Chapter . Critical Learning Exercises - Persuasion, Attitudes, and Behavior

Students should correctly identify that the focus on the car’s performance ratings, gas mileage, and dependability, comparing it to other cars in its class, is targeting the central route of persuasion, which focuses on facts and carefully thinking about the message’s argument. Meanwhile, the actor’s emotions and expressions, the driving gloves, the revving sound of the engine, and the scenery and dramatic music are targeting the peripheral route, which focuses on irrelevant aspects due to an unwillingness or inability to think carefully about the message’s argument. Students will vary regarding which elements of the commercial they find most compelling but should support how they view the argument—as something to think carefully about (central route) or not (peripheral route).

Students’ answers will vary depending on their opinion of the polarization of the political climate in their country. Suggestions for how students think this problem should be approached, especially in regard to getting people information that doesn’t reinforce their political views, may include recognizing reactance theory, which explains that people resist being persuaded when it infringes on their freedom; inoculation, which is when people have built up resistance by defending themselves against weaker arguments first; using statistics in persuasive messages; having people associate a position with positive feelings; mere exposure effect, where increasing exposure to a position will increase liking for it; balance theory, which relies on linking messages to things the person already likes; or delivering messages when people are already in a good mood.

Students’ recommendations for who should be in the commercial will likely be based on someone they think their audience already likes, such as a popular basketball player. The proposed message may have a promotion-focus, and the selected age group may be 18- to 25-year-olds. The recommendations should be supported by the chapter’s discussion of the most influential or persuasive factors in relation to the basketball sneaker commercial: 18- to 25-year-olds; people with low self-esteem; people with normal or low intelligence; using one-sided argument; focusing on those motivated to make a good impression by using peripheral route cues (appearance, celebrity spokesperson, etc.); and using a promotion focus that highlights positive outcomes.

Students’ suggestions will vary but may focus on increasing the child’s positive attitude toward responsible behavior, making responsible behaviors seem important to others (positive norm perception), increasing the child’s confidence that they can actually be responsible and avoid risky behaviors (a strong sense of personal control), and increasing the child’s willingness to model responsible behavior to avoid impulsive reactions in the moment.