Behavioural science/social influence

Persuasions examples: Clothes, diet, hobbies, religion, degree choice

Edward Bernays: 1920's-40's: Propaganda, inspired by Freud

Central routes:  Explicit description, Logical positions, Statistics, Research, Cost-benefit analysis, Case examples

Peripheral routes: MINDSPACE mneumonic

1. Messenger    2. Incentives,    3. Norms,     4. Defaults,     5. Salience,      6. Priming    7. Affect,   

8. Commitments      9. Ego

Framing (Tversky & Kahneman): Reference reversals and loss aversion

Priming dread risks: Flew on less planes after 9/11, drove more so more car accidents after 9/11

• Chetty, Loong & Kaft, 2009: Salience and taxation
• Including tax in price reduced sales and consumption by 8%

That's not all technique: Burger, 1986:

• 1 cupcake for $0.75 + 2 cookies for free OR $0.75 for 2 cookies and a cupcake

Foot-in-the-door: Pliner et al, 1974:

• Compliance without pressure - ask small favour first, then larger favour after

Darley & Latane, 1986: Diffusion of responsibility

• How long it took for people to help man having epileptic fit depended on group size

Forbidden toy experiment: Aronson&Carlsmith:

• Mild/severe consequences for playing with steam shovel
• Mild less likely to play when allowed

Bem's self-perception theory: If freely choose a behaviour, believe they must have wanted to

Effort justification: Paid (did it for money), unpaid (believed it was done for enjoyment)

Festinger-Carlsmith: Cognitive consequences of freed compliance.

• After spending 1hr on boring tasks, either paid $1/$20 to make it sound interesting to others

Dual process models of persuasion: 1. Heuristic systems model: Chaiken, 1989:

• Attitude change mediated by systematic processing (effortful, detailed) and heuristic processing (low effort, reliance on simple cues)

2. Elaboration-likelihood model: Persuasive communication - ability + motivation to pay attention

Yes = Central route to persuasion     No = Peripheral route to persuasion

Cult leaders:

1. Create group          2. Simple, repeated message            3. Flatter recruits

4. Ask for commitment              5. Create credibility             6. Inoculate members