PERSUASION IN SOCIETY HERBERT W. SIMONS with JOANNE MORREALE and BRUCE GRONBECK Table of Contents List of Artwork in Persuasion in Society xiv About the Author xvii Acknowledgments xix Preface xx Part 1: Understanding Persuasion 1. The Study of Persuasion 3 Defining Persuasion 5 Why Is Persuasion Important? 10 Studying Persuasion 14 The Behavioral Approach: Social-Scientific Research on the Communication-Persuasion Matrix 15 The Critical Studies Approach: Case Studies and “Genre-alizations” 17 Summary 20 Questions and Projects for Further Study 21 2. The Psychology of Persuasion: Basic Principles 25 Beliefs and Values as Building Blocks of Attitudes 27 Persuasion by Degrees: Adapting to Different Audiences 29 Schemas: Attitudes as Knowledge Structures 32 From Attitudes to Actions: The Role of Subjective Norms 34 Elaboration Likelihood Model: Two Routes to Persuasion 34 Persuasion as a Learning Process 36 Persuasion as Information Processing 37 Persuasion and Incentives 38 Persuasion by Association 39 Persuasion as Psychological Unbalancing and Rebalancing 40 Summary 41 Questions and Projects for Further Study 42 3. Persuasion Broadly Considered 47 Two Levels of Communication: Content and Relational 49 Impression Management 51 Deception About Persuasive Intent 51 Deceptive Deception 52 Expression Games 54 Persuasion in the Guise of Objectivity 55 Accounting Statements and Cost-Benefit Analyses 55 News Reporting 56 Scientific Reporting 57 History Textbooks 58 Reported Discoveries of Social Problems 59 How Multiple Messages Shape Ideologies 59 The Making of McWorld 63 Summary 66 Questions and Projects for Further Study 68 Part 2: The Coactive Approach 4. Coactive Persuasion 73 Using Receiver-Oriented Approaches 74 Being Situation Sensitive 76 Combining Similarity and Credibility 79 Building on Acceptable Premises 82 Appearing Reasonable and Providing Psychological Income 85 Using Communication Resources 86 Summary 88 Questions and Projects for Further Study 89 5. Resources of Communication 93 Resources of Language 95 Intensify/Downplay 95 Hugh Rank’s Six Components of Intensify/Downplay 96 Compliance-Gaining Tactics 102 Nonverbal Resources 104 Visual and Audiovisual Resources 108 Resources of the New Media 110 Summary 111 Questions and Projects for Further Study 112 6. Framing and Reframing 115 Metaphors as Frames 117 Creative Reframing Through Generative Metaphors 119 “Frame” as Metaphor 120 Cultural Frames and Verbal Repertoires 121 Research on Frames and Reframes 123 Metacommunicative Frames 124 Reflexive Metacommunications 124 Responsive Metacommunications 125 Reframing in Political Confrontations: “Going Meta” 125 Reframing in Psychotherapy 128 Summary 130 Questions and Projects for Further Study 132 7. Cognitive Shorthands 135 Cialdini’s Seven Principles 136 Contrast 136 Reciprocity 137 Consistency 138 Social Proof 139 Liking 140 Authority 140 Scarcity 142 Mother Turkeys or Faulty Automatic Pilots? 143 The Mother Turkey Hypothesis 143 A Critique of the Mother Turkey Hypothesis 144 An Alternative Hypothesis: The Faulty Automatic Pilot 148 The Highly Persuasible Persuadee 149 Get-Rich Scheme 150 Telephone System Anyone? 151 Summary 152 Questions and Projects for Further Study 153 8. Reasoning and Evidence 155 Propositions of Policy, Fact, and Value 158 Changing, Repairing, or Retaining a Policy: The Stock Issues Revisited 161 Types of Evidence as Resources of Argumentation 167 Fallacies Reconsidered 171 The Case of Gulf War Syndrome 174 Summary 175 Questions and Projects for Further Study 177 Part 3: Contexts for Persuasion 9. Going Public 181 The Genuinely Committed Persuader 182 Strategic Planning: A Three-Step Process 183 Step 1: Goals, Audience, Situation 183 Step 2: Initial Strategizing 186 Step 3: Test-Marketing and Revision 191 Organizing Messages 194 Introduction 195 Body 198 Conclusion 199 Issues in Message Design 200 Explicit Versus Implicit Conclusion Drawing 200 “One-Sided” Versus “Both-Sided” Presentations 201 Magnitude of Discrepancy Controversy 202 Fear Appeals 204 Adapting to Different Audiences 205 Summary 207 Questions and Projects for Further Study 208 10. Planning Campaigns 211 Campaign Planning 212 Setting Campaign Goals 212 Undertaking Research and Development 214 Formulating a Basic Strategy 215 Mobilizing for a Campaign 217 Seeking Legitimacy for a Campaign 218 Promoting a Cause 219 Activating Campaign Audiences 221 Types of Campaigns 223 Indoctrination Campaigns 224 Public Relations Campaigns 228 Corporate Issue Advocacy 229 Crisis Management Campaigns 233 Summary 238 Questions and Projects for Further Study 239 11. Staging Political Campaigns 243 Persuasion in the Four Stages of Presidential Campaigning 245 Pre-Primary Period (Surfacing) 245 Primary Period (Winnowing) 246 Convention Period (Legitimating) 247 General Election Period (Contesting) 248 Machiavellianism in Political Campaigns: A Guide to Getting Elected to High Office 251 General Strategies 251 Fundraising 252 Physical Appearance 252 Choosing Arguments and Appeals 253 Video Politics 254 Advertising 256 Endorsements 257 Speech Making 257 Campaign Debates 258 Campaign Decisions That Matter: Five Case Studies 259 Case 11.1: “Furlough” Ad 259 Case 11.2: A Place Called Hope 263 Case 11.3: Should Dole Have Attacked Clinton’s Character in 1996? 