Psy 301 - Social Psychology - Persuasion Essay

Persuading                                                                                        1

                                                            The Persuader

                                                           Amanda Messer  

                                                  PSY 301: Social Psychology    

                                                               09/11/2015    

Persuader                                                                                                                                        2

     The persuader possesses several characteristics that are useful in persuasion.

1. Credibility : Expertise and Trustworthiness

    A persuader who is knowledgeable and is able to communicate that is more likely to be deemed credible. If the persuader seems to be giving accurate information they will be deemed trustworthy. “Messages from expert sources are persuasive when the message includes coherent and high quality arguments from within that expert’s field of knowledge”. (Feenstra, 2013).  Arguments should be of high quality, but the persuader should not seem overconfident.  

1. Attractiveness and Likeability:

    Physically attractive persuaders are considered more trustworthy.  Physically attractive persuaders are said to also be intelligent and honest.  Attractive persuaders are more likeable according to our textbook.

A person that is rude, unattractive, or seems angry, will not receive the same acceptance as their counterpart.  The person being persuaded can be offended by a persuader’s attitude and lack of attractiveness.  They will most likely deem this person untrustworthy.  

Persuader                                                                                3        

     The characteristics of the message are emotion, framing, and one-sided and two-sided messages. The persuader may use scare tactics as a means of motivation.

. Emotion- persuaders use emotions such as fear and lust in their commercials or ads in order to sell a product.  Beer ads use scantily clad women to draw on men in order to get them to choose their product.  Diet pill companies prey on the fear of overweight people in order to get them to buy their product.  In order to generate an emotional response persuaders will use stories to help ensue fear.  A person who smokes and has seen a story about a smoker who suffered from cancer or a heart attack is usually a little more convincing than just writing a warning.

. Framing – There are two types of framing used by persuaders, gain framing and loss framing.  Gain framing is when the persuaders lets you know what you will be gaining by using their product.  Loss framing is when the persuader tells you what you may be losing by not buying their product.  When emotion and framing are used together the message will be more persuasive.  Temporal framing is used to point out long term and short term consequences.  Having a preventative screening is an example of a long term framing.  Making a decision on what is being felt right then is an example of short term framing.  

The Characteristics of the audience:

     The characteristics of the audience can be vital to how a message will be received.  Many things can come into play when delivering a message, such as the culture of an audience, the age of the audience, and the self –esteem of the audience.

    Different cultures see themselves as either independent or interdependent.  Persuasive messages in the U.S. focus more on independent uniqueness and individual preferences.  Those who come from other cultures see themselves as a group or society so the message needs to be tapered to their needs or beliefs.