persuader; transmission of a message; the message receiver’s free will to respond in any way he or she wishes; an impact on the receiver’s attitude; and a successful alteration of the receiver’s behavior as intended by the persuader. 8/14/14 11:00 AM Summary and Resources persuasion attempt An instance in which there is a conscious intent to persuade; the communication of a message; the message receiver’s free will; and an impact on the receiver’s attitude. social influence A phenomenon in which someone’s behavior is changed without any change in attitude; differs from persuasion because attitudes are not involved. mag81516_01_c01_001-020.indd 20 theory A way of organizing and interpreting information; it identifies the phenomenon it intends to explain, identifies the important ideas that scholars should pay attention to, and describes how those ideas relate to each other. 8/22/14 2:58 PM 2 Foundations of Persuasion: Attitudes and Beliefs Mark Duncan/Associated Press Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, you should be able to: • Discuss the possible outcomes of a persuasion attempt. • Explain the characteristics and functions of attitudes. • Understand the importance of attitudes in persuasion appeals, as well as how attitudes are formed, accessed, and sustained. • Define beliefs and explain how beliefs relate to attitudes. • Distinguish the difference between norms, values, and worldviews. mag81516_02_c02_021-046.indd 21 8/14/14 11:16 AM Foundations of Persuasion: Attitudes and Beliefs Take a moment to view the following ad for Guinness and listen to the values that are expressed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=B-3sVWOxuXc. The voiceover describes value such as self-reliance (e.g., “you can always choose who you are”), while the images celebrate values such as freedom and community. The ad is based on an appeal to specific values that Guinness wishes to associate with its brand, which does not appear until the end. Although the video features traditional ad elements, such as social approval, the focus is on values that the viewer would identify with more broadly. A longer “documentary” (with the brand at the end) is also available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=CScqFDtelrQ. This video provides more context and strengthens the appeal to values. Perhaps the objective of these videos was to attract new customers and increase sales, but the objective could also have been to reinforce brand attitudes among existing customers. You can’t evaluate the effectiveness of a persuasion attempt until you have defined the objective. And you can’t truly evaluate how a persuasion attempt worked, or did not work, until you have defined the factors that are involved in a persuasion attempt. In these Guinness videos, for example, you can’t assess the effectiveness of a values-based appeal until you define what values are. Let’s take another example. Imagine you’re a brand manager for a new brand of antioxidantladen juice that will be introduced in a few months. You’ve worked on the distribution channels and pricing, but now you’re designing an advertising campaign. This is obviously a critical step, one that could make or break an otherwise strong product. To get the most out of your ad campaign, you need clearly defined objectives so that you can evaluate the extent of the campaign’s success or failure. Should a consumer purchase a bottle? Should she try a free sample? Should she redeem a coupon? Should she tell her friends about the juice? Should a consumer form an emotional bond with the brand? Should she feel inspired, excited, or full of life? Should consuming the juice become tied to a person’s identity, perhaps as a health-conscious individual, as a savvy consumer, or as a unique trendsetter? Do you want to present the product as nutritious and healthful and so highlight the product’s health benefits? Or do you want to present the product and your company as ecologically friendly, as part of a “green” movement? Each of these outcomes can be desirable, but they are not all the same. The first outcomes we have mentioned involve behavior, while the others concern thoughts and feelings. The campaign must be designed with the desired outcome in mind. This chapter will introduce you to foundational elements of persuasion. These concepts will appear throughout the book, so it is important for you to have a clear understanding of what social scientists mean by these terms. First, we will discuss briefly three types of outcomes that appear in persuasion research: affect, behavior, and cognition. Then, we will devote our attention to attitudes, which are the primary focus of persuasion research. After this, we will see how attitudes are different from related concepts such as beliefs, norms, values, and worldviews. mag81516_02_c02_021-046.indd 22 8/14/14 11:16 AM Classification of Personal Outcomes Section 2.1 2.1 Classification of Personal Outcomes Persuasion attempts can have several types of outcomes; they are normally classified as affective, behavioral, or cognitive in nature. They are listed in this order because it forms ABC, but you shouldn’t conclude that the order implies some sequence in a persuasion process. ABC is merely a useful way to classify different types of persuasion outcomes. Affect The word affect (pronounced AF-fect) refers to emotions, mood, and types of feelings, so affective means something