266 Case 11.4: Clinton’s Early Issue Advocacy Advertising 267 Case 11.5: George W. Bush Campaign in South Carolina 269 Summary 271 Questions and Projects for Further Study 272 12. Analyzing Product Advertising 275 The Changing Character of Advertising Campaigns 277 Idolatry (1890-1925) 278 Iconology (1925-1945) 278 Narcissism (1945-1965) 279 Totemism (1965-1985) 280 Case Study: The Best Beer 282 Today’s Advertising: The Pantheistic Phase 283 Narrowcasting 283 Breaking With Tradition: Anti-Ads 284 Misdirection in the Language of Advertising 288 Visual Deception in Product Advertising 290 Subliminal Advertising 292 Summary 295 Questions and Projects for Further Study 297 13. Talking Through Differences 299 Persuasion in Social Conflicts 300 Cooperation and Competition in Mixed-Motive Conflicts 302 Symmetrical Versus Asymmetrical Conflicts 303 Productive and Destructive Conflicts 305 Dealing With Conflicts Productively 306 Getting to Yes in Business Negotiations 309 Public Debates 310 The Persuasion Dialogue 314 Moving to Dialogue in Interpersonal Conflicts 316 Case 1: A Taped Conversation About a Taped Conversation 316 Case 2: A Structured Conversation About Abortion 320 Summary 323 Questions and Projects for Further Study 324 14. Leading Social Movements 329 What Are Social Movements? 332 Types of Social Movements 333 Tactics of Social Movements 334 Confrontation 335 Cultural Politics 335 Social Protests and Mass Media 336 Leading Social Movements: The Requirements-Problems-Strategies (RPS) Approach 338 Requirements 339 Problems 339 Strategies 341 Open- and Closed-Minded Movements 346 The Fate of Social Movements 348 Summary 349 Questions and Projects for Further Study 351 15. More About Ethics 355 Perspectives on Ethics 357 Pragmatism 357 Utilitarianism 360 Universalism 362 Dialogic Ethics 362 Situationalism 363 The Ethics of Faculty Advocacy in the College Classroom 365 The Mindful Society 369 Prime-Time Entertainment Sellout 370 Newspaper Sellout 371 The Ethics of Being Ethically Sensitive 374 Summary 376 Questions and Projects for Further Study 377 Appendix I: Resources for the Persuader 381 Appendix II: Different Strokes for Different Folks 385 Appendix III: Ethical, Unethical, or Borderline? A Self-Survey 389 Index 401 Preface ersuasion in Society is an integrative, comprehensive guidebook to under- P standing, practicing, and analyzing persuasion. It brings together the aca- demic contributions of humanists and social scientists and adds to them the insights of professional persuaders and communication analysts. That the study of persua- sion is important—indeed vital—should need little argument. Human beings are both creators and products of their societies in a never-ending cycle. In the United States, our economic system, our republican form of government, our commitments to freedom of speech and religion and to equality of opportunity, our conceptions of ourselves as a sovereign people, and even our idea of nationhood can be traced to ef- forts at persuasion in centuries past. Indeed, there is scarcely a cultural truism that was not at one time or another the subject of considerable controversy. What is con- sidered true today is certain to be questioned in the future as new efforts at persua- sion take the place of the old. Understanding society, then, requires understanding persuasion. The study of persuasion also has direct, personal payoffs. A recent survey of 2,800 executives by the American Management Association asked, “What is the No. 1 need for success in business today?” The overwhelming response was “to persuade others of my value and the value of my ideas” (Story, 1997, p. 3). Persuading others is one side of the persuasion equation; the other is responding intelligently and discerningly to the armies of message makers who compete for your attention, your agreement, your involvement, and your money. Persuasion is the en- gine of our market-driven global economy, say the authors of a recent article in the American Economic Review—its title: “One Quarter of GDP Is Persuasion” (McCloskey & Klamer, 1995). In our increasingly smaller but more complicated world, being an intelligent consumer of persuasive messages is not easy. Take the problem of message density. xx ᮤ Preface ᮣ xxi