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The
Nature of Attitudes and Persuasion
What is Persuasion
Why Study Persuasion?
Persuasion
is an Alternative to Apathy or Coercion
The Nature of Attitudes
The
Process of Persuasion
Glossary
Additional Readings
Self-Test
The
Process of Persuasion
Persuasion
is really a pretty simple process with four basic parts. First,
it begins with a person (the source or persuader) who
wants something that he or she doesn’t have already.
Persuasion is goal-directed; so all persuaders have goals
that they seek, which is the second part in the process of
persuasion. Third, persuasion actually works or occurs through messages,
which are directed to the audience to help achieve the
persuader’s goal. Fourth, persuasion is always aimed at an audience,
which is made up of those people who can help the persuader
accomplish his or her goal.
So, if a Tom wants an advance on his allowance, he first has to
decide that he needs some money. Then he decides that his
parents could give him some cash. He could offer to do some
chores for them, but instead he decides to try to convince them
to give him his allowance early. This leads him to talk with his
parents, asking them for an advance. He might just blurt out
whatever comes to mind (or perhaps all he has to do is ask).
However, he might want to think about what to say, what reason
to offer if they ask him why he needs as advance, before he
brings up his request. The point is, in this example, Tom is the
source, obtaining some money is his goal, the message
is his request for an advance (along with reasons), and the audience
is his parents.
If Jill owns a small business and needs some money (she will
call it “capital” instead of cash) to buy some more goods to
sell, the same basic elements apply. Jill is the source.
Her goal is to obtain some money. The message asks
for money (and includes reasons about why this will be a safe
investment). The audience is the bank or potential
investors.
Persuasion is a process, which means it goes through
steps. First, the persuader must identify a goal, want or
desire. Some goals don’t require the cooperation of others.
For example, if I am bored I might decide to watch television,
play a video-game, or walk over to the swimming pool for a swim.
Ordinarily, persuasion isn’t needed in those situations
(although I may have to persuade someone else to let me use the
TV, for example). Other goals are unrealistic: I want someone to
give me a million dollars, I want world peace today, I want to
fly on the very next Space Shuttle mission. It is not likely
that persuasion will help these goals. However, often the goals
that we want to attain are possible, but require the cooperation
of others. When we have a goal that others might be willing to
help us obtain, identification of that goal is the first step in
persuasion. We must know what we want before we can hope to
achieve it. Do you want another person to go out on a date?
Do you want a professor to change your grade?
Do you want to sell your product to a customer?
Do you want someone to vote for you?
Second, we have to identify the right audience; the groups of
people who can help us achieve our goal. It has to be a group
that we can speak with or write to (we have to be able to get our
message to them). They must also have what it takes to obtain
our goal. They may have information, or money, or power. But for
persuasion to be successful the audience has to be able to grant
our wish.
Third, we have to make up a message. For simple and easy
requests, just asking might be enough. For other goals, we will
have to convince the audience, persuade them, or give them
reasons to do what we want. It is important not to just tell
them why we want them to do something. Persuaders can be
more successful when they can make the audience want to help us
achieve our goal. This means that we should understand our
audience. We can increase our chances of convincing them to help
us if we know our audience. Knowing what the audience knows,
what interests the audience, what is important to them, can be
very helpful.
Fourth, the message has to be conveyed to the audience. In
interpersonal relations, this simply means meeting (or calling,
or mailing) the other person. Other messages, like
advertisements, require more elaborate preparation and
distribution arrangements. But persuasion can’t be successful
if the messages do not reach its intended audience.
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