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PSY 301- Introduction to Social Psychology

Overview of key concepts in social psychology.

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    Running head: Persuasion 1 Persuasion PSY 301 - Introduction to Social Psychology Instructor Date: In your essay on persuasion, you discussed various aspects such as the characteristics of the persuader, the persuasive message, and the audience. Reflecting on these components, explain how the credibility, attractiveness, and likeability of a persuader influence the effectiveness of a persuasive message. Additionally, analyze how emotions, framing, narratives, and rational appeals play a role in shaping the message. Finally, consider how audience characteristics such as gender, culture, and self - esteem impact the reception of persuasive messages. Your response should be between 700 - 1000 words and include references to key concepts from the course material.

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    Running head: Persuasion 2 e have all encountered persuasion in many different ways all the time. From late night infomercials to that person at the mall doing everything they can to get you to show interest in their product. If someone wants us to do something we do not necessarily want to do, then they have the opportunity to persuade us. In this paper I will discuss many of the most important aspects of persuasion, such as the characteristics of the persuader, what attributes are in a persuasive message, how we are influenced by the framing, emotion, narratives and rational appeals in the messages we receive. Next, we will discuss the characteristics of the audience and assess the role of gender, culture and self esteem involved in the process of receiving persuasive messages. There are many interesting facets to persuasion and persuasion will be a part of our lives forever as people find new and more convincing ways to persuade people to do certain things. To have the ability to persuade someone a person must possess certain characteristics. Two of the most important of those characteristics is the credibility, mainly their expertise and trustworthiness of the persuader, or central communicator. Credibility is defined by Feenstra as, “Believability; a factor in whether a message is persuasive. Its two aspects are expertise and trustworthiness” (Feenstra, 2011).While being credible is important, a person’s expertise plays an int egral role in a person’s ability to persuade. Expertise is defined as, “One aspect of credibility, along with trustworthiness. Describes a communicator who appears to have knowledge and is able to communicate it” (Feenstra, 2011). Going hand in hand with expertise is trustworthiness which is clearly defined as, “One aspect of credibility, along with expertise. Describes a communicator who we believe is telling us accurate information” (Feenstra, 2011). If we come across a person trying to sell us something and they do not seem to know all the important and basic facts about a product then it is assumed that that person is not an expert about the product and since they do not know all the basic and important information then they are not trustworthy, at least when it comes to that product. Therefore, we are less likely to be persuaded by that

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    Running head: Persuasion 3 person to purchase a certain product. Have you ever noticed that infomercials, commercials, and other aspects where people are trying to persuade a person to do something that the person is physically attractive? An example that comes to my mind is my friend Dale, who has been in the military for over 25 years, and I were talking about the recruiters that go to high schools and Dale said that the better looking enlisted servicemen and women were more likely to be sent to the high schools to get the girls and young men interested in their specific branch of the military. It is no secret that physically attractive people get people’s attention before they even say anything. This is used in many situations when persuading people to do or buy something. “The attractiveness of the communicator is another factor in the persuasiveness of the message. In general, more physically attractive communicators are more persuasive and less attractive communicators are less persuasive” (Feenstra, 2011). For instance, if there was a nice looking young military man at a high school then the teen girls are more likely to go up and start talking to them. If the serviceman was older and not attractive, it is highly likely that the teen girls would just walk right past without a second look. If a person is likeable you are more likely to be persuaded by them. For example, if you are friends with members of the local church, when they knock on the door and ask for donations, a person is more likely to be persuaded to donate money to their cause because they like the members of that church. Likeability is a huge factor in infomercials and other advertisements as well. If we feel that the person on the television is likeable and friendly then we are more a pt to purchase what they are offering to sell us. It is human nature to respond well to people who possess those qualities of physical attractiveness and likeability because those are the kind of people that we try to surround ourselves with. We tend to think of these people as more honest and trustworthy and honesty and trustworthiness

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