Additional Resources
So, the Idiot's Guide to Persuasion wasn’t punishing enough and you want more. You think you can handle it. You think you’ve got what it takes to be a wild eyed persuasion scientist. And you’ve had it up to here, Mister, with the flip style, relentless first person, and constant grating attempts at humor in CIG Persuasion. You want something that has no style, no navel gazing, and no humor. Have I got a list for you.
The following titles meet the standard for classification as “scientific research sources.” The authors can do something I can’t, tell it straight. Boom! These books will tell you more about persuasion, attitudes, and influence than you could ever possibly need. They are reliable, intelligent, thoughtful, and cutting edge.
If you think you can handle the truth, you’ve got to read the "Psychology of Attitudes" by Eagly and Chaiken. It is the killer app in persuasion. Eagly and Chaiken are that unusual blend of outstanding talent as scientists and textbook writers. This book is not for the faint hearted. It just looks serious as hell even if you don’t read it. I dare you.
Another text of high accomplishment is Robert Cialdini’s "Influence." It shines in both its clear presentation of concepts and its smart, practical, and funny application of those concepts. I’ve seen "Influence" as a title used by consultants and marketers and as a title used by academic professors and researchers. That’s Shakespearian success.
It’s been my good fortune to know many of the authors on this list either personally or by well earned reputation. The Guide could not exist without the skill and effort of these authors and the many people who’ve contributed to persuasion theory and research over the years. I appreciate and respect their work and recommend it to students and practitioners alike. Go to your favorite book store or library, hunt these titles down, then sit right on the floor, right there, and read them.Useful, trustworthy, and likable experts in persuasion are hard to find for two reasons: 1) they're after your money or 2) they're after your mind. The ones after your money often provide simple explanations for complex situations that make it easy for you to understand. However, it may be incorrect, anecdotal, or unproven information. The ones after your mind often provide correct information that is well tested and proven. But, it is so difficult to understand, you need an advanced degree from them just to find the book.
What to do? Depends. If you are just surfing the turf, then read anything you want, but be skeptical when you see those exclamation points and percentages. If you really want to acquire more knowledge and skill, then you will have to suffer. This Idiot's guide is probably one of the most friendly and accessible resources you'll find and past it, you have to get on the pain train if you want to gain. Let me illustrate.
I attended the business meeting of the Information Systems Division of the International Communication Association a number of years ago. It was about as much fun as the name implies. But then fun isn't our business. Of course, neither is danger, humor, or profit. The then chair of the division explained the results of a survey the Association had conducted to determine how people perceived all divisions in the Association including ours, of course. The chair read out the survey conclusions: "We're perceived as cold, hostile, and argumentative." There was a pause then a voice rang out, "And what's wrong with that?" No one laughed. The persuasion guys are not funny or fun. Consider yourself warned.
For each chapter you will find a list of suggested search terms suitable for the Internet or (good grief, what a concept!) a library. If you do visit an actual library and read an old fashioned book, you might need a respirator to protect you from all that dust. I don't want you to get hurt or injured in the pursuit of knowledge! If you search on the Internet, you might want to make sure you use the Family Filter, just in case. It doesn't require much imagination to take terms like "central route" or "high WATT" or "modeling theory" or anything with a "blonde" example and make something cheap, sordid, and pornographic. And, worst of all, it won't have anything to do with persuasion.
Part 1 The Setup
Chapter 1: Persuasion Basics
Search terms: persuasion; power.
Cialdini, R. (1980). Influence: Science and practice, (2nd Ed.). Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, & Company.
O'Keefe, D. Persuasion: Theory and Research.
Perloff, R. The Dynamics of Persuasion: Communication and Attitudes in the 21st Century.
Petty, R., & Cacioppo, J. Attitudes and Persuasion: Classic and Contemporary Approaches.
Reardon, K. Persuasion In Practice.
Stiff, J., & Mongeau, P. Persuasive Communication.
Chapter 2 The Communication of Persuasion
Search terms: communication models; gestalt psychology; communication matrix; theory of reasoned action; theory of planned behavior; mass communication principles; elaboration likelihood model; heuristic-systematic model; the standard model; Yale model persuasion.
Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1973). Attitudinal and normative variables as predictors of specific behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27, 41-57.
Booth-Butterfield, S., Welbourne, J., Ott, S., Hartley, T., Clough-Thomas, K., & Lawryk, N. (in press). A Communication Matrix Intervention to Increase Adoption of Federal Government Safety Recommendations. Health Communication.
Booth-Butterfield, S., Welbourne, J., Williams, C., & Lewis, V. (2007). Formative field experiments of a NIOSH Alert to reduce the risks to fire fighters from structural collapse: Applying the cascade framework. Health Communication.
Booth-Butterfield, S., & Reger, B. (2004). The message changes belief and the rest is theory: The "1% Or Less" milk campaign and reasoned action. Preventive Medicine, 39, 581-588.
