Persuasion and Attitude change:

Hovland-Yale model

Persuasion is the process of changing attitudes. A
definition of an attitude was given by Petty &
Cacioppo (1981),
the term attitude should be used to refer to a general
enduring positive or negative feeling about some
person, object or issue.
Elements advertisers use to make
the poster persuasive
The message its self is straightforward vote conservative, because we
will cut the deficit and protect the NHS. In everyday life, we are
bombarded with such persuasive communications buy this, vote for
that, watch this programme, listen to this music, agree with this,
support that. We evaluate these communications by considering the
logical validity of the argument, and if the argument is sufficiently
coherent, then, in theory at least, we might be swayed into changing
our attitudes and then changing our behaviour. Thus the message-
based approach to persuasive communication would suggest that our
attitudes and behaviour will shift if the argument presented is
sufficiently compelling, and that we engage in a careful cognitive
process to weigh up the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments we
hear.

Hovland-Yale approach
Much of the early research
into persuasion & attitude
change took place at Yale
University in the 1950s &
60s examining factors that
influence wartime
propaganda.
One of the principal
researchers at Yale was
Carl Hovland hence the
name of the approach.
Hovland-Yale approach
This approach concentrated
on 4 factors that affected the
communication process that
influenced persuasion &
attitude change:
1.) The communicator: who
is it that is seeking to
persuade us?
2.) The message: what is the
content of the message?
3.) The channel: how is the
message conveyed?
4.) The audience: to whom is
the message directed?

Factor 1: The Communicator
Experts appear to be more persuasive than non-
experts. The same arguments are more convincing if
the audience believes that the person delivering the
message knows what they are talking about.
Baron & Byrne (1997) suggest that this is why TV
adverts often put their experts in white coats, to
emphasise the scientific status of the message.
Virtually every shampoo and anti-wrinkle cream has
some pseudo-scientific name attached to it!
The communicator
The credibility, status &
attractiveness of the
communicator appear to play
an important part in
persuasion.

This is why personalities like
Tiger Woods are paid so
much money to promote
particular products.

The communicator
People who are attractive are usually well liked and we
usually agree with people we like. Some research
suggests that people who speak rapidly are more
persuasive than those that speak slowly. It is believed
that this is because people think that the person
conveying the message must know what they are talking
about (Baron & Byrne, 97).
The message
It appears more effective for a communicator to
present a two-sided balanced argument to try to
persuade an undecided audience.

Two-sided arguments make people more resistant to
later arguments that contradict the original message.
Video Clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIyqcST29wQ
Graphic anti-smoking advert released in UK


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caU5dLDHKaQ
NHS Binge Drinking Awareness Ad by Atticus Finch

What are these videos/adverts persuading to think/do?

The message: McGuire & Papageorgis
(1961)
McGuire et al tested this idea by presenting
arguments on the merits of tooth brushing after every
meal.

of the participants heard a message confirming
their attitudes to tooth brushing, whereas the other
ppts heard a balanced 2-sided view of the argument.
2 days later, both groups heard a message that
attacked their beliefs & attitudes about tooth brushing.
The group who had previously received the 2-sided
message were more resistant to the subsequent
conflicting arguments they appeared to be
inoculated against the conflicting arguments.
Fear in the message
Fear arousal seems to be
effective if the message
creates a substantial fear in
people, if the message
provides a simple way of
coping with the fear and if the
recipients believe that the
dire warnings will definitely
affect them.
If a message simply frightens
people & these 3 criteria are
not met then the message is
more likely to be ignored,
rejected or denied.
Repeated exposure to the
message

Zajonc in the 1960s coined
the term mere exposure
effect.
This states that mere
repeated exposure of the
individual to a stimulus is a
sufficient condition for the
enhancement of his attitude
towards it. The stimulus can
refer to people, objects,
consumer products, places
and so on. Given time and
repeated exposure we can
grow to like most things.
The message - research
Zajonc (1968) conducted various experiments where participants
were shown different unfamiliar stimuli (Turkish words, Chinese-
like characters & photos of strangers).
Some of the words and photos were shown more frequently than
others and the participants were asked to rate how good they
thought the meaning of each word was or how much they liked
the men in the photos. More positive ratings were given for the
more frequently shown words or photos, providing support for the
mere exposure effect.
Kunst-Wilson & Zajonc (1980) showed that people grow to like
songs the more they hear them, even when they are unaware of
having heard them previously.
The channel
There are many different ways to get across a message face-
to-face, newspaper, TV, email, internet, direct mail and so on.
There is no on method that is better than others at persuading
people each is suited to different purposes.
Face-to-face interaction seems a particularly good way of
persuading people because the message can be tailored to fit
the individual.
However, mass media communication can persuade lots of
people at the same time and thus reach thousands of people.
With complicated messages, printed media are often more
effective than visual messages, possibly because people pay
more attention to and can recap written material (Lippa, 94).
The audience
The Yale research found that different audience
attributes (intelligence, personality and gender)
affected the degree of persuasion of a message.
Intelligence may increase peoples understanding of a
message, but decrease their agreement with it since
they might spot weak points in the message. Less
intelligent members of the audience may not fully
comprehend the message but still agree with it.
Generally, studies suggest that people of moderate
intelligence and moderate self-esteem are more
readily persuaded by messages than those at either
end of the continuum. (Wood & Stagner, 94)
Question
In pairs tell me how you could persuade more
men into teaching early years.