When it come to persuading people in through media according to Richard Petty and John Cacioppo there are two ways to do this. First there is the central route to persuasion, which involves looking at the different arguments, facts, figures, and systemically coming to a decision. Second is the peripheral route to persuasion, which relies on considering the strength of the arguments, by the person in the add, cues that suggest right or wrong, or the attractiveness of the arrangement without giving much thought. The second is a very powerful tool, which has may operations used to persuade you, and can be seen in many political ads you see on tv. Such as this one:
The major operation of persuasion seen in this ad is conditioning. Conditioning is when the audience is repeatedly exposed to the same message. In this add the repeated message is first, a video clip of Obama saying something in 2008 and then again saying the same thing in 2012, then this format is repeated again and again with Obama repeating different things. To show that conditioning in persuasion works, Richard Petty and Pablo Brinol did a study in 2006. While their study they do not believe that their models of persuasion do not replace other models, they do help to understand some unknowns of other models that show conditioning.
A second operation of persuasion used in this article is "fear + direction = action." Matthew McGlone’s study showed that when people are made fearful of something, they are more likely to act. This add ends with the text “Same speeches, Same Promises.” “Are you better off?” This is "fear" part of the equation. Its making you fearful that if Obama is reelected, he will do more of the same and if you were not better of after his first term, more of the same will happen in his second term. The "direction" part comes in at the very end of the ad where it tells you how you can learn more or donate for the Republican National Committee. The "action" part comes from the audience not wanting more of the same, seeing where they can learn more, going there and donating money.
Another operation, shown by John Jost, is based off of political orientation. Jost’s study shows that conservatives are moved by arguments that cause fear and show the issues in a black and white way. Whereas liberals are more likely to be moved by a fact based arguments that use reason more than appealing to strong emotions. Being that this a conservative ad, it would make sense that this ad is more black and white. First in the message that Obama has been repeating the same messages for the past four years. And second, appealing to the emotion of self preservation, asking “Are you better off?”
And an operation not talked about in Elliot Aronson’s “The Social Animal” that I think is new and could come into play in this ad and possibly other ads would be having a change or lack of change in the message of the speaker in the ad. For example, in this ad, does Obama saying the same things in 2008 and in 2012 hurt him or help him? Having a study done to show whether a change in message is a strength of keeping up with the times, or viewed as a negative in change of ideas or inconsistency; or whether staying with the same ideas is seen as positive in consistency, or in a negative way of not being up with the times. I think that in this ad Obama’s same messages are meant to be shown in a negative light, being that in four years he has not changed anything and has not done what he said he set out to do.
Carlos Mejia
mejia540@regis.edu
References
Aronson, E. (2011). The social animal. (11th ed., pp. 59-112). United States of America: Worth Publishing.
Jost, J., Glaser, J., Kruglanski, A. W., & Sulloway, F. (2003) Political conservatism as motivated social cognition. Psychological Bulletin. 129, 339-375.
McGlone, M.S., Bell, R.A., Zaitchik, S., & McGlynn, J, (In Press). Don’t let the flu catch you: Agency assignment in printed educational materials about the H1N1 influenza virus. Journal of Health Communication.
Petty, R. E., & Briñol, P. (2006). A metacognitive approach to 'implicit' and 'explicit' evaluations: Comment on Gawronski and Bodenhausen (2006). Psychological Bulletin, 132(5), 740-744. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.5.740
Petty, R. E., & Cacciopo, J. T. (1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.) Advances in experimental social psychology (pp. 123-205). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
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