that you feel emotionally (Nabi, 2002). An affective response might be a warm smile as you watched the Guinness video featuring the Sapeurs. Or, you might feel a surge of patriotic pride if you see a flag waving in the wind over a ballpark or when you hear a certain song. If you see an ad on television that shows a kitten needing to be rescued, you might feel compassion, or pity, or even sadness. You might experience fear if you see a poster that depicts the health effects of smoking tobacco. All of these responses are affective in nature and are common persuasion outcomes. Affect may or may not be involved in persuasion episodes. Since the days of the Enlightenment, people in the West tend to think of reason and emotion existing in opposition to each other. We tend to CDC/Associated Press think, often without realizing it, that if someone is emotional, then that person has a harder time being An advertisement showing the negative logical. This distinction goes back even further to outcomes of smoking might evoke fear Plato’s debates with the sophists, whom he criti- in a habitual smoker. cized for focusing on flashy superficial gimmicks to persuade an audience rather than relying on sound arguments. However, persuasion scholars have taken a renewed interest in the role our feelings might play in a persuasion episode, whether as a relevant outcome or as an important input in the persuasion process (Dillard & Seo, 2013). Different emotions, say, sadness versus anger, can have different effects on persuasion outcomes (e.g., DeSteno, Petty, Rucker, Wegener, & Braverman, 2004). mag81516_02_c02_021-046.indd 23 8/14/14 11:16 AM Classification of Personal Outcomes Section 2.1 Persuasion in Focus: The Appeal to Emotion in Political Campaigns In early studies of voting behavior, persuasion scholars believed emotions were a potential harm to democracy and something that should be eliminated to create an ideal, “logical” voter. This arose from a notion dating from the Enlightenment period that emotion and reason were separate, as noted in this chapter. However, more recently, scholars see emotion as a central part of political attitude formation and choices (Isbell, 2012). In fact, according to psychologist Linda Isbell, understanding how citizens respond to candidates on an emotional level is an important factor in predicting how citizens evaluate them. Unsurprisingly, negative emotions were typically linked to an unfavorable assessment of a candidate and positive emotions with positive evaluations. The dominant emotions were fear versus anger. Based on her summary of the research, Isbell maintains that anger leads people to rely on partisanship and habit. These angry citizens are typically not receptive to those who have different views from them. Their candidate choices are less likely to be based on policy alignment and are more likely to be based on some general sense of an ideological match with personal values and beliefs. Those driven by fear, on the other hand, are more likely to seek out information to become more educated about political issues. Not only were those driven by fear more likely to educate themselves on the issues, but they were also more likely to vote for candidates with whom they agreed on policy issues (Isbell, 2012). This new research challenges previous assumptions about a gulf existing between reason and emotion. Instead, more contemporary research has found that emotion is central to voting and other choices. Critical Thinking Questions 1. 2. 3. —Cheri Ketchum, Ph.D. How might assessing voters’ emotional state help shape a political campaign’s persuasive messages? What kind of persuasive appeals might be effective if – you experience either anger or fear? How might your own election choices be based on these or other emotions? Reference Isbell, L. M. (2012). The emotional citizen: How feelings drive political preferences and behavior. Association for Psychological Science (APS) Observer, 25(8), 13, 15–16. Behavior The word behavior refers to how a person acts. As we noted earlier, a marketer is interested in purchasing behavior, but he might also want to know the likelihood that a consumer would try a free sample of a new sandwich, or redeem a coupon for a discount on raspberry marmalade, or visit a brand’s website. Political strategists are primarily interested in voting behavior, namely, whether a citizen would cast a vote for the strategist’s client. But political strategists are also interested in other behavior, such as whether someone might make a mag81516_02_c02_021-046.indd 24 9/5/14 8:26 AM Attitudes Section 2.2 financial donation to a campaign, engage in word-of-mouth behavior like discussing an issue with one’s neighbors, volunteer to make telephone calls for a campaign, and so on. It shouldn’t surprise you to read that what people say does not always match up with what people do. That’s because some behavior is deliberate, the product of careful effortful thought, like purchasing an automobile, whereas other behavior tends to be more impulsive and spontaneous, the result of snap judgments or quick decisions, like purchasing a pack of chewing gum (Rhodes & Ewoldsen, 2013). As you will see in Chapter 5, a person’s attitudes can be strongly associated with that person’s behavior. But, as you will see in Chapter 10, attitudes and behavior don’t always line up. Further, sometimes our behavior is influenced by factors that do