Techniques of Persuasion

1. Tools of the Trade Techniques of Persuasion

2. Communication: Sender conveys message to intended receiver • Sender = author, speaker, communicator, etc. Always ask: Who is the true sender? • Types of message: Information, Argument, and/or Persuasion. Always ask: What are the messages in this communication? • Intended receiver may not be actual receiver, may be separated by space and time, may not even exist. Always ask: Who is the intended audience for this message? I. ELEMENTS of Communication

3. Communication: Sender conveys message to intended receiver • Sender = author, speaker, communicator, etc. Always ask: Who is the true sender? • Types of message: Information, Argument, and/or Persuasion. Always ask: What are the messages in this communication? • Intended receiver may not be actual receiver, may be separated by space and time, may not even exist. Always ask: Who is the intended audience for this message? I. Forms of Communication

4. Communication: Sender conveys message to intended receiver • Sender = author, speaker, communicator, etc. Always ask: Who is the true sender? • Types of message: Information, Argument, and/or Persuasion. Always ask: What are the messages in this communication? • Intended receiver = target, audience, recipient, etc. Need not be actual receiver; may be separated by space and time; may not even exist. Always ask: Who is the intended audience for this message? I. Forms of Communication

5. Think about how words, images, and sounds are used (message), by whom (sender) and for what purpose (intended and actual receivers) This applies to all communication – including “just the facts.” 4. Implication: Critically Analyze Communication

6. From Yemen (October 15, 2011) A woman holding her wounded son in her arms, inside a mosque used as a field hospital by demonstrators against the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

7. From Egypt (FebRUARY 7, 2011) Young Egyptians posted videos online that they had recorded earlier in Tahrir Square in Cairo. The group collected testimonies of the protesters and published them on social networking sites

8. From Egypt (FebRUARY 7, 2011)

9. Jim Johnson (2012) asks what each photograph says about the role of women in the Arab Spring. What is the answer? Women Compare the Messages

10. Information: Facts • All information is persuasion, if only an attempt to persuade the receiver that the information is truthful. • The context of information largely determines its received meaning: B. TYPES OF Messages

11. See handout Information: Just the Facts?

12. Information: Facts • All information is persuasion, if only an attempt to persuade the receiver that the information is truthful. • The context of information largely determines its received meaning (but not necessarily its truth value). This is not (just) a matter of accuracy, but depends on who is using it for what purpose. B. TYPES OF Messages

13. Jet fuel burns at 1400 degrees. Steel melts at 2750 degrees. Information: Context Matters

14. Toulmin model of argumentation -- views proper arguments as having up to six parts, but only three are necessary for a complete argument: • Claim: The conclusion you wish to prove, or which you wish your audience to accept • Evidence/Data/Grounds: Facts that you will use to prove your claim • Warrant (often implied): A logical principle which implies that if your data is true, then so is your claim. 2. aRGUMENTS

15. Argument Example (Robinson, 2012) “[The] single easiest, fastest thing your company can do to boost its output and profits…is to get everybody off the 55-hour-a-week treadmill, and back onto a 40-hour footing… By [1937], there were a solid five decades of industrial research that proved, beyond a doubt, that if you wanted to keep your workers bright, healthy, productive, safe and efficient over a sustained stretch of time, you kept them to no more than 40 hours a week and eight hours a day. [Evan Robinson writes], ‘Throughout the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, these studies were apparently conducted by the hundreds’ … On average, you get no more widgets [from industrial workers out of a 10-hour day than you do out of an eight-hour day. Likewise, the overall output for the work week will be exactly the same at the end of six days as it would be after five days.”

16. CLAIM: The 40-Hour Work Week Is Profitable “[The] single easiest, fastest thing your company can do to boost its output and profits…is to get everybody off the 55-hour-a-week treadmill, and back onto a 40-hour footing… By [1937], there were a solid five decades of industrial research that proved, beyond a doubt, that if you wanted to keep your workers bright, healthy, productive, safe and efficient over a sustained stretch of time, you kept them to no more than 40 hours a week and eight hours a day. [Evan Robinson writes], ‘Throughout the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, these studies were apparently conducted by the hundreds’ … On average, you get no more widgets [from industrial workers] out of a 10-hour day than you do out of an eight-hour day. Likewise, the overall output for the work week will be exactly the same at the end of six days as it would be after five days.”

