Structuring Messages and Message Appeals

Language Variables

Denotative Meaning – Literal meaning of the word; “dictionary definition”

Connotative Meaning – Emotional or attitudinal responses attached to and evoked by the word – Connotations can be positive and negative

Considerations for Denotative Meaning Level of Abstractness can lead to

misunderstanding Technological Terms (Jargon) Euphemisms are used to make language

pleasant to the receivers by substituting vague terms for more harsh specific ones (i.e. “Throwing up” vs. Puke, Spew or Chunder)

Legalese (Jargon) difference of language meaning to lawyers vs. laypeople

Book suggests ways to reduce misunderstanding (page 212)

Connotative Meaning

Recall Osgood’s 3 major dimensions of meaning: Evaluative (good-bad), Activity (active-passive) and Potency (strong-weak)

How can connotative language impact persuasive communication?– Language Intensity (manipulated through

adjectives, nouns and adverbs)– Powerful vs. Powerless Style Speech

Language Intensity (emotional and evaluative language) General Findings:

– Male speakers using intense language are more effective persuaders than female speakers

– Audiences neutral to a topic are more influenced by highly connotative (opinionated) language

• Because this demonstrates that the speaker is passionate about the topic (holds a strong attitude)

– Got High credibility? Feel free to be intense. Don’t? Don’t.

– Intense language can help reinforce existing attitudes– Polarizes receiver’s response based on initial perceived

similarity (makes this distinction more pronounced)

Powerful and Powerless Style Speech Impacted through:

– Intensifiers, Hedges, Questioning or Hesitation General Findings:

– Overall, Powerful style speech causes people to rate speakers as more credible

– Bonus: Credibility and Attraction will increase with low levels of hedges and hesitations

• Why?

– People do not want members of their own gender to appear powerless (powerless decreases cred)

– The Importance of powerful speech styles is intensified when the message is written

Message Organization Organized messages are rated higher in credibility and

are more persuasive Spatial order – arranging information “in space”

– Example: starting at the front of the bus we have the headlights, then moving inside we have Otto, the driver, in the middle of the bus we have a few rugrats, and at the rear are the brake lights

Message Organization (cont’d)

Temporal Order – Arranging information “in time” (like chronological order)

Deductive Order (from general to specific) Inductive Order (from specific to general) Problem-Solution Order – Presenting a

problem, then giving the solution– The worst approach is presenting a problem and

not proposing a solution

Message Organization (cont’d)

Psychological Order – Predicting the psychological reactions of the audience– Example: Monroe’s Motivated Sequence

• Attention• Need• Satisfaction• Visualization• Action

Message Organization (cont’d)

Toulmin Model– Provides a pattern for structuring arguments,

outlining three elements:• Evidence – Information (data, testimony, etc.) that is

relevant to the argument• Claim – Statement that the persuader wants the

audience to believe• Warrant – explains why the data is linked to the claim

– Can be implied or explicitly stated– Strong warrants are logically sound

Three Primary Characteristics of Persuasive Appeals (Aristotle) Logos – The logical appeal of the message Pathos – The emotional appeal of the

message (passion) Ethos – The perceived “ethics” of the source

(credibility)

Although persuasive strategies will usually focus primarily on one of these three factors, all three should be considered when developing persuasive messages

Forewarning and After-Warning (Allyn & Festinger, 1961; Benoit, 1998) Forewarning has been shown to have an important

effect on message evaluation When receivers are forewarned about a source’s

position or intention they are more likely to begin internal counterarguing– Especially when they believe the source’s position is

incongruent with their own– Research indicates that prior knowledge or experience

relating to the message content affects counterarguing since people will use internally generated messages based on this past experience when evaluating a message (Hamilton & Stewart, 1993)

Although forewarning can diminish the persuasiveness of a message, afterwarning has no impact (Kiesler & Kiesler, 1964)

One-sided vs. Two-sided Messages

2-sided messages are usually preferable, especially when:– The audience is more educated– The audience disagrees with the source’s position– The audience may be exposed to messages

opposing the source– A celebrity is endorsing a product

1-sided messages are preferable when the audience already agrees with the source

Fallacies in Reasoning

Messages are sometimes designed to exploit fallacies in reasoning that are so common that they seem systematic– It is hard to uncover the influence of such

appeals– A very common strategy deals with transfer

Transfer

“Transfer” is the linking of otherwise unrelated objects or symbols together to transfer characteristics such as: positioning a product with an American Flag