not involve attitudes at all, as you will see in Chapter 7. Cognition The word cognition refers to thought, whether effortful, furrow-the-brow, analytic thinking or a low-effort, seat-of-the-pants, snap judgment to a conclusion. Campaigners for a political issue, such as nuclear power, might want you to evaluate their arguments for or against nuclear energy and arrive at a thoughtful conclusion. In this case, the campaign organizers want you to think. Public health officials might want to educate people on the importance of cooking poultry thoroughly or warn people of the danger of using a cellphone while driving. In these cases, the officials are interested in increases in knowledge. Again, the intent is to get the audience to truly think about the topic. However, an ad for a nutritional supplement might feature a picture of an actor in a white coat in a laboratory setting. In this instance, the advertisers want you to think, but only a little bit, hoping you’ll quickly conclude that the supplement must have been scientifically formulated by highly trained researchers. Perhaps, an ad for a ballpoint pen might feature an endorsement from an astronaut who marvels at how the pen can write at any angle. These types of persuasive appeals rely on the target person engaging in a diminished or lower level of thought. 2.2 Attitudes As you can imagine, the distinctions we just made between affective, behavioral, and cognitive responses are not entirely mutually exclusive, and these types of responses are usually, although not always, related to each other. Generally speaking, these responses are tied to attitudes, and for decades, persuasion scientists have focused on attitudes as the primary outcome of persuasion efforts. Although scientists ultimately are interested in behavior, it is too expensive or difficult to measure actions, so they settle for measuring attitudes, which are good predictors of a person’s behavior. Scientists have identified a number of factors that can influence a person’s attitudes. Changing one of these factors can become an intermediate goal that would lead to the ultimate goal of attitude change. For example, Tom might have a slightly negative attitude toward making a donation to a charity fundraising event at a university campus, especially if he thinks that other people like him are not participating either. However, if the charity organizers can get him to think that all his peers approve of the cause and are participating, then his attitude mag81516_02_c02_021-046.indd 25 8/14/14 11:16 AM Attitudes Section 2.2 toward the donation request is more likely to change. Because a change in what Tom believes his peers approve of can lead to a change in his attitude, the campaign organizers might focus on changing his beliefs. So, persuasion scientists have begun to focus on altering the factors, or independent variables, that can influence attitudes. Sometimes these factors function as mediating variables or moderating variables. You will recall from Chapter 1 that a mediating variable functions like a bridge, being the path through which the independent variable has an effect on the dependent variable. A moderating variable functions like a volume control, governing the strength of the independent variable’s effect on the dependent variable, say, making someone either more susceptible to a persuasion appeal or more resistant to it. Importantly, some of these factors are beliefs, social norms, values, and worldviews, which, as you will learn, are distinct from attitudes. Nevertheless, the bulk of persuasion research focuses on attitudes. Defining Attitudes As you learned in Chapter 1, an attitude is a learned tendency to respond favorably or unfavorably to an object, which could be anything, like an organization, a brand, a person, or an activity (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975; Eagly & Chaiken, 1993). An attitude is not “instinctive” but is learned through socialization and experience. Further, an attitude involves a tendency or inclination to act, either approaching or avoiding the object (Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1953). An attitude also is a tendency or predisposition, which means that a person’s response to an attitude object is not assumed to occur necessarily in a preprogrammed fashion. For example, when Alina was an infant, she was unaware of Oxfam, the hunger relief organization, but through exposure from the mass media and conversations with her friends, she learned about the organization and formed a favorable attitude toward it. Whenever she receives an e-mail newsletter, she tends to read it, unless she is facing something more important, like studying for final exams. You can see from this example that Alina’s attitude was learned, and it represents a tendency to respond or act in a certain way. Keep in mind, also, that we are not always conscious of our attitudes. We do not have to verbalize our attitudes for them to exert an influence on our behavior (Hovland et al., 1953). Some attitudes are implicit, which means that we are not conscious of them, as they “fly below the radar” of our awareness, while others are explicit, meaning that we are aware of them (Albarracín & Vargas, 2010). It is easy to think of an attitude as a “thing” that you store in memory and bring back when you need it, but attitudes are mental states that are part of a network of associated thoughts (Conrey & Smith, 2007; Smith, 1996; Smith & Conrey, 2007). When you encounter an object, that object resonates with a network of similar associations, and that network becomes more accessible to you. For example, when someone mentions Bono, the U2 singer, to you, you may immediately recall the band, its members, a particular song, how you felt at a concert, a political issue, charity work the band does, and hunger in impoverished parts of the world (see Figure 2.1). Fazio (1995) defined attitudes as an overall evaluation of an object, and the strength of the association between an object and the evaluation of it is what determines how accessible an attitude might be. You might have a strong link between ski champ Lindsey Vonn (the object) and your attitude toward her (favorable) so that every time someone mentions her, say, in an ad for a winter coat, your favorable attitude comes to mind quickly. If you lack a strong association, then any attitude might not be readily accessible. This strength of association is what marketers count on when they use a celebrity endorsement for their product or issue. mag81516_02_c02_021-046.indd 26 8/14/14 11:16 AM Attitudes Section 2.2 Figure 2.1: Network of attitudes The Edge Concert experience U2 Bono “Bono” (Cue) (RED) Campaign Hunger relief Characteristics of Attitudes Attitudes have five defining characteristics: an object, a valence, strength, a base, and a function (see Table 2.1). Table 2.1: Characteristics of attitudes 1. Object the focus of the attitude 3. Strength strong vs. weak 2. Valence 4. Base 5. Function positive vs. negative cognitive based on what you think utilitarian useful social-adjustive because of an important personal relationship affective value-expressive ego-defensive knowledge mag81516_02_c02_021-046.indd 27 based on how you feel reflects your values tied to your sense of identity, or how you want other people to see you curiosity, or making sense of your world 8/14/14 11:16 AM Attitudes Section 2.2 Attitudes have an object, that is, what the attitude is directed toward. We always refer to an attitude toward something, not just an attitude in general. You may have an attitude toward a Ford™ F-150 pickup truck, an attitude toward Hidden Valley® ranch salad dressing, an attitude toward comedic actor Charlie Chaplin, and so on. In that sense, attitudes are not something general, like a personality type; they are always about something specific. Attitudes also always have an evaluation or a valence. Something is either good or bad. You like or dislike something. Dolores has an attitude toward the color crimson; she likes crimson. She also has an attitude toward the color aquamarine; she doesn’t like it very much, unless she’s at the edge of the Caribbean Sea on a sunny day. Remember, an attitude must have a valence, and if a so-called “attitude” is truly neutral, neither positive nor negative, then it’s not really an attitude. Attitudes vary in strength. One person might have a mildly favorable attitude toward J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, while another person might have a strongly favorable attitude toward the work and even speak Elvish. A positive attitude toward a hamburger chain can vary from weak to strong, and, likewise, a negative attitude toward a coffee shop can vary from weak to strong. Dolores has a negative attitude toward aquamarine, but it’s only a weak negative attitude. Although aquamarine is not a color that she would choose on her own, she’s quite willing to tolerate it. Attitudes have different bases or foundations. You can think of it as the source of the attitude. An attitude’s base can be affective; it can also be cognitive. Dolores’ negative attitude toward aquamarine, for example, could be based on affect. At one time, the rooms at her elementary school were painted aquamarine, and her attitude toward that color was formed over the course of endless afternoons there. Just as attitudes can have an affective base, they can also have a cognitive base. For example, Alicia could have a negative attitude toward high-fructose corn syrup based on her thoughts about the syrup. Perhaps her attitude was formed when she learned of how it might hurt her health. You can also certainly imagine the complexities that can arise when we have conflicting attitudes that have different bases. Consider Brian’s attitude toward thick applewood smoked bacon. His favorable attitude toward bacon has an affective base, especially when it is sizzling in a pan, but he also has an unfavorable attitude toward bacon because of how it might affect his health. His decision to eat bacon depends, in part, on the relative strength of these attitudes. So, attitudes toward one object, bacon, can have different bases. studio-fi/iStock/Thinkstock When attitudes have different bases, it is easy to have both positive and negative attitudes toward something. mag81516_02_c02_021-046.indd 28 8/14/14 11:16 AM Attitudes Section 2.2 Functions of Attitudes Attitudes have different functions and serve a variety of purposes (Katz, 1960). In other words, different attitudes exist for particular reasons. Here we highlight some of the different functions of attitudes. Attitudes can be utilitarian in nature, which means they arise from some sort of usefulness to a person. Kiera, an environmentalist, might have a positive attitude toward recycling because she thinks it is more cost effective in the long run