Chaiken, S. (1987). The heuristic systematic model of persuasion. In M. Zanna, J. Olson, & C. Herman (Eds.) Social influence: The Ontario symposium, Volume 5 (pp. 3-40). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Chaiken, S., Liberman, A., & Eagly, A. (1989). Heuristic and systematic information processing within and beyond the persuasion context. In J. Uleman & J. Bargh (Eds.), Unintended thought, (pp.212-252). New York: Guilford.
Fishbein, M. (1967). Readings in Attitude Theory and Measurement, New York, NY: Wiley.
Fishbein, M. (1967). Attitude and the prediction of behavior. In M. Fishbein (Ed.), Readings in attitude theory and measurement (pp. 477-492). New York: Wiley.
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior : An introduction to theory and research. Reading, Mass. ; Don Mills, Ontario: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co.
Gladwell, M. (2000). Tipping Point. Little, Brown, and Company.
Gladwell, M. (2005). Blink. Little, Brown, and Company.
Hovland, C. I., Janis, I. L. and Kelley, H. H. (1953) Communications and persuasion: Psychological studies in opinion change, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press
Kohler, W. Gestalt Psychology. New York: Liveright, 1947.
Koffka, K . (1935). Principles of Gestalt Psychology. London: Kegan Paul, Trench.
McGuire, W. (1981). "Theoretical Foundations of Campaigns." In Ronald Rice and William Paisley (eds.), Public Communication Campaigns, Sage.
Petty, R., & Cacioppo, J. (1986). Communication and persuasion: The central and peripheral routes to attitude change. Springer-Verlag: New York.
Shimp, T. (2002). Advertising, Promotion, and Other Aspects of Integrated Marketing Communications, 6 th Edition. South Western College Publishing.
Welbourne, J., & Booth-Butterfield, S. (2005). Using the theory of planned behavior and a stage model of persuasion to evaluate a safety message for firefighters. Health Communication 18, 141-155.
Chapter 3 The Ten Persuasion Rules
To the best of my knowledge the Persuasion Rules are entirely my invention inspired by many years of reading and experience. Here are the inspirations I recall.
Rule 4: "All persuasion is local," is taken directly from the late Congressional Representative and Speaker of the House, Thomas "Tip" O'Neil. His line is "all politics is local." Politics involves persuasion, so the analogy is both apt and easy.
Rule 7: "All bad persuasion is sincere," comes directly from Oscar Wilde's comments (with an asisst through Professor Harold Bloom) on literary criticism. Wilde's line is, in essence, all bad poetry is sincere. The application to persuasion seems clear to me. In fact, I'll go as far to claim that all human communication not aimed directly at intimacy is bad when it is sincere. And even most intimate communication would improve if it were less sincere, authentic, and self-focused. It's always about the other guy, in other words.
Rule 9: "You can get farther with a kind word and a big stick," is a kinder rewrite of the observation by that Chicago social philosopher, Al Capone. Mr. Capone used "a gun" where I use a "big stick" since "a gun" tends to elicit a raw affective response in some people and I don't want to get into an argument about gun control. I'd prefer to quote Mr. Capone exactly for this Rule since a well expressed Rule should be as obvious as a hammer on a thumb.
Rule 10: Power corrupts persuasion. To extend Lord Acton's observation that "power tends to corrupt and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely" is easy here.
Part II. Persuasion Plays for Beginners
Chapter 4 Conditioning and Modeling
Search terms: Pavlov; respondent conditioning; classical conditioning; John Watson; "little Albert;" B.F. Skinner; operant conditioning; Albert Bandura; Wolfgang Kohler; modeling; social learning.
Bandura, A. (1962). Social learning through imitation. In M. Jones (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation (pp. 211-269). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.
Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Kohler, W. (1925). The mentality of apes. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace.
Pavlov, I.I. (1927) Conditioned Reflexes, Translated by G.V. Anrep, London: Oxford University Press.
Petty, R., & Cacioppo, J. (1981). Attitudes and persuasion: Classic and contemporary approaches. Dubuque, IA: William C. Brown.
Skinner, B. (1953). Science and human behavior. New York: MacMillan.
Skinner, B. (1968). The technology of teaching. New York: Appleton-Crofts.
Chapter 5 Obedience and Authority
Search Terms: Stanley Milgram; obedience.
Milgram. S. (1974). Obedience to authority. New York: Harper and Row.
Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral Study of obedience. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 371-378.
Chapter 6 Thoughtful Persuasion
Search terms: elaboration likelihood model; heuristic systematic model; Rich Petty; John Cacioppo; Shelly Chaiken; Burger King and Herb.
Chaiken, S. (1987). The heuristic systematic model of persuasion. In M. Zanna, J. Olson, & C. Herman (Eds.) Social influence: The Ontario symposium, Volume 5 (pp. 3-40). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Chaiken, S., Liberman, A., & Eagly, A. (1989). Heuristic and systematic information processing within and beyond the persuasion context. In J. Uleman & J. Bargh (Eds.), Unintended thought, (pp.212-252). New York: Guilford.