Ad Hominem attacks (name calling) are a form of transfer, linking a person or idea to a negative symbol in order to raise suspicion

A more subtle form of transfer would involve connotative language: A politician supports budget cuts is called “thrifty” by supporters, but “stingy” by the opposition

Transfer (cont’d)

Testimonials are another form of transfer:– Celebrity Endorsements– Plain-Folks Appeal

• “if it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for me”

Logical Fallacies (cont’d)

Social Proof - a bandwagon appeal uses social proof, and the implicit argument is: “everyone else is doing it, and so should you”

Extrapolation – tendency to make huge predictions about the future based on a few small observations (also called “slippery slope”)

Message Appeals

Emotional Messages are very persuasive, they:– Grab receiver’s attention– May decrease counterarguing– May be more vivid, memorable, and image-

provoking– May be difficult to oppose

Message Appeals (cont’d)

Types of Emotions– Biologically based emotions

• Reptillian (sex, aggression)• Individualistic (anger, fear)• Prosocial (attachment, bonding)

– Socially based Emotions (love, pride, guilt, shame, envy, jealousy, pity, scorn)

– Cognitively based emotions (Curiosity, surprise, interest, boredom)

– Moral Emotions (feelings of justice)

Message Appeals (cont’d)

Fear Appeals– All other things being equal, the more frightened

people are by a communication, the more likely they are to take preventive action

• Recall, source must provide a “coping mechanism” through which the receiver can eliminate the fear

• Person must believe the coping mechanism will effectively address the threat

• Person must believe they are capable of performing the recommended behavior

Message Appeals (cont’d)

Humor Appeals– Found to influence attention– May increase recall– Better for non-durable products and services– Better for younger, better-educated, upscale,

male, and professionals– Humor appeals do not increase credibility or

attitude change– Humor should be related to the product or its use

or function

Message Appeals (cont’d)

Warmth Appeals (kindness, nostalgia, pride, togetherness etc.)– Are used in interpersonal settings– Cause physiological responses (GSR)– Ideally placed after a humorous appeal– Relate to liking and recall of the ad, and

sometimes (to a lesser extent) to the intention to buy the product

All communication that transcends the spoken or written word (Knapp)

Nonverbal Communication:

Nonverbal as Universal language? Although much nonverbal communication is

culturally specific, some has evolutionary significance

Research using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS)—which is used to study facial expressions and the messages that they convey—suggests that: anger, fear, disgust, sadness, happiness, and surprise are universally recognized emotional displays

Reactions to other aesthetic characteristics (seen as desirable or undesirable) may also have resulted from biological (evolutionary) origins– Ex: Child abuse and the Neoteny

3 Different Relationships between verbal and nonverbal communication

Substituting Relationship: replacing the action meaning “yes” for the word “yes”

Conflicting Relationship: as a receiver you should rely more heavily on the nonverbal aspect of communication– Leakage

Accenting Relationship: the nonverbal message further stresses the verbal one

Some areas of Nonverbal Research Paralanguage: Vocal cues Kinesics: Body Movements Facsics: Facial Expressions Ocalics: Eye Movements Haptics: Touching Proxemics: Spatial Communication Olfactics: Smell Aesthetics: Height and Attractiveness Chronemics: Time-related Patterns Artifacts: Objects used to convey meaning (rolex, power

ties)

Paralinguistic Codes

Vocal cues that tell us about the personality of the speaker, emotional states, sincerity, etc.

Play a significant role in persuasion People are mostly persuaded by:

– Fluent, non-hesitant speech– Shorter response latencies– More pitch variation– Louder and faster speech

Paralinguistic Codes (cont’d)

Paralinguistic communication generally consists of voice qualifiers and vocalizations

Voice Qualifiers– Speech rate, pitch, articulation, etc.