and is a more efficient use of resources than landfills. Value-expressive attitudes serve to indicate what is important to you. Our environmentalist Kiera might have a positive attitude toward recycling because she loves nature, with its majestic trees, its delicate flowers, and its furry woodland creatures, and she wants to live in harmony with the environment. In this case, Kiera’s attitude toward recycling expresses her pro-environment values. Attitudes can be social-adjustive in the sense that they help manage social relationships. Perhaps Kiera’s boyfriend, Josh, doesn’t care much about the environment, but he loves Kiera, who loves the environment. In this case Josh may have a positive attitude toward recycling, not because of a love for the environment, but because Kiera is important to him and it’s important for him to have a positive relationship with her. Attitudes can also have an ego-defensive function in that they reinforce a sense of identity or help a person project a certain self-image. Kiera might have a positive attitude toward recycling because she truly considers herself to be a compassionate person who is a considerate member of society, or perhaps she just wants people to think of her that way. Attitudes can have a knowledge function if they satisfy a person’s curiosity or just help a person make sense of the world. In other words, sometimes we just have a need to know and evaluate, and our attitudes toward something can meet that fundamental need. Kiera could have a positive attitude toward recycling because she likes to think about how the Earth functions as a complex ecosystem. Her attitude toward recycling reflects her fascination with how millions of people making small incremental choices over time can have a sustained impact over many decades. Jani Bryson/iStock/Thinkstock Attitudes toward recycling can have a social-adjustive function if they help manage social relationships. Because attitudes can have different functions, a group of people might hold a positive attitude toward an object, but the attitude’s function can vary from one person to the next (Carpenter, Boster, & Andrews, 2013). Miguel, for example, might have a favorable attitude mag81516_02_c02_021-046.indd 29 8/14/14 11:16 AM Attitudes Section 2.2 toward a certain type of cellphone because of the clarity of the calls, reliable service, good battery life, and easy-to-use interface; his attitude toward the cellphone has a utilitarian function. Emily might have a favorable attitude toward the same cellphone because she values popular entertainment and social interaction, and the phone is exceptional at providing something she values. Or, perhaps, she is concerned with social justice, and the manufacturer’s commitment to fair pay for its employees is consistent with her values; her attitude toward the cellphone has a value-expressive function. Bill might have a favorable attitude toward the cellphone because he wants to fit in with his friends, who have the same type of phone, or because calls and text messages to them will be cheaper if he uses the same service provider; his attitude toward the cellphone has a social-adjustive function. Tayshon might have a favorable attitude toward the cellphone because he thinks of himself as a tech aficionado who understands and embraces the latest in personal technology. In this case, the cellphone reinforces his identity, or perhaps, it helps him project a certain type of persona to other people; his attitude toward the cellphone has an ego-defensive function. So, in each case a person has a favorable attitude toward a cellphone, but each person’s attitude performs a different function. Attitude functions are important because they provide the base for what is known as the functional matching hypothesis. Scholars believe that persuasive appeals will be more effective if the appeal matches, or lines up with, the primary attitude function (O’Keefe, 2002). A salesperson at a cellphone store should be more effective if that person can determine the basis of a potential customer’s attitudes toward a particular cellphone. If Bill’s attitudes are social-adjustive, then the salesperson should emphasize the type of phone that his friends have. That approach would not work as well with Tayshon, who is more concerned with how the cellphone is a reflection of his identity, or with Emily, who wants a cellphone that is consistent with what she values. Of course, this might be easier to accomplish in a person-to-person, or dyadic, scenario than in a mass media scenario, unless a marketer can link an attitude function to certain segments of society and their different media use. For example, if you could determine that social-adjustive attitudes are predominant among readers of fashion and celebrity magazines, while the attitudes of readers of outdoor living and cuisine magazines tend to be value-expressive, then you could craft ads that highlighted a different attitude function. An ad for mineral water in Vogue or People magazine would feature a social-adjustive appeal, while an ad for the same mineral water in Bon Appétit or Décor magazine could feature a value-expressive appeal. You should remember, though, that, some objects may not elicit several attitude functions (Carpenter et al., 2013). People’s attitudes toward luggage or eyewear may have a variety of functions, but other objects, such as mailing envelopes or masking tape, might