Chapter Five: Communicator Characteristics and Persuasion

Sections Covered

1. Demographic Variables and Persuasion
2. Psychological and Communication States and Traits
3. Analyzing and Adapting to the Audience

Demographics

• Audience-centeredness approach
  • Keeping audience in mind during preparation and presentation
• Importance of understanding demographic variables
  • Age, educational level, gender, socioeconomic status, political party affiliation, race and ethnicity, religion

Age

• Children
  • More susceptible to persuasion due to cognitive development
  • Examples: Blippi, Ryan's Toys Reviews (ethical concerns)
• Elderly
  • Cognitive decline, loneliness, fixed income make them targets for scammers
  • Life stages hypothesis & curvilinear relationship with gullibility

Gender

• Gender differences in persuasion
  • Males often perceived as more persuasive due to stereotypes
  • Reinforcement Expectancy Theory
  • Cross-sex effect: people more persuaded by opposite sex
  • Gender goals, plans, and beliefs impact persuadability

Culture and Ethnicity

• Individualistic vs. Collectivistic cultures
  • Individualistic: Value autonomy, benefit appeals
  • Collectivistic: Value harmony, group benefit appeals

Psychological and Communication States and Traits

Psychological States and Traits

• Traits: Stable, generalized across situations
  • Ex: Trait-level anxiety
• States: Situation-specific
  • Ex: State anxiety in specific scenarios

Self-Esteem and Anxiety

• High self-esteem: More receptive but resist yielding
• Low self-esteem: Less receptive but more likely to yield
• Anxiety: Affects vulnerability and receptivity to persuasion

Consistency

• Preference for consistency influences persuasion
• High preference for consistency: Susceptible to cognitive dissonance

Self-Monitoring

• High self-monitors: Respond to social rewards and image-based ads
• Low self-monitors: Respond to message content and personal judgments

Social Judgment Theory

• Ego involvement vs. Issue involvement
• High ego involvement: Small latitude of acceptance
• High credibility increases latitude of acceptance

Other Factors

• Dogmatism and Authoritarianism: Close-minded, authority-influenced
• Social Vigilantism: Belief superiority, argumentative
• Narcissism: Persuaded by self-enhancing messages
• Cognitive Complexity: Prefer quality arguments
• Verbal Argumentativeness: Constructive, vs. Verbal Aggressiveness: Destructive

Analyzing and Adapting to the Audience

1. Collect audience information
2. View world from audience's perspective
3. Fulfill audience's needs (Maslow's hierarchy)
4. Adapt message to match audience values and beliefs
5. Adjust message for audience's culture and gender
6. Consider personality traits when designing messages

Conclusion

• Importance of audience analysis
• Strategic message creation based on audience data

Covered: Demographics, Psychological, Communication States and Traits, Audience Analysis and Adaptation