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Week 5- Social Proof and Theories of behavioral Intention

After covering this material, you will be able to;

1. Explain the components of the theory of reasoned action

2. Give examples of social norms and social norms marketing

3. Understand how attitudes and behaviors are related through subjective norms and behavioral intent

4. Describe the perceived behavioral control added to the theory of planned behavior

Traditional model of persuasion, at its most basic:

Attitude ->Behavior

Attitudes & Behaviors

· Last week: Inconsistencies

· This week: More on links btwn attitudes and behaviors

· Incorporating behavioral intent, norms and subjective social proof

Preview of this Unit

· Theory of Reasoned Action

· Theory of Planned Behavior

· Next week : Social Proof

Theory of Reasoned Action TRA

· People have attitudes toward behaviors

· And subjective norms. (person’s perspective on whats appropriate or not)

· These predict their behavioral intent

· Which in turn predicts the behavior

Notes:

·

Do I intend to? (behavioral intention) it id good or bad to do so ? (attitude towards the behavior) does does my family think about i t? (subjective norm)

it’s not just whether we believe something is right or wrong good or bad it’s also these subjective Norms that come from our social world that are going to influence whether we actually plan on doing something so these two things predict behavioral intent depending on your attitude towards something you’ll be more or less inclined to perform the behavior that your

Social Norms Marketing

Social Norms – the perceived standards of acceptable attitudes and behaviors prevalent among the members of a community. (people’s beliefs on the attitudes and behavioral that are considered normal, or that are expected in a particular social context.)

(reaching people in a persuasive way )

Notes:

· the community, the church, your nationality, the school you go, your work place, all have it’s own norms

· My incorrect perception are still very likely to influence my behaviors and so social norms whether they’re real whether it’s true or false have powerful influence on our Behavior can you think of examples of behaviors

EX of other issues that have been target in social norms campaign : Binge Drinking, Drug Use, Classroom and Social Media Bullying Sexual Assault Prevention, Racism, Homophobia, Health and Nutrition

Social norms will greatly influence their behavior therefore when people misperception the Norms of their group, that is they inaccurately think an attitude or a behavior is more or less common than it is actually the case they may choose to engage in behaviors in sync with those false norms.

high school and college students overestimate how much their peers are drinking alcoholic beverages so prevention experts have argued that if this perception of the norm that drives greater alcohol consumption in younger people specifically research has found that high school students overestimate actual drinking behavior and attitudes supportive of alcohol use and way underestimate healthy behaviors like avoiding drinking or drinking in moderation

Basically, the findings suggest that alcohol prevention efforts should include a component designed to correct these misperceptions to let these young people know hey you think everybody’s out there drinking way more than they actually are way more often than they actually do and you think nobody is abstaining or partaking moderately

Ex:

Notes:

· so if the theory of Reason action built on consistency by adding subjective Norms the theory of plan Behavior Builds on the theory of reasoned action by introducing another new component to consider,
perceived behavioral control

· It take into consideration if we think about it as individuals or attitude or what important others think about it, but also if we think we can actually do it, if we get it, if we feel that we have that kind of control, if we feel that we are entitled to make that kind of choice and that is all perceived behavioral control

·
Behavioral attitude ( i support it ); subjective norms (my family support it ); perceived behavioral control ( we feel we have what we need to actualy do it )

Theory of Planned Behavior (how can u actually implemented, the info u need t give u confidence to too the behave)

TPB has another component: perceived behavioral control.

= the extent to which people believe that they could perform the behavior

(aka self-efficacy )

Recap

TRA: the link between attitudes & behaviors must be understood in context of subjective norms/social norms

TPB: another important piece = perceived behavioral control

WEEK 6 SOCIAL PROOF

(Everybody’s doing it)

After covering this material, you will be able to;

1. Understand the principle of social proof

2. Explain how uncertainty and similarity influence social proof

3. Describe pluralistic ignorance

4. Provide an example of the bystander effect

Attitudes & Behaviors

· Last week: Inconsistencies

· This week: More on links btwn attitudes and behaviors

· Incorporating
behavioral intent,
subjective norms and
social proof

Everybody’s doing it- Social Proof

How does this happen??

Yet another Fixed Action Pattern- One of the ways that we “know” what is “correct” is by finding out & observing what others think & do.

