Hidden
Persuasion

Media & Communication - Lecture week 4

Johannes de Boer

Johannes de Boer

jbo18 | j.deboer@saxion.nl

Internationalisation

Education

Research

Education

  • Media & Communication (Y1Q1)
  • Project Customer Rules (Y1Q2)
  • Fusion of Art & Technology (Y2Q4)
  • Internship (Y3)
  • Individual Focus (Y4)
  • Focus on Innovation (Y4)

Research

Ambient Intelligence Research Group

Behavioural Safety & ICT @ Construction sites

Internationalisation

Coordinator International Affairs

Study Abroad CMGT (ANT+Gaming)

This week

  1. Self-persuasion
  2. Promised land
  3. Attractiveness
  4. Decoy
     

Next week

  1. Mere exposure
  2. Anthropomorphism
  3. Loss or gain
  4. God terms    

Topics

What to learn?

  • Information from the slides
  • Discussed topics from the book "Hidden Persuasion"
    • See Blackboard for PDF.
  • Dutch translation of key topics available on Blackboard

The
Three
Needs

System Needs

From Single Cell
to Advanced brain

 

Hardwired mental shortcuts

fight-or-flight

 

Target automatic processes before available in brain

 

basic & uncontrollable
 

Social Needs

Social animals: need love and be respected

 

Social inclusion very old

 

Look to others for guidance

 

Tap into need for social inclusion and conformity

Self Needs

"Feels" most important

 

Avoid pain, strive for pleasure

 

Make "best" decision for future self:
* content with
* out of pain

 


Self-
Persuasion

No one is better than you at persuading yourself to change!

  • Holy grail of Persuasion
  • No confrontation or resistance
  • Generated arguments turn into beliefs

 

  • Relation "sick" & "enjoying life"
  • Stimulates choice between two implicit options

Definition

Theories that use

Self-Persuasion

  • Social Judgement Theory
  • Elaboration Likelihood Model
  • Cognitive Dissonance
  • The Narrative Paradigm

Vulcano Insurance

What about you?

Why smoking is bad arguments

  • Self-argumentation
  • External arguments


Promised
land

Buy this product and follow me to the Promised Land!

Basic needs?

 

Product-irrelevant needs are promised! (social, emotional, sexual)

 

Seduce to reach desirable goal!

Definition

PL directly aimed at creating strongest reward response in the brain of the perceiver.

 

Even though claims made are exaggerated or obvious lies

 

Note: Even unachievable desires are strong motivators!

Why it works

  1. People want the exaggerated claims to be true
  2. Presenting these brand with attractive, but unrealistic situations associated them with our dreams and desires

How it works

Just do it

Ever encountered a false prophet?



Attractiveness

"It's amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness." (Leo Tolstoy, The Kreutzer Sonata)

Attractiveness = Averageness

Attractiveness

  • Western society learn that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", but use it abundantly in marketing.
  • Bodily attractiveness is important, face is first visual object in interactions.
  • People believe they are not seduced by beauty in ads.
     
  • In general: your "morning face" is whats counts!

3 physical components

Averageness
How prototypical of representative a face is
 

Symmetry
The degree to which a face is symmetrical on the vertacial axis
 

Sexual dimorphism
​The hormonal expression of sex-specific features

40 faces around the world

Science of Attraction

What about you?

Android

iOS



Decoy

When consumers are choosing between two similar products, introducing a decoy can push people towards the desired direction

The effect explained

The effect explained

Why useful?

It is more difficult to choose between two equally preferred options.
(adding decoy reduces stress reactions by lowering the feeling of conflicting information)

When it works

No matter how well-informed you are about this technique, it is almost undetectable

 

Anything ca be advertised as a decoy (even a politician)

How to implement

 

 

Always use the decoy as the least-favoured option

 

Works best in high-quality vs low-quality products.

Interesting read:

 

 

The Decoy Effect, or How to Win an Election
by Shankar Vedantam

Take a look at

the canteen or supermarket!

Next Week

Hidden Persuasion - Part 2

MedCom-PT1

By Johannes de Boer