only have a utilitarian function. Attitudes toward these products depend on how well they accomplish their intended task. However, I am sure you are not surprised to discover that even items as mundane as a stapler, a decongestant, a coat hanger, or duct tape can be designed to appeal to ego-defensive attitudes, so take even this caution with a grain of salt. Attitude Stability Some attitudes are more susceptible to change than others. As you can imagine, utilitarian attitudes are more likely to change than value-expressive attitudes, which are tied to a person’s system of values. Social-adjustive attitudes might change as the social context varies, but ego-defensive attitudes probably do not change much, particularly in Western culture. In mag81516_02_c02_021-046.indd 30 8/14/14 11:16 AM Attitudes Section 2.2 Western culture, especially in the United States, people try to be consistent in every situation. Also, attitudes and preferences can be part of one’s identity. For example, are you a Pepsi® person or a Coke® person? A Mac person or a PC person? Finally, it is always possible to not have an attitude toward something. Sometimes, if something is irrelevant, you just don’t care one way or the other. If there is no valence, there is no attitude. Importance of Attitudes Persuasion scholars study attitudes for three reasons. First, studying attitudes lets us determine if a persuasion attempt was successful. In essence, you can measure someone’s preexisting attitude, expose that person to a persuasive appeal, and then measure the attitude again to see if it has changed (Fabrigar, Krosnick, & MacDougall, 2005). Second, attitudes are thought to predict behavior. It is more efficient to measure an attitude than to observe and measure behavior (Fabrigar et al., 2005). Behavioral measures can be strong indicators of how a person responded to a persuasive appeal, but observing behavior can be cumbersome or expensive. It would be quite difficult to follow a few dozen individuals as they shopped for a refrigerator, for example, to see if an ad touting energy efficiency was more effective than an ad highlighting style and design. Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) demonstrated that behavioral intentions are strong predictors of behavior. If an individual says that he is likely to engage in a particular behavior, then that expression of his intention is a good predictor of that behavior. Therefore, if a scholar measures behavioral intentions, then she or he has a good indication of a person’s likely behavior. For example, if a woman told a pollster in August 2008 that she strongly intended to vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 election, then she most likely did vote for Obama. Ajzen and Fishbein (1980) also demonstrated that attitudes are strong predictors of behavioral intentions. Therefore, if scholars are able to determine what factors influence a particular attitude, then they can also reasonably conclude that those factors will also influence a person’s behavior. Third, scholars also study attitudes to test theory (Fabrigar et al., 2005). As you have read, theories help us make sense of persuasion phenomena. We might want to know if the gender of an expert source influences the credibility of a persuasive message. We can measure attitudes toward the message source, along with attitudes toward the message topic, and so on, to see if a difference emerges based on the gender of the communicator. Using measures of attitudes lets scholars refine and test theory in a number of areas to find out to what extent a theory explains, or just as importantly, does not explain, persuasion processes. Attitude Formation Scholars have established that attitude formation, or impression formation, involves two primary components: 1) warmth and 2) competence (Cuddy, Fiske, & Glick, 2008). Solomon Asch (1946), a well-known social psychologist, demonstrated that a person’s overall social impression of another person can be influenced by the target person’s warm and cold traits. Likewise, research on source credibility and other persuasion factors in the mid-20th mag81516_02_c02_021-046.indd 31 8/14/14 11:17 AM Attitudes Section 2.2 century by Carl Hovland and colleagues (Hovland et al., 1953) identified trustworthiness and expertise as two core dimensions of our assessment of a person’s credibility. Since that time, warmth and competence have emerged as the two primary dimensions we use to assess impression formation (Fiske, Cuddy, & Glick, 2007). Interpersonal warmth includes characteristics related to perceived motives, such as being sincere, generous, kindhearted, and understanding. The characteristics that fall under the warmth category are generally similar to what other scholars have labeled “morality” and “trustworthiness” (Fiske et al., 2007). Competence includes performance-related characteristics such as being efficient, intelligent, capable, and effective. Let’s apply these criteria to everyday scenarios. When you need a taxi driver to take you to your destination, for example, you want the driver to be honest and friendly (or at least civil), and you want the driver to be able to get you to your destination by the most efficient route possible in a reliable vehicle. Similarly, when you are sick, you want your doctor to be both sympathetic to your ailment and receptive to your relaying of the symptoms, and also able to provide you with