Understanding Your Audience’s Disposition

Understanding Your Audience’s Disposition

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According to social judgment theory (often called ego involvement), your ability to successfully persuade your audience depends on the audience’s current attitudes or disposition toward your topic (Sherif, Sherif, & Nebergall, 1965). As such, you might think about your audience members as belonging to one of three different categories: the receptive audience, the neutral audience, or the hostile audience.

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Coretta Scott King found a receptive audience when she spoke to other like-minded individuals at a press conference on ending the Vietnam War.

You must also consider what you want your audience to do at the end of your speech. A lot of what listeners will be willing to do is related to their latitude of acceptance and rejection, which is the range of positions on a topic that are acceptable or unacceptable to them based on their anchor position—or their position on the topic at the outset of the speech (Sherif & Sherif, 1967). You can probably get members of a receptive audience to do quite a bit, including change their behavior. Members of your neutral audience might be willing to sign a petition or to discuss the topic with friends, but they’re not going to go out of their way to help you. When it comes to your hostile audience, it’s unlikely that you’ll see much behavior change. But you might be able to effect some level of belief and attitude change, helping them at least see your point of view.

Technology and You

Do you find it more or less difficult to read an audience’s disposition in a virtual or online communication? How might you determine whether your online audience is receptive, neutral, or hostile?