persuasive theories revised

Persuasive Theories
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Abstract
Persuasion in communication is part of human life. The paper defines persuasion as communication that is aimed at influencing or modifying the beliefs, values, beliefs, and attitudes of other people. A person communicating is obligated to make their message persuasive for them to affect another group of people or an individual to buy their beliefs. Persuasion plays a significant role in every aspect of human life that includes political, social, relational, and religious life. There are some models that have been created to help in creating a clear understanding of how persuasion works. The important theories of persuasion that are discussed in this paper include cognitive dissonance theory and social judgment theory. The cognitive dissonance theory provides that the art of persuasion does not simply involve giving new or refined beliefs. The theory predicts that influence arises as an intrapersonal event that happens when there is a disconnect between an individual’s attitudes and their behavior. On the other hand, the social judgment theory provides that the knowledge of an individual’s perspective on subjects helps in giving clues on how that person can be approached persuasively. The two theories are essential in creating an understanding of how persuasion works in human beings.

Persuasive Theories
Introduction
Human beings are naturally created to be social. However, one needs to utilize unique skills and knowledge to be considered attractive.

As such, the notion of persuasion has become both a profitable and a favorite subject. Both political and social changes are driven by the ability to persuade one another through various means that include mass-mediated persuasive messages. There has been an increased need to understand the power that compelling words bear in convincing people to follow a particular course. Every aspect of the human live is driven by the ability to persuade. As such, it is common to see a lot of advertisements that contain messages of persuasion that are meant to influence various aspects of human lives. For example, most companies have invested in producing advertisements that include television commercials, newspaper adverts, banners, and billboards among others that are meant to persuade people to consume their products or services. It is apparent that the messages of persuasion influence all aspects of human lives that include political, relational, economic, and social life. People now believe that it is essential to understand the power of persuasive messages and how they function for them to survive in the current world that is inundated with advertising and media blitz.
What is Persuasion?
Persuasion is used to refer to communication that is aimed at influencing or modifying the beliefs, values, beliefs, and attitudes of other people. A person communicating is obligated to make their message persuasive for them to affect another group of people or an individual to buy their beliefs. The message sender has a goal that they want to achieve, and their intent of communication is to pass a message that would assist in achieving the goal. Therefore, the mode or style of communication is used as a medium of achieving the goal. The packaging of the message will determine the effect that it has on the recipient. For the goal to be achieved, the recipient should possess a free will. In a case where the recipient does not comply, then force instead of persuasion, is considered to have been used. Therefore, persuasion is considered to be a part of inherent communication, as opposed to being accidental or coercive.
There are various theories that have been developed to provide an explanation of the role of persuasion and the way it works to create shifts in attitude. There are people who will respond favorably to a message while others will not. The attitude of a person plays a big role in the evaluation of the messages. It is normal for people to have attitudes towards events, companies, people, ideas, products, and policies among others. People gain attitudes from the environment. Therefore, one is not born with an attitude about something; it is a learned evaluation. This implies that attitudes can be changed from time to time. Besides, attitudes also influence the way a person behaves. For example, one’s attitude will influence whether they buy a product or not. The paper explains two theories of persuasion that are widely applied in contexts of communication. The two theories include cognitive dissonance and social judgment theory.
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
The common assumption is that persuading other people to do something requires an outside source to provide sufficient ammunition that will help in changing their attitude or beliefs. A good example of such a scenario is in the public health campaign where the designers of a message presume that the most efficient way to make the alcoholics change their attitude and behavior is to bombard them with negative messages on the dangers of alcoholism. A change in attitude will result in them quitting alcohol. Based on cognitive dissonance theory, such type of thinking may appear logical but is potentially incorrect. There are so many people in the world who acknowledge the dangers of alcoholism, but a majority of them still go on to drink. They appreciate the health and social risks of taking alcohol, but they do not change their behavior. Cognitive dissonance theory provides that the art of persuasion does not simply involve giving new or refined beliefs (Festinger, 1957). The theory predicts that influence arises as an intrapersonal event that happens when there is a disconnect between an individual’s attitudes and their behavior. This results in the creation of tension that is eventually resolved by the alteration of a person’s beliefs or behavior, thus leading to a change.
Individuals have schemata that they use to organize any new information. Any new information is subjected to the schemata to create familiarity (Cooper, 2011). It helps in creating understanding and making the new information useful. New stimulus is connected to the previous experiences. For example, when a person meets a total stranger and then they are asked to identify them, the person will try to link the stranger with another familiar individual that they have interacted with before. The connection serves as a schema that is used to relate to the stranger. The inconsistency of new information with an individual’s previous beliefs will lead to dissonance (Cooper, 2011). Dissonance is considered an essential tool for persuasion because it is normal for human beings to feel guilty in case they hold a contradictory belief or attitude. In this case, they will try to do everything that they can to reduce the discomfort. A behavior that is not related to a person’s beliefs leads to dissonance. Therefore, the individuals will seek to restore the comfort through changing their behavior or attitude.
