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Persuasion: Social Influence and Compliance Gaining, 3/E
Robert H. Gass, California State University, Fullerton
John S. Seiter, Utah State University

ISBN-10: 0205462162
ISBN-13: 9780205462162

Publisher: Allyn & Bacon
Copyright: 2007
Format: Paper; 400 pp
Published: 06/21/2006

Suggested retail price: $84.00
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Persuasion: Social Influence, and Compliance Gaining looks at persuasion from a broad-based perspective, encompassing the full scope of persuasion found in everyday life.

 

Linked to empirical research, this text takes students from persuasion theory to qualified conclusions about the operation of persuasion in real-world settings and examines persuasion from a social science perspective. Written in a highly accessible style, this text involves students by providing information and real-life examples with which they can easily identify.

  • Pragmatic advice helps students become more effective persuaders and learn to resist others' influence.
  • Recent research studies and findings, including those on the latest meta-analytic studies, provide students with the most current information in the field of persuasion.
  • Helpful sidebars examine persuasion in specialized contexts and settings, such as car sales, funeral homes, telephone solicitations, and cult indoctrination.
  • Unique discussions of several abstract forms of persuasion–such as subliminal persuasion, music as persuasion, and the use of fragrances in persuasion–show students the range and intricacies of persuasive messages they encounter every day.
  • Broad scope includes discussions of influence in interpersonal settings, small group settings, and the mass media to make students more aware of the various types of persuasion surrounding them on a daily basis.
  • “Visual Persuasion” (Ch. 14) helps students gain an appreciation of persuasion that includes images and visual media.
  • Expanded, early examination of persuasion, propaganda, and manipulation clarifies for students the key differences among and between these terms.
  • Enhanced discussion of cultural influences on persuasion–with most chapters including intercultural examples and illustrations–broadens students' understanding about the types and impact of persuasion in a variety of cultural settings.
  • A section on analyzing and adapting to audiences, including information on segmentation analysis of target audiences, assists students in adapting their messages to particular audiences.

  • New discussion of computer-mediated persuasion, including Internet deception and “phishin” scams.
  • Current research on subliminal influence and how it can alter attitudes, moods, and even behavior.
  • Updated discussion of nonverbal cues as they apply to deception detection, including the results of the latest meta-analysis.
  • Expanded treatment of the ethics of using fear appeals to engage in fear mongering or promoting a “culture of fear”.
  • New section on the importance of visual literacy as a means of evaluating visual persuasion.

Preface.

 

1. Why Study Persuasion?

Aims and Goals.

Persuasion Is Not a Dirty Word.

Persuasion Is Our Friend.

The Pervasiveness of Persuasion: You Can Run But You Can't Hide.

Four Benefits of Studying Persuasion.

Two Criticisms of Persuasion.

Ethical Concerns Regarding the Use of Persuasion.

2. What Constitutes Persuasion?

Pure Versus Borderline Cases of Persuasion.

Limiting Criteria for Defining Persuasion.

A Model of the Scope of Persuasion.

The Context for Persuasion.

A Working Definition of Persuasion.

So What Isn't Persuasion?

Dual Process Models of Persuasion.

3. Attitudes and Consistency.

What is an “Attitude” in 15 Words or Less?

So How Do You Measure the Durn' Things?

The Theory of Reasoned Action.

The Persistence of Attitudes.

Attitudes as Associative Networks: Your Mind is a Web.

Manufacturing Favorable Images and Associations: Jiggling the Web.

Psychological Consistency.

Cognitive Dissonance.

4. Credibility.

Celebrity Selling Power: The Answer Is in the Stars

What is Credibility?

The Factor Analytic Approach to Credibility.

The Factor Analytic Approach and the Real World.

Credibility as a Peripheral Cue.

It’s What’s Up Front That Counts

The Sleeper Effect.

Credibility and Image Management.

Interpersonal Credibility: Impression Management, Facework, and Accounts.

Strategies for Enhancing One's Credibility.

5. Communicator Characteristics and Persuasibility.

Demographic Variables and Persuasion.

Psychological and Communication States and Traits.

Analyzing and Adapting to Audiences.

6. Conformity and Influence in Groups.

Conformity as Persuasion: In With The Crowd.

Deindividuation and Social Loafing: Getting Lost in the Crowd.

How Groups Affect Decision Making: To Risk or Not to Risk.

7. Language and Persuasion.

Symbols, Meaning, and Persuasion: The Power of Babble.

Language Intensity, Vividness, and Offensiveness.

Powerless Language and Persuasion: “Ums” the Word.

8. Nonverbal Influence.

The Direct Effects Model of Immediacy.

Types of Nonverbal Communication.

9. Structuring and Ordering Persuasive Messages.

Implicit and Explicit Conclusions: The Writing's on the Wall.