17. EVIDENCE: Peak Widget Production At 40 Hours “[The] single easiest, fastest thing your company can do to boost its output and profits…is to get everybody off the 55-hour-a-week treadmill, and back onto a 40-hour footing… By [1937], there were a solid five decades of industrial research that proved, beyond a doubt, that if you wanted to keep your workers bright, healthy, productive, safe and efficient over a sustained stretch of time, you kept them to no more than 40 hours a week and eight hours a day. [Evan Robinson writes], ‘Throughout the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, these studies were apparently conducted by the hundreds’ … On average, you get no more widgets [from industrial workers] out of a 10-hour day than you do out of an eight-hour day. Likewise, the overall output for the work week will be exactly the same at the end of six days as it would be after five days.” [that]

18. Warrants (First Implied one)Higher Output, Fewer Hours = ↑ Profit “[The] single easiest, fastest thing your company can do to boost its output and profits…is to get everybody off the 55-hour-a-week treadmill, and back onto a 40-hour footing… By [1937], there were a solid five decades of industrial research that proved, beyond a doubt, that if you wanted to keep your workers bright, healthy, productive, safe and efficient over a sustained stretch of time, you kept them to no more than 40 hours a week and eight hours a day. [Evan Robinson writes], ‘Throughout the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, these studies were apparently conducted by the hundreds’ … On average, you get no more widgets [from industrial workers] out of a 10-hour day than you do out of an eight-hour day. Likewise, the overall output for the work week will be exactly the same at the end of six days as it would be after five days.” [that]

19. Warrants (Second Implied one)Peak Efficiency for Industrial Production = Peak Efficiency for Your Company “[The] single easiest, fastest thing your company can do to boost its output and profits…is to get everybody off the 55-hour-a-week treadmill, and back onto a 40-hour footing… By [1937], there were a solid five decades of industrial research that proved, beyond a doubt, that if you wanted to keep your workers bright, healthy, productive, safe and efficient over a sustained stretch of time, you kept them to no more than 40 hours a week and eight hours a day. [Evan Robinson writes], ‘Throughout the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, these studies were apparently conducted by the hundreds’ … On average, you get no more widgets [from industrial workers] out of a 10-hour day than you do out of an eight-hour day. Likewise, the overall output for the work week will be exactly the same at the end of six days as it would be after five days.” [that]

20. An argument can be invalid because i. No warrant can connect the evidence to the claim (i.e. the argument is a non sequitur) ii. Its evidence is not true (e.g. the studies were incorrect; industrial production peaks when employees work more than 40 hours/week)  question of fact, not logic iii. A necessary warrant is unproven (e.g. that optimal hours for industrial production are also optimal hours for the provision of services or production of information) Rebutting Arguments b.

21. Aristotle identified three central elements or types of persuasive appeals: Logos: The actual words and symbols used (appeal to reason)  Information or Argument about the issue Ethos: The credibility of the speaker (appeal to trust/respect) Pathos: The ability of the audience to identify with the speaker (appeal to emotion) Everyday efforts to persuade are mainly ethos and pathos, while arguments in academic journals are mainly logos. 3. Persuasion

22. Does 2 + 2 = 4? Can you prove it? • Proofs (logos) do exist, so we can believe it is true. • BUT classic proof (Peano, 1889) requires nine unproven assumptions (axioms) – This rebuttal is also logos. • x = x. • If x = y, then y = x. • If x = y and y = z, then x = z. • If x = a for some a, then a is a natural number. • 0 is a natural number. • There is a function succ (the successor function) such that succ(x) is a natural number. • The function succ is injective. • If A is a set such that and for all we have , then all natural numbers are contained in A. LOGOS: Another Example

23. Watch Michael Dukakis ignore pathos in 1988 Competitive academic policy debate focuses on logos – discarding the ability to speak with untrained audiences altogether! IS LOGOS ENOUGH?