Ex: when u go to fancy restaurant you don’t know how to act u observe your peers, see what utensils their using, etc

Social Proof

· Behaviors are viewed as more correct the more that others perform them

· True for babies and adults

· If something is the behavior of the many, then it seems acceptable to the individual (we’re in the back order bc we’re so popular; rate #1; bestseller, highly recommended products, sucess stories of weight lost showing before and after); (They don’t have to tell u the product is good bc obviously people think is good if they’re buying it; ex: top 10 most watch movies on Netflix)

· Advertisers use this by stressing sales

· * Don’t need to stress that product is good, just that
others think so *

· The individual does NOT feel as though he/she has “followed the crowd.” ( we feel like we made the choice, self persuation)

Strategic use of social proof

Examples:

· “bestseller” ads

· “

ordinary folks
” as endorsers

· salting tip jars (put your own money in the jar tip, to imply that people are tipping and feel social pressure to tip)

· making a line longer ( to keep up the desirability of the place u want to get in u keep an line)

· messing up a table of retail items

· signs at political rallies ( politic party give out signs and when people see other peope holding signs you’re likely to want to hold one as well)

Social Proof & Social Norms Marketing

· We tend to believe that an attitude/behavior is correct if most people have adopted it

· We will want to be like the majority of our peer group ( even to very individualistic people, at some point u want a sense of belonging)

· One important catch =
people need to believe that the claims/stats about the majority are true

We are often unaware (or in denial) of the power of social proof – (it’s a fixed action pattern operating in the background, even if we’re aware of it we deny it)

Social proof – especially powerful, depending on:

· UNCERTAINTY

· SIMILARITY

UNCERTAINTY

· We are most vulnerable to social proof when we are most uncertain

· Heightened uncertainty can lead to
pluralistic ignorance (sort of the blind leading the blind, no one knows what to do )

Pluralistic Ignorance

= incorrect beliefs held by a group of individuals about the attitudes or behavior of others (ex: in a classroom teacher makes a mistake, but everyone is nodding and agreeing, you might think that no one is having a problem w this so there is probably not a problem right?!, but they could be all wrong and you’re right )

· An example of social proof in action

· Especially perilous in emergencies ( when we don’t know what to do we tend to look for direction on what other people are doing); ( in emergencies, sometimes you’re more safe if you’re not in the crowd)

· Abdication of responsibility ( ex:if this was a problem someone would say something already.)

and that is why :

· Cialdini: Sometimes there is NOT “safety in numbers” ( we assume that everyone knows something we don’t and we’re wrong; or we choose to not act bc we would be embarrassed to be the only person reacting to something that no one is,Ex: people can be dying and think someone called 911 where in fact no one did, or if people are not concern, u might not do nothing as well )

(Social proof seems to be most powerful when a lot of other people are performing the same action)

Similarity and Social Proof

· Cialdini: The principle of social proof operates most powerfully when we are observing the behavior of people
like us. (ex: same gender or same hair, that’s why testimonial by ordinary people are useful; advertisement in the beauty industry)

Laugh Tracks = Social Proof

(Auditurium laugh stimuli, doing mental association when u smell something that reminds u something, there is comfort in participating in group laughter, we’re enjoying together))

· Laugh tracks cause people to…

· Laugh longer

· Laugh more often

· Rate the material as funnier

· Think bad jokes are funny

Social Proof Participation

lName and Date

lIdentify a present-day example of when people rely on social proof here….

lOn campus

lIn this part of the world

lHow aware are people in this situation that they are using social proof as an heuristic (schema– mental shortcut)

Week 7- Exam

Week 8- Elaboration Likelihood Model

After covering this material, you will be able to;

1. Define the meaning of “elaborate” in the ELM

2. Describe and differentiate the two routes to persuasion in the ELM

3. Identify examples of central and peripheral cues

4. Explain how ability and motivation influence elaboration, such as need for cognition and personal relevance.

Elaboration Likelihood Model

(Petty & Cacioppo, 1986)

Fundamental premises:

· Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) says that there is more than one route to persuasion.

· Persuasion occurs differently depending on the extent to which people
elaborate. (thinking and carefully, thinking carefully)

· Elaboration =
issue-relevant thinking involving activation of relevant cognitions and careful analysis of the arguments. li.e., thinking carefully about the arguments in the persuasive message

· Individuals vary in the degree they are likely to engage in elaboration of persuasive messages.

· lELM proposes an elaboration continuum: low thinking<———————–>high thinking (wether a person will elaborate or think critically, can fall anywhere in the spectrum of low to hight thinking,; it depends on the context/circunstances)

· ELM claims that there are two paths to persuasion: the central route and the peripheral route

· Central route = greater elaboration

·
low thinking<———————–>high thinking

(peripheral route)————————(central route)

Notes: there are times that it might no be worth to deep think about it, so we might take in face value, or we just go with our emotion., if it makes me feel good ill believed it or go for it.

The Central Route to Persuasion

· Elaboration is high

· Individuals: ponder content & logic of the message; engage in extensive issue-relevant thinking (elaboration); compare the info to their own attitudinal positions

· A variety of cognitive responses occur (thought u hv in response to the argument)

·

Central cues
= ideas and supporting data that bear directly upon the quality of the arguments developed in the message (this is the reasons y my argument is credible).

