Latisha Cook
November 1, 2014
Ashford University
Social Psychology
Stephanie Anderson

Have you ever been able to persuade someone into doing something? What about being persuaded by someone. You probably didn’t even know there were several different techniques when it comes to persuasion. Persuasion can be a powerful tool. It can be used in a positive way or a negative way. Knowing the characteristics of the persuader, the message that’s being persuaded and the characteristics of the audience can be a benefit to you.
If you’re the one doing the persuasion you must have certain characteristics about yourself. People need to know that you know what you’re talking about and they can trust you. A communicator with expertise is one who appears to have knowledge and is able to communicate it (Feenstra, 2013). You can have all the expertise about something, but trustworthy is the most important. A trustworthy communicator is one we believe is giving us accurate information. (Feenstra, 2013). Another characteristic about being a “persuader” is physical attractiveness. Believe it or not people tend to go with someone who is more attractive than someone who is not. If you were going to buy a phone or even just to look at one you are more than likely to be persuaded by someone who is attractive. People respond more to people who are attractive due to the fact they would rather interact with them more. If you have ever seen hooters commercial or a billboard ad you will notice they’re beautiful attractive woman. Their intentions are to try and persuade men to come dine at their hooters restaurant. Of course men go not just for the tasty food but to see beautiful woman as advertised in the billboard and commercials.
The message is important in persuasion. “Communicators must carefully consider the message they want to portray and how they want to share that message” (Feenstra, 2013). Emotion affects the persuasion in how we receive the message. For example, if you have ever watched the commercials about texting and driving they’re heartbreaking, and hard to even watch. A family member will be telling their story about how a one-word text message killed their loved one. The message that’s being persuaded is to “not text in drive”. You may be persuaded because of the emotion in the message. It’s made to make you feel for the people portraying the message. Another example is the Chuckie Cheese commercial. It’s full of children having a good time. The emotion in the commercial is exciting and it gives the children who watch it a rush. The message being portrayed is “where a kid can be a get”. What can we gain or lose is a question we commonly ask or self. When being persuaded you have what you call “gain framed” and loss framed”. “Gain-framed messages describe the appealing aspects of a particular course of action whereas loss-framed messages emphasize the disadvantages that will accrue to the message recipient if he or she fails to adopt the recommendation in the message” (Dilla, 2012). If there were an advertisement for a buy- one get- one free on cereal then you are gaining something. If you were to only buy one box of cereal you would really be losing out on a good deal and wasting money. You also have what you call the sleeper affect; it describes the phenomenon whereby the impact of a persuasive message increases with the passage of time (Hannah, 1984). Say you first heard about the amazing phone deal that Verizon had on their cell phones. You hear it from a friend, but don’t really pay it too much mind, but then you hear and see it on television. Then you may turn around and hear it from the actual Verizon sales person. You have had time to think about this great deal each time you hear about it and it has made the message more believable and now you’re being persuaded to get the deal from Verizon.
You can’t forget the audience when it comes to persuasion. The audience of a persuasive message is vitally important (Feentra, 2013). When targeting a certain audience age plays a role. It would be easier to target much older people such as middle age and older adults. They’re less experienced causing them to be less vulnerable to persuasion. Age isn’t the only thing to remember in persuasion. Culture is also something to keep in my mind. Different cultures emphasize different things. For example “western values usually emphasize independence and uniqueness, while Asian values often focus more on social roles and in-groups”. Having confidence in yourself and high self-esteem helps to influence and persuade your audience. Having low self-esteem will affect t your message and can even cause you to forget your message. High self -esteem also helps with motivation. Motivation helps to process and evaluate the message; this is called the elaboration likelihood model.
People are all vulnerable to some certain type of persuasion. Some may not be as easily persuaded to certain techniques, but are persuaded by others. It can be easily done without you even realizing it’s being done. Keep in mind that many things play a role and are important in persuasions. Culture, age physical attractiveness the sleeper affect, etc. All of these things fall into the characteristics, message and audience of persuasion. Persuasion is something a powerful tool and something that is used every day. Don’t forget about having confidence in yourself and high self-esteem helps to influence and persuade as well.

References
Feenstra, J. (2013). Social psychology (2nd ed.). Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Hannah, D. B., & Sternthal, B. (1984). Detecting and Explaining the Sleeper Effect. Journal Of Consumer Research, 11(2), 632-642.
Yan, C., Dillard, J. P., & Shen, F. (2012). Emotion, Motivation, and the Persuasive Effects of Message Framing. Journal Of Communication, 62(4).