effective means of curing your ailment. Likewise, even the most cynical voters would like to have politicians who score high on both warmth (or integrity) and competence. Elected officials must be sincere and genuinely concerned about their society, and hopefully not “ethically challenged.” Officials also must be capable of thoughtful analysis and developing solutions to society’s problems. Perceptions of a person’s morality are also an important feature under the warmth category, especially when we form an overall impression of that person (Wojciszke, 2005). Our impressions of other people’s morality shapes the way we interpret other information with regard to them (Earle & Siegrist, 2006; Martijn, Spears, van der Pligt, & Jakobs, 1992). In studies, people were more lenient in evaluating a person’s poor performance if they first were told that the person had acted in a morally positive way, even though this moral information took place in a scenario that was unrelated to the performance. Similarly, when people were told that a person had acted in an unethical way, they were more critical of this person’s performance (Wojciszke, Bazinska, & Jaworski, 1998). When we form an impression of someone, we seek warmth- or morality-related information first and weight it more heavily before we consider information regarding either competence or intelligence (de Bruin & van Lange, 1999, 2000). We form lasting impressions of a person’s warmth and trustworthiness in a split second, much faster than we form impressions of that person’s competence. In one study, people viewed faces for one-tenth of a second each, and then they had to rate each person’s trustworthiness and competence (Willis & Todorov, 2006). Other people viewed the same series of faces for as long as they wanted before they rated their perceptions of each person’s trustworthiness and competence. The trustworthiness ratings from the split-second group corresponded with the ratings from the free-time group, but the competence ratings did not correspond nearly as well. This means that we are highly capable of forming snap impressions of a person’s warmth, while impressions of a person’s competence require more thought. So, if you want to make a good first impression, keep in mind that other people will evaluate you first on your interpersonal warmth. Attitude Formation Toward Organizations The importance of warmth and competence is not restricted to our first impressions of other people. Our impressions of organizations, such as companies and charities, also fall along mag81516_02_c02_021-046.indd 32 8/14/14 11:17 AM Attitudes Section 2.2 these two dimensions (Aaker, Vohs, & Mogilner, 2010). People tend to rate for-profit firms as low on warmth, but high on competence. Conversely, people tend to rate nonprofit organizations as high on warmth, but low on competence, and they are less willing to purchase something from them. However, such attitudes toward a particular organization are not fixed. As with many of our attitudes and behaviors, we can be persuaded to change. For example, if a nonprofit can boost perceptions of confidence, say, through an endorsement from a highly credible source, then people are more willing to buy from that organization than from a for-profit firm. Aaker and colleagues demonstrated that merely changing the suffix of an organization’s domain name, either .com or .org, could influence people’s perceptions of the organizations’ warmth and competence. In a follow-up study, participants saw a laptop bag sold by a fictitious organization, either worldofgood.com or worldofgood.org, that sought to align itself with shoppers’ socially responsible values. Then, they read an endorsement of the organization by either the Wall Street Journal (shown to be a highly credible source) or the Detroit Free Press (shown to be relatively lower in credibility). Perceptions of the organizations’ warmth were not affected by the endorsement (the .org was warmer than the .com), but the high-credibility endorsement raised the ratings of the .org’s competence to be equal to that of the .com organization. Keep in mind that although these two dimensions of attitude formation apply to people, organizations, websites, and so on, they do not necessarily apply to all attitude objects, such as a ballpoint pen, a pair of socks, and the like. Persuasion in the Real World: Website Design and Attitudes People evaluate inanimate objects such as computers and websites in a similar fashion to how they evaluate people and organizations (Reeves & Nass, 1996). Likewise, people’s evaluations of a website also can be split into separate dimensions of warmth and competence (Magee, 2012). So, scholars who study the credibility of websites as a source of information (e.g., Fogg et al., 2001; Metzger, Flanagin, Eyal, Lemus, & McCann, 2003) have called for including indicators of both warmth (or trustworthiness) and competence (or expertise) in website design. Practically speaking, then, designers of websites for organizations should pay attention to seven guidelines that Fogg et al. (2001) have identified as factors that influence impressions. Websites should be characterized by the following: 1) the organization’s “real world” nature; 2) the site’s ease of use; 3) the organization’s expertise and credentials; 4) the organization’s trustworthiness and honesty; 5) a tailored experience; 6) a lack of commercial motives; and 7) a