Vocalizations– Sounds without specific meaning (speech

disturbances—inhibiting fluent speech)– Ah, uh, umm, eh, etc.– Word/phrase repetitions, stuttering, slip of the

tongue, sentence correction, grammatical error (related to anxiety or ignorance)

Emblems– Nonverbal acts that have a direct verbal

translation or dictionary definition usually consisting of a word or two

– Culturally specific• Nodding yes, no; “OK”, waving goodbye in Italy

Illustrators– Kinesic acts accompanying speech that are used

to aid in the description of what is being said– Can be used to trace the direction of speech (the

fish that got away)

5 Gestural Codes (Ekman & Friesen)

5 Gestural Codes (Ekman & Friesen; cont’d)

Regulators– Nonverbal acts that maintain and control the back-and-forth

nature of speaking and listening between two or more people

– Nods of the head, eye movements, and body shifts are all regulators used to encourage or discourage conversation

• Malachy

Adaptors– Movements that accompany boredom, show internal

feelings or regulate a situation by meeting physical or emotional needs

– Two types of adaptors: Self (scratching, biting fingernails) and Object (playing with keys, rubberbands, rocking chairs)

5 Gestural Codes (Ekman & Friesen; cont’d)

Affect Displays– Facial gestures that show emotions and

feelings such as sadness or happiness– Smiling, pouting, winking, etc.

Nonverbal Behaviors associated with Persuasiveness Body Movements Eye-Contact Rate Distance and Touching Delivery Style Speech Rate Voice Qualities

Nonverbal Behaviors associated with Persuasiveness (cont’d) Body Movements

– DO: Make increased eye contact, nodding, smiling, illustrating

– Avoid distracting adaptors, vocalizations– Indicators of extroversion:

• High energy level/enthusiasm• Affiliation (forward lean, direct body orientation)

Nonverbal Behaviors associated with Persuasiveness (cont’d) Eye-Contact Rate

– This is culturally-specific– In U.S., people who maintain high levels of eye-

contact appear trustworthy and receivers believe they are friendly and sincere

– Normal rates: 29-70% (percent of total time interacting)

– 20-40% actually is detrimental to persuasiveness– 60-90% eye contact will increase persuasiveness

Nonverbal Behaviors associated with Persuasiveness (cont’d) Distance and Touching

– Specific implications are culturally-bound– Generally, increased proximity is associated with

intimacy, liking, arousal and attraction– Two proposed models dealing with proximity:

• If complying to the request requires effort or cost, then being too close can make the receiver defensive (Patterson)

– Panhandling implications?

• Normative expectations and attractiveness (liking) of the source (Burgoon) – moving closer + liking increased persuasion

Nonverbal Behaviors associated with Persuasiveness (cont’d) Speech Fluencies and Delivery Style

– Two types of nonfluencies:• Repetitions ( Competence and Dynamism)• Vocalized Pauses ( Competence)

– Conversational vs. Dynamic Delivery• People have stereotypes about each delivery• Americans prefer Conversational

Nonverbal Behaviors associated with Persuasiveness (cont’d) Speech Rate

– Rates:• Slow: 102-111 wpm• Moderate: 140 wpm• Fast: 191 wpm

– Only Extremely Fast speech decreases comprehension

• Micromachines; radio disclaimers

– Moderate to fast levels:• Speakers appear competent and socially attractive• People seem to prefer speech rates 1-1.5 times faster

than their’s– Implications for campaign design?

Nonverbal Behaviors associated with Persuasiveness (cont’d) Voice Qualities

– People possess vocal stereotypes, make judgments based on these

– Addington listed 7 characteristics: Nasality, breathiness, thiness, flatness, tenseness, throatiness, orotundity (deep resonating quality; think Michael Clarke Duncan:

– People generally don’t like throaty, nasal or tense voices

Interactional Patterns and Communication Accomodation Two communicators become more

similar to each other as they talk when:– They need approval– They want to be efficient– They want to identify with another person

or group• Realize that you can use this to your advantage

Power, Status and Dominance

Source has most potential for influence, when the receiver believes the source has power, status or dominance

Three variables relevant to this image:– Height

• Males: extra $400 per inch!!– Does this include NBA? Hmm…

– Clothing• Power Ties

– Artifacts – objects used to immediately signify status• Rolex, a “Jag” or “JagUar”

Power, Status and Dominance (cont’d) Territory and Space:

– People with power use gatekeepers– People with power can invade subordinate’s

space at will– People with power can initiate touch

Body Movement and Gaze behavior– People with power maintain longer periods

of eye contact—subordinates show deference by looking away

– People with power can adopt a more relaxed posture

Power, Status and Dominance (cont’d) Speaking Turns and Interruptions

– Louder, deeper voice communicates greater size and strength

– Dominant people talk more, and interrupt others more

Use of Time– People in power make others wait, and do

not feel obligated to apologize

Next Time…

-Deception -Persuasion in Interpersonal Relationhips