IPR Working Paper Series WP-21-28 A Framework for the Study of Persuasion James Druckman Northwestern University and IPR Version: May 19, 2021 DRAFT Please do not quote or distribute without permission. Institute for Policy Research ● 2040 Sheridan Rd., Evanston, IL 60208 ● 847.491.3395 ●
[email protected] Abstract Persuasion is a vital part of politics – who wins elections and policy disputes often depends on which side can persuade more people. Given this centrality, the study of persuasion has a long history with an enormous number of theories and empirical inquiries. But it is fragmented, with few generalizable findings. Druckman unifies previously disparate dimensions of this topic by presenting a framework focusing on actors (speakers and receivers), treatments (topics, content, media), outcomes (attitudes, behaviors, emotions, identity), and settings (competition, space, time, process, culture). This “Generalizing Persuasion (GP) Framework” organizes distinct findings and offers researchers a structure in which to situate their work. He concludes with a discussion of the normative implications of persuasion. Forthcoming in: Annual Review of Political Science INTRODUCTION The study of persuasion has a long and storied history, dating back to Aristotle and the Greeks (Barnes 1984). In the 20th century, social scientists joined modern philosophers and rhetoricians (Foucault 1980, Habermas 1984, Booth 2004) in the pursuit of better understanding persuasion. Like the ancients, modern social scientists focus on how speakers’ characteristics, what they say, and how recipients think determine whether a given persuasive attempt is successful. The framework – characterized long ago by Lasswell’s (1948) “who says what, to whom, in which channel” – captures how much of the social sciences treat persuasion (e.g., O’Keefe 2016, Lau 2020).