It is possible to take advantage of dissonance to persuade people to change their attitude and behavior because most human prefer congruency between their behavior and beliefs. People will be motivated to change their beliefs based on the based on the level of distress or discomfort that they experience. An action that creates the highest distress will lead to a higher degree of discomfort thus leading to a motivation to modify one’s behavior or change their beliefs. Cognitive dissonance theory is thus used to persuade through the exploitation of the dissonance (Festinger, 1957). The individual sending the message exploits the dissonance while at the same time offering solutions. The recipient of the message will thus adopt the suggested solutions to modify their attitude and behavior.
The principles of cognitive dissonance theory have been widely in use for a long time. The principles of the theory are used to reinforce the wisdom of making particular choices. A buyer is convinced to purchase a particular product by the reinforcement of their decision to buy the product through explaining some advantages that it offers. The prospective buyers are convinced that they are making a better decision based on the advantages of the products or service that they stand to gain, as explained by the seller.
Social Judgement Theory
Social judgment theory principles are used in daily human interactions. It provides that the knowledge of an individual’s attitude on subjects helps in providing clues on how that person can be approached in a persuasive effort (Sherif & Sherif, 1967). The theory places a lot of focus on the assessment of persuasive messages. While research focuses on cognitive processes while seeking to understand how persuasive messages function, there are other numerous implications that communicators must seek to understand while seeking to persuade other people. The theory provides that human beings make evaluations or judgments on the content of messages based on their stance on the topic messages (Sherif & Sherif, 1967). Apart from their stance, attitude also plays a prominent role in whether an individual will accept or reject an idea. The attitude of a person will help in creating acceptance, rejection, or non-commitment.
The way in which a person reacts to a persuasive message will be dependent on their position on the topic. Therefore, one of the crucial steps in the process of social judgment includes the mapping of the recipient’s attitude on a topic. One can get the attitude of an individual through creating an ordered alternative questionnaire that will have set of statements that represent alternative points of view on one topic (Sherif & Sherif, 1967). The statements are created in a way that they create a continuum. The first statement will have an extreme view that is different from the last statement. In between the first and the last statement, there will be other statements that create a differing view gradually. The respondents will be obligated to mark on the paper the statement that they agree with, that they do not agree with, and the one that they consider either acceptable or nonacceptable.
According to social judgment theory, a person holds an issue as important or not important based on the level of their ego involvement. When the ego is highly involved with the topic, then the issue is considered as necessary (Sherif & Sherif, 1967). The topic has a personal significance on the individual hence they see the issue as critical to their sense of self. Therefore, a persuader’s task is to establish to what extent a person is an ego involved in a topic or issue. It helps them to predict on certain issues concerning the receiver of the persuasive message. Caring much about a topic makes one hold an intense position on the subject. However, when one does not hold any opinion on an issue, they are likely to be open to new ideas and suggestions.
Social judgment theory provides that an individual makes a decision on a topic or issue based on their pre-existing attitude. They are likely to comprise in areas that they hold strong opinions. When presented with a questionnaire that has the different set of questions, the responses that are given can be analyzed through two processes that include assimilation effect and contrast effect. When the message is far away from an individual’s stance, then it is considered to have a contrast effect (Sherif & Sherif, 1967). There is a difference between the position of the message and the position of the recipient. The recipient will, therefore, stick strongly to their position and ignore the message presented. The assimilation effect is the opposite of contrast effect. The recipient holds no position of their own with regards to the position of the message (Sherif & Sherif, 1967). It implies that message falls within the limits of acceptance. There will be a slight difference between the position of the message and the position of the recipient.
It is therefore vital that a person who is seeking to persuade an audience or an individual should know the pre-existing attitudes of the recipient to a topic. The knowledge of their opinion greatly determines how the message will be received. A person who does not have a strong attitude on a topic will be highly unlikely to reject its position. Determination of the attitude of the recipient helps a person to understand whether the position of a message is within the latitude of rejection, non-committal, or the latitude of acceptance. A message that falls within the latitude of acceptance does not persuade but is helpful in the reinforcement of the already existing ideas.
Conclusion
Persuasion in communication is something that has existed for a very long time. The increasing levels of competition among individuals and companies necessitated the need to have an understanding of how persuasion works. As a result, there were some researches that were conducted. The numerous researches then led to the development of theories that are used as models for understanding persuasion. The fundamental theories that were developed include the cognitive dissonance theory and the social judgment theory. According to cognitive dissonance theory, influence arises as an intrapersonal event that happens when there is a disconnect between an individual’s attitudes and their behavior. The difference leads to the creation of discomfort that eventually leads to a change in behavior to create congruency. Social judgment theory, on the other hand, provides that the knowledge of an individual’s attitude on subjects helps in providing clues on how that person can be approached in a persuasive effort. The two theories are important in creating an understanding of how persuasion works in human beings.

References
Cooper, J. (2011). Cognitive dissonance theory. Handbook of theories of social psychology, 1, 377-398.Festinger, L. (1957). Cognitive dissonance theory. 1989) Primary Prevention of HIV/AIDS: Psychological Approaches. Newbury Park, California, Sage Publications.Sherif, C. W., & Sherif, M. (Eds.). (1967). Attitude, ego-involvement, and change. Wiley.