Persuasion comes in many forms and is used throughout many professions. Most people may think of persuasion associated with professions such as being a lawyer defending your client, being a business person promoting a deal or selling something, or a politician campaigning and persuading people to vote for them. However, these are not the only professions or ways persuasion is strategically used. In social psychology we often use persuasion to promote the overall well being of others through social influence. Social influence is the interactions we have with others that persuade us to change our values, beliefs, and or behavior (Gruman, et al, 2016).
There are many types of persuasion that social psychologists use for the greater good. One type is informational appeals. Informational appeals are giving people evidence and facts on a topic that they can understand to persuade them on this topic (Gruman, et al, 2016). For example, If you had been to your local doctors office during the times of COVID you may have seen posters with facts on them about wearing masks. These posters would have stated evidence in a way that is easy for the general public to understand on how wearing masks helps prevent the spread of germs and in turn the spread of COVID.
Another type of persuasion is fear appeal. Fear appeal uses fear inducing elements that in turn engage the audience and scare them into changing their ways on the promoted topic (Gruman, et al, 2016). Research has shown that fear appeal using factors of emotional interest, concreteness, and proximity has a significant impact on attitude change, specifically using emotional interest (Sherer, et al, 1984). A great example of fear appeal is the packaging of cigarettes throughout Europe. In America, cigarette packaging is the normal logo of the brand. In Europe the packaging of all cigarettes is required to have a disturbing real life photo of what smoking cigarettes can do to someone’s health. For example, a picture of blackened lungs or a person with a hole in their throat. These photos are meant to strike real life emotional fear into people and persuade them not to smoke cigarettes for their well being. Research has shown that these tactics have made a difference in stopping people from continuing to smoke (Kahnert, et al, 2020).
Persuasion is an effective technique that can be used in many professions and aspects of our lives. Social psychologists use persuasion for the greater good of our health. They can persuade us in subliminal ways to change our behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and or values. Social psychologists are able to use multiple ways of persuasion such as informational appeal, to give us the facts in a way we can understand to change our ways. Or by using fear appeal to scare us into changing what may be dramatically impacting our health. Overall, social psychologists’ use of persuasion is very strategic and arguably one of the most important uses of persuasion as it helps us become overall healthier people.
References
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2016). Applied Social Psychology (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc. (US). https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9781506353968
Kahnert, S., Driezen, P., Balmford, J., Kyriakos, C. N., Aleyan, S., Hitchman, S. C., Nogueira, S., Demjén, T., Fernández, E., Katsaounou, P. A., Trofor, A. C., Przewoźniak, K., Zatoński, W. A., Fong, G. T., Vardavas, C. I., Mons, U., & EUREST-PLUS Consortium (2020). Effectiveness of tobacco warning labels before and after implementation of the European Tobacco Products Directive-findings from the longitudinal EUREST-PLUS ITC Europe surveys. European journal of public health, 30(Suppl_3), iii84–iii90. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckaa039
Sherer, M., & Rogers, R. W. (1984). The role of vivid information in fear appeals and attitude change. Journal of Research in Personality, 18(3), 321-334. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-6566(84)90016-3
I found your post very interesting. I absolutely agree that persuasion is an effective technique which is used in many professional areas, not just social psychology. It can help to accomplish a lot. At the same time, I am a bit worried. You mention words “for the greater good” twice and those are usually words very close in meaning to “the end justifies the means” to my liking. At least I think they are frequently used in the same context. Later, you say “they can persuade us in subliminal ways to change our behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and or values.” This sounds outright scary. Even when the intentions are good, I am uncomfortable with anyone subliminally changing my beliefs and values. And somebody else’s intentions are not always guaranteed to be good, nor always the same as my own intentions and interests.
It has been shown that persecution of political opponents by psychological and psychiatric means is happening in other countries (van Voren, 2014). How can we be sure it is never going to happen to us?
References
van Voren R. (2014). Is there a resumption of political psychiatry in the former Soviet Union?. International psychiatry: bulletin of the Board of International Affairs of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, 11(3), 73–74.
I was genuinely surprised to learn that cigarette packets in Europe differ so greatly from the United States. If the same method was used in the United states, I’m sure individuals would think twice before purchasing cigarettes. With that said, I’ve seen the fear appeal applied in other circumstances. For example, the don’t text and drive advertisements heavily use this tactic. More specifically, they show the consequences of driving and texting, such as losing limbs, injuring someone else outside of the vehicle, and even death. These types of advertisements use the fear appeal to make you think twice about deciding to text and drive as it can have devastating consequences. There’s also research that supports the notion that threats in texting and driving advertising can increase anticipated regret and dissuade someone from driving recklessly (Hayashi et al., 2019).
Hayashi, Y., Foreman, A. M., Friedel, J. E., & Wirth, O. (2019). Threat appeals reduce impulsive decision making associated with texting while driving: A behavioral economic approach. PLOS ONE, 14(3). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213453