24. Aristotle identified three central elements or types of persuasive appeals: Logos: The actual words and symbols used (appeal to reason)  Information or Argument about the issue Ethos: The credibility of the speaker (appeal to trust/respect) Pathos: The ability of the audience to identify with the speaker (appeal to emotion) Everyday efforts to persuade are mainly ethos and pathos, while arguments in academic journals are mainly logos. 3. Persuasion

25. Ethos is about the speaker – his or her credibility and trustworthiness Bill Fristuses his experience as a physician in a debate over a law to prevent feeding tubes from being withdrawn from Terry Schiavo. Since he also cites data, the argument mixes logos and ethos. ETHOS: EXAMPLE 1

26. “My Dear Fellow Clergymen… I think I should indicate why I am here in Birmingham, since you have been influenced by the view which argues against "outsiders coming in.“…. I…am here because I was invited here… But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their ‘thus saith the Lord’ far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.” • Martin Luther King, Jr., "Letter from a Birmingham Jail” ETHOS: Example 2

27. Aristotle identified three central elements or types of persuasive appeals: Logos: The actual words and symbols used (appeal to reason)  Information or Argument about the issue Ethos: The credibility of the speaker (appeal to trust/respect) Pathos: The ability of the audience to identify with the speaker (appeal to emotion) Everyday efforts to persuade are mainly ethos and pathos, while arguments in academic journals are mainly logos. 3. Persuasion

28. Adlai Stevenson grills the Soviet representative to the UN during the Cuban Missile Crisis Virtually no logos or ethos here, just use of humor (perhaps) and anger Pathos: Example 1

29. John Boehner speaks in favor of funding the Iraq War without imposing a withdrawal timetable in 2007 Note that only one sentence mentions consequences – “regret.” Appeal is to patriotism and sympathy/empathy with the speaker. Pathos: Example 2

30. Logic and evidence are usually privileged in academic circles  Logos important Outside one’s own expertise, one cannot evaluate the facts. Nobody gets to be an expert on everything or to personally verify every statement  Ethos important Emotion is not logical, but if we don’t care, we don’t change  Pathos important All are important for persuasion, whether honest and ethical persuasion or Which is “best?” d.

31. Persuasion is possible – Many studies show that framing the same question in different words causes respondents to answer it differently. Evidence also exists for most other techniques of persuasion (and propaganda). Does Persuasion Work? e.

32. U.S. high school seniors who believe that there is a “great risk” to regular marijuana use doubled from 35% in 1978 to 73% in 1993. • Reported marijuana use also dropped from 37% to 16% • Smoking rate declined from 50% to 25% in 30 years. • Government campaign to encourage use of seatbelts flopped. • 7 cable TV messages broadcast 943 times a day during prime time to 6400 households. • Studies showed that the campaign had no effect • What separates successful campaigns from failed ones? Examples

33. Assumptions • People want to have “correct” attitudes and beliefs, but cannot give every issue the attention it deserves (limited time, many issues). • People must compromise by paying more attention to some things than others • This leaves two routes to persuasion – the central route of information provision (requires time and focus) and the peripheral route of incidental cues like the attractiveness of the speaker, graphics, music, etc. II. A Theory of Persuasion: The elaboration likelihood model (ELM)

34. The central route involves relating the information to what the receiver already knows and assessing the information’s likely effect on the receiver -- the theory calls this “elaboration.” • When do people elaborate? • When they have motivation: immediate, personal impact • When they have the ability: critical thinking skills • Predictions: • People more likely to elaborate when stakes are high – large purchases, major life decisions, etc. Persuasion must target central route by providing lots of evidence. • Attitudes resulting from central route persuasion will be relatively stable predictors of future behavior C. the Central Route