Quantity Versus Quality of Arguments: The More the Merrier?

Repetition, Mere Exposure, and Social Influence: You Can Say That Again.

Order Effects and Persuasion: First Things First.

Primacy and Recency Effects: The First Shall Be Last and the Last Shall Be First.

Inoculation, Message-Sidedness, and Forewarning: Preventing and Refuting the Persuasive Attempts of Others.

10. Sequential Persuasion.

Pregiving: The Old “I'll Scratch Your Back If You'll Scratch Mine” Approach.

Foot In the Door: The “Give Me an Inch and I'll Take a Mile” Tactic.

The Foot in the Mouth Effect: “How Are You Today?”.

The Door in the Face Tactic: “Ask For the Stars.”

The That’s-Not-All Tactic: Seeking Compliance by Sweetening the Deal

The Lowball Tactic:  Changing the Deal.

The Bait and Switch Tactic: “Sorry, We Don’t Have Any More of Those in Your Size, But…”

The Disrupt-Then-Reframe Technique: I’m So Confused.

11. Compliance-Gaining.

Actions Speak the Loudest: A Definition of Compliance Gaining.

In the Beginning: The Roots of Compliance Gaining Research.

Situation: The “It Depends” of Compliance Gaining Behavior.

Who Are You? Individual Characteristics and Compliance Gaining Behavior.

Problems Facing Compliance Research: Trouble in Paradise.

New Directions: The Study of Compliance Gaining Goals.

12. Deception.

What is Deception? Lies and Damn Lies.

Telling Lies: The Enactment of Deception.

Detecting Deception: I Can See Right Through You.

13. Motivational Appeals.

Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Motivation.

Logical and Emotional Appeals: A Fuzzy Distinction.

Fear Appeals: If You Don't Stop Doing That, You'll Go Blind.

Appeals to Pity and Guilt: Woe is Me, Shame On You.

Humorous Appeals: Stop Me If You've Heard This One.

Pride and Patriotism:  Turning Red, White, and Blue Into Green.

For Mature Audiences: Sex Appeals.

Warmth Appeals: Straight from the Heart.

Ingratiation: “That's a Lovely Dress You're Wearing, Mrs. Cleaver.”

Mixed Emotions: Other Appeals and Combinations of Appeals.

14. Visual Persuasion.

Visual Persuasion: Too Often Overlooked.

How Images Persuade.

Architecture as a Form of Influence: Building Blocks of Persuasion.

Art as Persuasion: Mona Lisa Made Me Do It.

Cinematic Persuasion: The Movies Made Me Do It.

Advertising and Persuasion: Images in the Media: Views in the News.

Images in Advertising: And Now a Word from Our Sponsors.

15. Esoteric Forms of Persuasion.

Subliminal Persuasion: Hidden Messages or Hokum?

The Early Years: An Urban Myth is Born.

The Middle Years: Looking Hard, Finding Little.

Recent Subliminal Research:  Eureka! They Found It.

Not So Fast: Limitations of Subliminal Priming.

So Why Do People Believe?

Music as a Form of Persuasion.

Aroma and Persuasion.

16. The Ethics of Persuasion.

Is Persuasion in General Unethical?

The Motives Color the Means.

Ethics, Culture, and the Issue of Central vs. Peripheral Processing.

Ethical Questions That Can't Be Answered Through the Study of Persuasion.

Our Approach: Characteristics of Ethical Influence.

Ethical Issues Arising from Previous Chapters.

Persuasion, Social Influence, and Compliance Gaining, Third Edition, looks at persuasion from a broad-based perspective, encompassing the full scope of persuasion found in everyday life.

 

Linked to empirical research, this text takes students from persuasion theory to qualified conclusions about the operation of persuasion in real-world settings and examines persuasion from a social science perspective. Written in a highly accessible style, this text involves students by providing information and real-life examples with which they can easily identify.

 

New to This Edition

  • New discussion of computer-mediated persuasion, including Internet deception and “phishing” scams
  • Current research on subliminal influence and how it can alter attitudes, moods, and even behavior
  • Updated discussion of nonverbal cues as they apply to deception detection, including the results of the latest meta-analysis
  • Expanded treatment of the ethics of using fear appeals to engage in fear mongering or promoting a “culture of fear”
  • New section on the importance of visual literacy as a means of evaluating visual persuasion

 

Praise for Persuasion

 

This text is very comprehensive when it comes to the social scientific perspective. The humor adds to the book without being distracting. The meta-analyses are thoughtful and aid in reconciling the seemingly contradictory research findings. And I find the box features to be interesting and frequently offer useful practical advice.

 

–Andrew T. Jacobs, SUNY Rockland Community College

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