Persuasion

Persuasion is a communicative act in which messages are conveyed with the intention of changing the attitudes or beliefs of others who retain free choice over their response to the message. Persuasion is usually construed as intentional and is thus a type of, but not synonymous with, social influence, which captures a broader range of means by which people affect one another's attitudes and behavior (e.g., social norms, social learning). In addition, persuasion is noncoercive and is thus dependent on the reactions and choices of the recipient. The importance of the intentions of persuaders (usually called sources) and the reactions of recipients highlight the fact that they are in a relationship where both players hold at least some power. This entry describes the basic features of persuasion and how persuasion dynamics operate in relationships with groups, romantic partners, and families.

Factors that affect the efficacy of attempts to change attitudes are typically divided into four types: characteristics of the source (e.g., credibility or expertise), message (e.g., number or quality of arguments), recipient (e.g., motives or personality), and context (e.g., close or distant relationships). Changes in attitudes predict changes in behavior, most strongly when the attitude is at the same level of specificity as the behavior (e.g., attitudes toward a specific candidate predict voting for that candidate more strongly than attitudes toward that [Page 1232]candidate's political party). Most knowledge about persuasion comes from studies of short interactions (e.g., experimenter/participant, participant/participant), rather than in the context of preexisting and presumably more important relationships (e.g., friends, romantic partners, families). As a result, the factors considered to influence persuasion tend to consider individuals separately rather than as part of a relationship dynamic.

Greater persuasion is observed when recipients generate more (both in number and magnitude) positive thoughts in response to persuasive messages. If given sufficient attention, higher quality arguments in persuasive messages are more likely to lead to attitude change. To the extent that individuals have the ability and motivation to process persuasive messages in some depth, they have more positive thoughts in response to and are more persuaded by stronger (i.e., more cogent) arguments than weaker arguments. However, to the extent that messages are not deeply processed, stronger arguments may not be preferred over weaker ones. Variables that affect the level of processing include distraction (decreases), time pressure (decreases), personal involvement with the issue (increases), and need for cognition (increases). When individuals are not processing a message carefully, they become more likely to rely on peripheral cues or heuristic decision rules (i.e., mental short cuts) in determining the worth of an argument (e.g., “experts can be trusted,” “I agree with people I like”). However, attitude change occurring as a result of deeper processing is more likely to lead to behavior change and is more resistant to counterarguments.