35. Used when evidence is weak (central route will fail) and/or elaboration likelihood is low (no elaboration is expected) • Note that the peripheral route isn’t “subconscious” – it’s just something to which we don’t pay much attention • Peripheral cues have many sources: communicator, context (music, food, cause message to be perceived as positive), message (fear can work if you provide the solution), personal appeals, forewarning (used to reinforce support), and distraction (used to undermine opposition) • Predictions: • Attitudes can be changed by peripheral cues, BUT • Such changes tend to be short-lived and unstable D. The Peripheral Route

36. Jury study on witness credibility -- Speech style influences persuasion. • Question: Approximately how long did you stay before the ambulance arrived? • (Confident) Twenty minutes. Long enough to help get Mrs. Davis straightened out. • (Hesitating) Oh, it seems like it was about uh, twenty minutes. Just long enough to help my friend Mrs. Davis, you know get straightened out. • Straightforward witnesses rated as more competent and credible even when saying the same thing. • Study in which doctors sent letters to their patients who smoked. • 8% of patients who received positively framed messages (if you quit now you will live longer) attempted to quit. • 30% of patients who received negatively framed messages (if you continue to smoke you will die sooner) attempted to quit. Examples of Peripheral Cues

38. The message itself: Repeated appeals to self-interest of receiver “work” best • Speaker credibility (ethos) and perceived views: • We prefer to hear from people with our tastes on matters of taste, but we prefer to hear from “independent” observers on matters of fact. • A celebrity or attractive model is most effective when the audience has low involvement, the theme is simple, and broadcast channels are used. An exciting spokesperson can attract attention to a message that may otherwise be ignored. III. Scientific Evidence oF Effectiveness

39. Positive generally works better than negative (surprising to many communication scholars). Strong emotional appeals and fear arousal are most effective when the audience has minimal concern about or interest in the topic. C. Affect (Pathos)

40. Radio and TV messages tend to be more persuasive than print, but if the message is complex, better comprehension is achieved through the print media. C. Medium

41. Camera angles enhance perspective, such as low angles that give the subject power. Mise-en-scene (set and setting inside camera frame) creates cultural and ideological context. Is the film shot at the Capitol, a suburb, a poor neighborhood? Sound effects animate products or even ideas, giving them emotion. Lighting is used to draw your eye to certain details. Editing is used to pace and generate excitement. Notice how military and video game ads have very fast cuts, usually a scene change every second 2. Effects in Documentary Film

42. How Camera Angles Modify the Message

43. Camera angles enhance perspective, such as low angles that give the subject power. Mise-en-scene (set and setting inside camera frame) creates cultural and ideological context. Is the film shot at the Capitol, a suburb, a poor neighborhood? Sound effects animate products or even ideas, giving them emotion. Lighting is used to draw your eye to certain details. Editing is used to pace and generate excitement. Notice how military and video game ads have very fast cuts, usually a scene change every second 2. Effects in Documentary Film

44. How Editing Effects Modify the Message

45. The critical standpoint. • Stepping outside oneself: Chapter 9 describes writing about “the point of view adopted” by the filmmaker “and its implications for you.” • Reminder: Always think about how words, images, and sounds are used (message), by whom (sender) and for what purpose (intended and actual receivers) IV. Conclusions: Critical Thinking About Film

46. Is it in the form of an argument? • If not, what is its intended effect? • If so, is the argument valid? Look for • Falsifiable statements of fact (evidence) that are indeed falsified (prove it with an argument based on evidence of your own) • Logical fallacies (missing or faulty warrants that are critical to the argument). See handout (and future notes). B. Analyzing the Message

47. Rhetoric – logos, ethos, and pathos. See the scientific findings on speaker characteristics and affect. Remember the ELM: Be aware that peripheral cues (including camera angles, mise-en-scene, music, etc) may send different or additional messages than the direct, obvious message (possibly simple entertainment) delivered via the central route 2. What persuasive techniques are used?

48. How might one draw a distinction between “legitimate” attempts to inform or even persuade and “illegitimate” propaganda? Topic of next set of notes… C. Is it Propaganda?