Persuasion Techniques To Change Attitudes

For many years now, social psychology has been researching what persuasion techniques could be used to change attitudes and how they could be used to lead people to behave in a certain way. The purpose of these studies is not only to promote the creation of attractive advertising campaigns, but also to drive change towards healthier and more appropriate attitudes.

Psychologists Eagle and Chaikin (1993) define attitude as the concept of “psychological tendency, which means the evaluation of popularity or unpopularity towards a particular object”.  The concept of attitude is usually presented in a continuum in which aspects of valence (the positive or negative nature of the attribution made from an attitudinal object) and intensity (the scale of the aforementioned valence) emerge.

In general, the attitude is either positive or negative, but it is also possible that it is neutral or indifferent. According to well-known psychologists Rosenberg and Hovland, attitude has three components: an affective component (feelings between pleasure and discomfort), a cognitive component (beliefs, opinions, and ideas), and a behavioral-cognitive component (behavioral intentions or action-inducing tendencies).

Various techniques and strategies have been identified since social psychology to change attitudes. The most concrete of these techniques are:

• Persuasion techniques that refer directly to experience of the object of the attitude, which alone would lead to the attractiveness of the object.
• Incentive-driven persuasion techniques, such as cognitive dissonance and the resulting enjoyment presented in its theory. Another example of such a persuasion technique would be to change attitudes in the face of pro-attitudinal behavior when we introduce external rewards, which in turn lead to a weakening of internal motivation.
• Socially mediated persuasion techniques , which we will immerse ourselves in more detail next. To change attitudes, knowledge of these persuasion techniques is important when we want to become aware of how the media, advertisers, and other channels seek to persuade us to behave in a way we didn’t plan to do in advance.

Socially mediated persuasion techniques to change attitudes

There are certain variables that are key factors in the persuasion process to change attitudes. These include the attractiveness and credibility of the source, that the message should be more rationally emotional, and that the information is presented with examples and how the recipient’s own power is promoted. In addition, there are techniques that are specifically designed to influence human behavior. The most important of these are:

Persuasion techniques based on friendship or preference:

• Flattery: This technique is based on pleasing others so that those people are more willing to follow our requests and suggestions. Examples include hiring a good-looking man or woman for the nightclub’s PR side, or the restaurant owner’s particularly nice and polite behavior to attract new customers. When people see attraction and attractiveness in other people through the so-called halo effect, at the same time they think that the things or services offered by these people are also more attractive.
• Self-Promotion: This technique seeks to improve your own personal look, for example, by sending positive verbal messages (such as a smile and looking in your eyes) and building relationships with things or people that our target audience likes. As an example, we invite you to invite a fashion writer to show up at a bookstore you own so that people will listen to her and, of course, buy your books at the same time.
• Promotion: This technique focuses on other people and consists of, for example, flattering others, consensus or understanding with the target group, and sharing gifts.

Persuasion techniques based on promise or commitment:

• Foot in the door: The purpose of this technique is to present a smaller initial proposal, which may increase the chances of accessing another more significant proposal at a later stage. An example could be the distribution of small perfume samples so that the target audience feels indebted to the seller for this “gift” and commits to buying a more expensive perfume.
• Deception or low-balling : A very good contract is offered for an object, but after approval, an unexpected situation occurs, as a result of which the conditions of the contract are forced to change. After all, the offeror benefits more from the contract than the customer himself, but the  buyer still accepts the contract despite the changed circumstances. For example: you are offered a package that includes a computer, system instructions, a wireless mouse, and a word processor. Suddenly, the vendors will tell you that the manual and the wireless mouse are still included in the package, but the word processor is not. However, you were already committed to the purchase decision, so you will probably end up paying for the product in the end.
• Bait and breaker: In this technique, a particular product is advertised at a very good price, but at the time of purchase it turns out that the product is either used or of poor quality. The readiness that we had to buy that product would increase sales opportunities, even if the product we were selling was no longer exactly what we were looking for. An example could be a popular toy advertised in a catalog at an affordable price, which when you see it you rush to the store to buy it for your child. However, the transaction states that the product in question is sold out and you end up buying a similar product instead, even if it is not original.

Persuasion techniques based on reciprocity:

• Blow against the face: This technique consists of starting with such an extreme request that its rejection is already almost a matter of course. However, after the expected negative response, the request is changed to a smaller one than the original one – a request that we would actually like to receive. For example, you can ask your supervisor for a nearly double pay raise from your current salary, and when your supervisor denies you this, you lower the request to a much more credible amount. In this case, it is more likely that, on the basis of reciprocity, the supervisor will eventually approve the proposal.
• And that’s not all: This technique starts with an initial offer, but before the customer even has time to accept or reject the offer, an extra incentive is added to it, which makes the offer even more attractive. You can be called from a telephone company, for example, by selling the subscription agreement in the offer, but in the end, the seller ends up offering a fixed network as a commercial one.
• Clap on the shoulder: This technique is based on establishing a relationship with the target person so that the subject feels obligated to accept the proposed request.

Persuasion techniques based on need:

• Play harder to achieve something: This technique suggests that the product in question is scarce or difficult to find, making the product more attractive and therefore also increasing the likelihood of the product being accepted. This technique is a highly used strategy for example in relationships. The more difficult the other party throws itself, the more attractive it becomes to “win” that person.
• Deadline: A certain deadline is set for the product, after which it will no longer be available. Classic examples include purchase days for Gold Week or BlackFriday.

Other techniques for winning approval:

• Raising Curiosity: This technique captures the attention of the target audience so that there is not even time to automatically reject a product or service.
• Getting others in a good mood: This technique entertains the recipient of the message with the intention of making them feel good and thus reduces the likelihood of the message being rejected.
• Complaining: This technique takes advantage of changing attitudes through another’s dissatisfaction, indignation, or resentment. It has been found that women complain less and more accurately and are much more sensitive to the complaints of their loved ones.

Finally

Our social environment constantly bombards us with various persuasion techniques. In our society, changing the attitudes of the population is seen as a goal pursued by the media, politics and advertisers alike, who seek to sell us products that most of the time we don’t need or don’t even want to acquire.

Knowing all of these attitude-changing techniques will help us be more aware and careful not to fall into the trap of every oncoming advertiser. In most cases, advertising does not merely seek to manipulate us into buying, but at the same time obtain information about us for free.

In this sense, it is worth learning to distinguish when we see the bait set by the advertiser and when we are ready to make free choices. In this way, we are able to feel less controllable and more responsible for our own decisions.