COMM475 Exam 2 Study Guide Communicator Characteristics Credibility What is it Demeanor Appearance What other people say What they say How they say it o Credibility is in the eye of the receiver it doesn t matter you think you are as a communicator We make judgments based on Primary and secondary dimensions of credibility Primary dimensions based on Aristotle s ethos of character o Expertise skills knowledge in a particular area of focus competent based what really lends us to thinking someone is credible o Trustworthiness do you perceive them to be honest truthful have integrity o Goodwill if you believe that they care about you they are not only trust worthy but have good will Secondary Dimensions o Dynamism how dynamic enthusiastic you are as a speaker o Composure being composed under pressure o Sociability likability the more we like someone the more credible we think they are the more we are persuaded o Inspiring someone who can inspire us is persuasive The sleeper effect What is it Difference between the absolute and relative sleeper effects The sleeper effect A phenomenon in which messages from low credibility sources gain in persuasiveness over time o Ex negative campaign ads it says this ad is paid for by the opponent but as you get closer to the election time you forget that it was negative and just think about what it says o Message goes into your head and you buy it long term o Forget who says it remember what they said Absolute Sleeper Effect low credibility source becomes persuasive over time and vise versa not replicated that often Relative Sleeper Effect messages from both sources decay over time but the less credible one decays more slowly more common How can you enhance your credibility as a persuasive speaker Be prepared Provide evidence Tell us why you are qualified to speak Build trust Display good will Be likeable Use appropriate language Be a powerful communicator in language and delivery Establish similarity leads to likability Get audience involved show that that this matters to them Receiver Characteristics Age young people are most persuadable not cognitively complex so they don t know if arguments are strong week until about age 8 Gender o Men more credible as a source more persuasive o Women early studies show that women were more persuadable than men BUT now its o Moderate earlier research said that they were the most persuadable o Less Intelligent now research shows that they are more persuadable they grab onto Culture depends on how the message is tailored one isn t more persuadable than the other unclear Intelligence peripheral cues o Individualistic o Collectivistic Self esteem o Moderate most persuadable o High competent enough to hold their own position o Low not confident enough to speak your mind or change your position Self monitoring peer pressure you ll fit in and be popular if you buy this o High need to follow the crowd o Low they don t care to follow the crowd you need strong arguments and a quality Authoritarianism no real difference Cognitive Complexity need for cognition relates to ability to process the message not product related to intelligence o High naturally are more motivated to process the message and able need strong arguments and good products o Low heuristic cues that they buy into Involvement and Persuasion Issue involvement vs Ego Involvement Level of involvement o Issue involvement how personally relevant it is to you how interested you are in the topic of the message o Ego involvement how the topic of the message relates to your value system people who are very ego involved are difficult to persuade Social Judgment Theory know the concepts latitude of acceptance rejection non commitment anchor position and how they fit together Social judgment theory Sherif and Sherif 1967 explains how a message can be persuasive depending on how we access it to our ego involvement Anchor Position most preferred position on a topic most topics have a range of positions difficult to persuade someone with a message that deviates too far from their anchor position Contrast effect if your message is too far away than the anchor position they will perceive it as even further away than it actually is How can a persuasive message cause attitude change using a Social Judgment Theory explanation The importance of conducting an audience analysis when developing a persuasive communication campaign Audience analysis when in doubt ask your audience what their current attitude is o Demographic variables o States and traits Issue involvement Ego involvement Structuring and Ordering Persuasive Arguments Explicit vs Implicit conclusions what are they When are they effective Research results interpreted from an Elaboration Likelihood model perspective Explicit persuasive messages where the claim is directly stated you tell them exactly what it is that you want them to do Implicit more subtle will not directly tell the audience what they want them to do o Ex Coke football commercial Gain framed and Loss Framed messages what are they When are they effective What does the research say in terms of their effectiveness in persuasion Gain framed messages telling our audience all the positive things that will happen to them if they do what we want them to do Loss framed messages point out all the negative things that will happen if you don t do whatever it is that we want them to do Quantity and quality of arguments which is more persuasive Under what conditions Quantity of arguments may be a peripheral cue the number of arguments are enough to push someone over works for someone who isn t motivated able to process Petty and Cacioppo 1984 looked at the number of arguments strength and level of involvement o Results Low Involvement when someone is lowly involved the number of arguments doesn t differ between strong and weak pattern is the same but number of arguments is different High Involvement number of arguments didn t make a difference but the strength of the arguments matters better arguments were more persuasive The role of evidence in persuasion What is it Types of evidence Is it important How does it function What types of evidence is most persuasive o What is it Everything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of a claim o Types of evidence Narratives Personal anecdotes Research and statistics Quotations Testimonials Graphs Charts o Evidence facilitates persuasion if it is relevant to the claim o Sometimes functions as a peripheral cue