lack of amateurism and carelessness. Really, these factors could be grouped under guidelines #4 and #5, which Fogg et al. identified as being the most important. Indicators of an organization’s real-world existence (#1) influence perceptions of trustworthiness, while strong commercial motives (#6) reflect self-interested goals, both of which influence evaluations of warmth and trustworthiness. A tailored experience (#5) suggests a concern for the website visitor, which is also an indicator of warmth. A site’s ease of use (#2) and amateurism in the design (#7) reflect on the organization’s competence and expertise. Hopefully, you can begin to see how warmth and competence are two overarching dimensions of impression formation that apply not just to individuals but also to firms and websites. This is one example of how foundational theoretical discoveries (Asch, 1946) can be applied in a number of practical ways. mag81516_02_c02_021-046.indd 33 8/14/14 11:17 AM Beliefs Section 2.3 Attitude Accessibility Attitudes can vary in their accessibility, and you will encounter the concept of attitude accessibility in several chapters. Think of the mind as a snow globe, with each little snowflake representing an attitude. When you shake the snow globe, all of the snowflakes swirl around the upper portion of the snow globe. Eventually, though, the snowflakes settle on the bottom, until the snow globe is shaken again. A person’s mind is like that. Something will “shake” the mind, causing some (not all) of the attitudes to swirl around, and making them more accessible in the mind. As these attitudes are swirling, they are more likely to influence how a person responds to stimuli, such as the content of a persuasive appeal, or that person’s evaluation of the message’s source, or any number of cues. Merely reminding a person of his or her gender or ethnicity is enough to make those identity-related attitudes accessible, which can influence how that person interprets and responds to message cues. Persuaders often take care not to “stir up” attitudes that they think might hinder the effectiveness of a persuasion attempt. When a politician running for election visits a rural community, he usually avoids wearing an expensive suit and tie or anything else that might highlight class differences. The clothing might trigger a suspicion in voters’ minds that he lives a life that is disconnected from their everyday concerns. At other times, though, persuaders make sure to increase the accessibility of attitudes, like those related to a person’s David Lienemann/Associated Press identity, if they think those attitudes will make the person more receptive It is not uncommon for politicians to dress for their to a persuasive appeal. For example, a audiences. In 2007, presidential candidate Barack product label might feature a green leaf Obama swapped his usual suit for less formal attire to make a consumer’s pro-ecological while campaigning in rural Iowa. attitudes more accessible so that these attitudes might influence the purchase of that product. Reminding the consumer of an environmental commitment would lead that person to make sure their action lines up with their attitudes. Another example might be for a persuader to begin a sales pitch to African Americans or to Latinos with a subtle reminder of the audience members’ identity if their identity might influence how they respond. 2.3 Beliefs Although persuasion scholars are concerned primarily with attitudes, we need to devote attention to beliefs, such as norms, values, and worldviews, which are a bit different from attitudes. Making this distinction is important for two reasons. First, we should reduce confusion over the differences among these highly related constructs for theoretical clarity. Second, beliefs can be important shapers of attitudes. mag81516_02_c02_021-046.indd 34 8/14/14 11:17 AM Beliefs Section 2.3 A belief is a statement that comprises information about a target; unlike attitudes, beliefs do not necessarily have a valence component of good or bad. Consider this belief: Adriana likes to eat hamburgers. By itself, the belief has no valence. This lack of an evaluation is one of the key distinctions between attitudes and beliefs. However, your beliefs can influence attitude formation, attitude change, and attitude resistance. Your attitude toward Adriana might depend on whether you are a strict vegetarian, but the belief itself, namely that she likes to eat hamburgers, does not have a valence. Because some types of beliefs can influence attitudes, scholars have begun to focus on them as intermediate outcomes that can have a subsequent effect on attitudes. The ultimate goal of any attempt at persuasion is to change the target’s behavior. However, this is often not easily accomplished, and persuasion can take multiple attempts and also multiple steps to accomplish this goal. Often a persuader needs to settle for incremental or intermediate persuasion outcomes in the hopes that accomplishing these smaller steps will lead to the end goal of changing behavior. In this way, the types of beliefs we will discuss can become intermediate outcomes. Most everyday beliefs can be rather specific. Consider these beliefs, for example: a U.S. government Treasury bill is a risk-free investment; mangoes are a natural source of vitamin A and beta-carotene; sitting on a Caribbea...
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