Central route elaboration leads to attitudes that are

· Easily called to mind (when a person is persuaded through central root, they wont forget the argument anymore)

· persistent and stable over time;

· resistant to competing messages; not only they get persuaded towards the argument but they are often inoculated from future persuasive attempt/ resistant)

· Predictive of the person’s attitude-relevant behaviors (what they actually do in regards to that issue)

The Peripheral Route to Persuasion

Peripheral Route: (some thinks we don’t care about as much, or it’s not worth our time, we don’t want to think hard about it, this is the time to use peripheral to persuade)

· Elaboration is low

· Individuals engage in little/no issue- relevant thinking

· Cognitive responses are much less likely to occur, b/c the receiver is not carefully considering the pros and cons of the issue

Peripheral persuasion cues include:

· attractiveness of source (when logical information is not interesting use someone gorgeous to say it)

· expertise of the source (if u don’t want to do a research about the argument you turn to an expertise u trust and take their word for it. Ex: restaurant influencers)

· number of the arguments presented ( a lot quantity not necessarily quality. Ex: i have 10 reasons why we should ho to Cancun)

· message factors of imagery, pathos/emotions, celebrity spokespeople, music

EX: Short commercial vs. Home shopping channel presentation

Message Elaboration

Argument strength matters to the direction of message elaboration (the argument strengths depends if your audience is going to pay close attention or argue bc u don’t want to overwhelm them w evidece)

Strong arguments are:

· important in central processing

· less important in peripheral processing

ELM – Recap

· ELM: persuasion can occur through central OR peripheral processing

· Central = greater issue-relevant thinking

· Peripheral = more likely to rely on heuristics (mental shortcurts, does it make us feel good etc)

·
ELM acknowledges that people do not always think through persuasive messages carefully. Persuasion is accomplished differently depending on elaboration.

ELM & Message Effectiveness; Strength & Durability

The strength (how deeply held the new attitude is) and durability(how long lasting the new attitude is) of attitude change depends upon the extent to which people elaborate.

· Weak arguments are especially ineffective when elaboration is high

· Strong arguments are especially effective when elaboration is high

Influences on Elaboration

What influences how high or low the elaboration will be ?

· ABILITY to process ( can u think critically in the first place)

· MOTIVATION to process (dp u want to do that )

Influences on Elaboration

Influences on one’s
ability to process:

· Distractions (ex:loud noise)

· Message complexity

· Amount of time a person has

· Number of opportunities to scrutinize the arguments (r u gonna revisit many times or it it only once, it it written down or u juts hear it)

· Knowledge of the message topic

Influences on one’s
motivation:

· Personal relevance of the issue (
involvement)* ( is it important to your life/does it touch you)

· Responsibility for evaluating the message (if u kn you will take a quiz/explain to friends after you’ll be motivation to pay attention)

· Expectation of having to discuss the message

· Presentation of message in unexpected format (some unexpected to trigger their curiosity or grab attention)

· Need for cognition (NFC). (personality trait, introvert/extrovert, personal difference, how much do u enjoy working through complex ides, how curious are u about how thinks wrks, how much do u personally like to understand things. Ex: kids opens up toy to see whats inside, people w high of these characteristics are more likely to engage in central cues)

ELM & NFC
From Cacioppo & Petty’s (1982) NFC scale (interviwe/survey to scale and figure out how hight and low is the need for cognition ) :

· like to have the responsibility of handling a situation that requires a lot of thinking.

· find satisfaction in deliberating hard and for long hours. I only think as hard as I have to.*

* reverse coded

Notes recap:

ELM use multiple routes to persuasion it can be peripheral or it could be Central so it is a dual process model that the peripheral route uses superficial cues like celebrities music pictures, bright colors, etc

and logically about the message and so we use rational arguments we use a lot of evidence and data and that both of these roots can lead to persuasion Central and peripheral we want to use the central route when there is high ability and motivation to Think Through the message right so if you care about something and aren’t distracted you’ll pay attention to the logic we want to hear good arguments statistics

if we are able and motivated to pay attention with the peripheral route we’re going to use that when there’s low ability and motivation so you don’t really care it’s not a huge issue or if you’re distracted you will pay a lot of attention to the message itself and you’re actually more likely to be persuaded by superficial cues celebrity endorsements attractiveness emotions pretty pictures when there’s High motivation and high ability what increases motivation

what increases motivation and personal knowledge that the messages about something you care about and the messages about something you know a lot about what increases ability clear presentation easy to understand if you have enough attention and time you’re not distracted and tired those make you more evil to Think Through the message