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Attitude Change and Persuasion

An attitude is a negative or positive evaluation towards an object. It is expressed in an individual’s liking or disliking of an object, and favoring or disfavoring an object. For example, a vegetarian person has a negative attitude towards beef consumption, and thus, avoids eating beef. Similarly, a student, using the internet for his studies, has a positive attitude towards the use of the internet because it provides him good study resources.

An attitude towards an object can change from time to time. For example, a vegetarian has a negative attitude towards beef consumption. But if he realizes at some point in life that beef is a good source of protein and is essential for good health, he may develop a positive attitude towards beef consumption and may start eating beef.

Sometimes, the attitude of people towards an object may be shaped purposefully using certain techniques such as advertisement, seminars and speeches. For instance, television advisements are made to change people’s attitude towards the advertised object positively to enhance the sale of the product. Persuasion is also a technique used to shape or change the attitudes of people, which is discussed as follows.

   PERSUASION

Persuasion is defined as follows:

“Persuasion is a communication intended to change the attitude of audience towards an object, practice or idea”

“Persuasion is a communication designed to bring about a desired change in the attitude of people towards an object”

“Persuasion is a process by which a communicator or source attempts to convince people to change their attitude regarding an issue through a persuasive message”

Speeches, seminars, written articles, and advertisement (designed to influence people’s attitude) carry a persuasive message to convince people to change their attitude. For example, a seminar is arranged to shape the attitude of community people towards cleanliness in an area. In such a seminar, a message is conveyed to the audience to inform them about the health complications caused by non-cleanliness, methods of maintaining cleanliness in the home and adjoining areas, and the health benefits of cleanliness. This message acts as a persuasive message. This process is an example of persuasion where a communicator (known as source) attempts to shape people’s attitudes through a persuasive message.

The psychologists, Leon Festinger and Carl Hovland have presented a model for effective persuasion. This model has the following two dimensions.

  1. Routes of Persuasion
  2. Elements of Persuasion

   Routes of Persuasion

Persuasion has the following two routes having a significant role in the effectiveness of persuasion:

  1. Central Route Persuasion: It focuses on the central theme of persuasion – the content of the message. It emphasizes presenting logical and rational content (message) which can convince the audience effectively. This route of persuasion is more appropriate for the audience who thinks analytically and rationally, and thus, believes only in the credibility of the message. Such an audience cannot be easily influenced by other aspects of persuasion (e.g., characteristics of the communicator) but are influenced by the logic of the message.
  2. Peripheral Route Persuasion: It focuses on aspects peripheral to the theme or content of persuasion. It emphasizes the characteristics of the communicator (e.g., his appearance, personality, dress, job, communication skills, etc.) and the environment of persuasion. This route of persuasion is appropriate for an audience who is influenced by superficial features rather than the content of the message. It is the reason that in most advertisements or seminars, the communicator is a popular figure from showbiz or academia or any other sphere.

   Elements of Persuasion

There are three elements of persuasion, which play a vital role in the effectiveness of persuasion.

  1. Communicator or Source
  2. Communication or Message
  3. Audience

1. Communicator or Source

It is a person, or a group of persons (or sometimes a recorded audio, video or written source) that conveys the message to the audience. The characteristics of communicator or source which impacts the persuasion are as follows:

  1. Credibility: A credible person influences the audience effectively. If the communicator is a reliable person and is publicly known for his credibility, the audience trusts him more and gets easily convinced by him.
  2. Expertise and Knowledge: The expertise of the communicator is important for persuasion. It includes having good communication skills and convincing power. Similarly, if the communicator is a knowledgeable person (particularly regarding the topic), he is able to convince the audience by providing them with the real facts and figures.
  3. Popularity and Attraction: Attractive appearance and physical look, well-groomed personality, and proper get-up of the communicator play a good role in the persuasion of the audience. This is why, popular public figures (who have a huge fan-following) are sometimes intentionally invited to convey the message because they can inspire the audience effectively.
  4. Group Affiliation: If the communicator belongs to the same group, ethnicity, language, religion, or culture of the audience, the persuasion will be more effective.

2. Communication or Message

It is information shared with the audiences in order to change their attitude. The following characteristics of the message determine the effectiveness of persuasion:

  1. Nature of Arguments: Logical and rational arguments are trusted and accepted by the audience. If the content of the message (e.g., explanations and suggestions) is based on logical facts, the message easily influences the audience in the intended manner.
  2. Motivation: The content of the message should be motivational. It should have images, phrases and sentence that motivate the audience towards the action. It should reflect advantageous aspects and outcomes of the desired change in attitude in order to sensitive the audience positively.
  3. Sense of Good Feeling: The content of the message should not be a boring one. It should have pleasing content that engages the audience in it. It should focus more on the positive aspects. It should not emphasize unnecessarily the negative aspects only to force the audience.
  4. Reason versus Emotions: The message should trigger the emotions of the audience positively but at the same time, the message should be based on factual reasons. Highly educated and learned people are inspired more by rational reasons presented in the message.
  5. Clarity of the Message: The message should simple, clear and to the point. It should not include irrelevant information which may hide the real message from being presented to the audience.

2. Audience

The audience refers to the people who are the intended receivers of the message. The characteristics of the audience are also important considerations for effective persuasion, as explained below:

  1. Personality traits: Every individual has different personality traits such as joyousness, aggressiveness, perceptual traits, introvertial traits, extrovertial traits and so on. These traits determine their level of acceptance of the message. Different persons perceive the same message differently. Hence, these characteristics of the audience should be taken into consideration while designing the mechanism of persuasion. It will lead to proper persuasion according to the psyche of the audience.
  2. Age: The audience having lower ages will be easily influenced as compared to the audience having higher ages.
  3. Sex: According to various studies, the female audience is easily influenced as compared with the male audience.
  4. Educational Attainment: It is difficult to change the attitude of highly educated people with poor persuasion. Highly educated people have good analytical and evaluative skills and are convinced only by the good quality of the message rather than the superficial characteristics (such as characteristics of the communicator). On the other, hand the audience with low educational attainment may focus more on superficial characteristics.
  5. Social Class: The attitude of an audience of the higher social class is difficult to change as compared to that lower social class.