Petty, R., & Cacioppo, J. (1986). Communication and persuasion: The central and peripheral routes to attitude change. Springer-Verlag: New York.
Chapter 7 UnThoughtful Persuasion: Cues
Right now you can find more popular press books on "cues" than on how to have good sex. Virtually all the titles you see now that discuss how people change either as individuals or as societies can be profitably understood as cue-based processes. To be sure there are important differences between the choice architecture from prospect theory as described by Thaler and Sunstein in "Nudge" and the "click, whirr" process of Cialdini's influence tactics in his book, "Influence," but what puts them in the same category is that low WATT mental state the receiver employs to handle the cue. I'm not disparaging anyone's approach, but just trying to find the common thread that ties them together so that we achieve a higher understanding, especially in contrast to the central route of Thoughtful Persuasion.
Search terms: Robert Cialdini; social comparison; liking, physical attractiveness, affect building, humor, affinity seeking; authority, credibility, expertise; reciprocity, reciprocal concessions; commitment consistency; scarcity.
Cialdini, R. (1980). Influence: Science and practice, (2nd Ed.). Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, & Company. Buy this book, read it, keep it, refer to it. Okay? The guy is a scientist who lives in the real world. He's also a Facebook friend of mine, so I might be biased. We also have the same birthday.
Down, A.C., & Lyons, P. (1991). Natural observations of the links between attractiveness and initial legal judgments. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 541-547.
Hinsz, V., & Tomhave, J. (1991). Smile and (half) the world smiles with you, frown and you frown alone. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 586-592.
Kahneman, D., Slovic, P., & Tversky, A. (1982). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Cambridge University Press. New York.
Thaler, R., & Sunstein, C. (2008). Nudge. Yale University Press: New Haven, CT.
Chapter 8 The Two Step
Search terms: foot in the door; door in the face; sequential message requests.
Cantril, J., & Seibold, D. (1986). The perceptual contrast explanation of sequential request strategy effectiveness. Human Communication Research, 13, 253-267.
Cialdini, R., Vincent, J., Lewis, S., Catalan, J., Wheeler, D., & Darby, B. (1975). Reciprocal concessions procedure for inducing compliance: The door-in-the-face technique. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 206-215.
Dillard, J. (1991). The current status of research on sequential-request compliance techniques. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 282-288.
Dillard, J., Hunter, J., & Burgoon, M. (1984). Sequential request persuasive strategies: Meta-analysis of foot-in-the-door and door-in-the-face. Human Communication Research, 10, 461-488.
Dolin, D. & Booth-Butterfield, S. (1995). Cancer prevention and the foot-in-the-door technique. Health Communication, 7, 55-66.
Freedman, J., & Fraser, S. (1966). Compliance without pressure: The foot-in-the-door technique. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 4, 195-202.
Taylor, T., & Booth-Butterfield, S. (1993). Getting a foot in the door with drinking and driving: A field study of Healthy Influence. Communication Research Reports, 10, 95-101.
http://members.tripod.com/john.kessel/id246.htm (kids saying - about getting kitten)
Part III. Advanced Persuasion Plays
Chapter 9 “Why? Because” – The Explanation Game
Search terms: attribution theory; Fritz Heider; Harold Kelley; Stephen Deci; intrinsic motivation; extrinsic motivation.
Bem, D. (1972). Self-perception theory. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, (Vol. 6). New York: Academic Press.
Heider, F. (1958). The psychology of interpersonal relations. New York: Wiley.
Jones, E. E. and Davis, K. E. (1965) From acts to dispositions: the attribution process in social psychology, in L. Berkowitz (ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Volume 2, pp. 219-266), New York: Academic Press
Kelley, H. H. (1967). Attribution theory in social psychology. In D. Levine (ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation (Volume 15, pp. 192-238). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Lepper, M., Greene, D., & Nisbett, R. (1973). Undermining children's intrinsic interest with extrinsic reward: A test of the "overjustification" hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28, 129-137.
Miller, R., Brickman, P., & Bolen, D. (1975). Attribution versus persuasion as a means of modifying behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 430-441.
Rothman, A. J.; Salovey, P.; Turvey, C.; Fishkin, S. A. (1993). Attributions of responsibility and persuasion: Increasing mammography utilization among women over 40 with an internally oriented message. Health Psychology, 12, 39-47.
Wild, T. Cameron; Enzle, Michael E.; Hawkins, Wendy L. Effects of perceived extrinsic versus intrinsic teacher motivation on student reactions to skill acquisition. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 1992 Apr Vol 18(2) 245-251
Chapter 10 Consistency and Dissonance
Search terms: cognitive dissonance; Leon Festinger.
Brehm, J. (1956). Postdecision changes in the desirability of alternatives. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 52, 384-389.
Cooper, J. & Fazio, R.(1984). A new look at dissonance. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology, Vol. 17, (pp. 229-266). New York: Academic Press.
Cotton, J. (1985). Cognitive dissonance in selective exposure. In D. Zillmann & J. Bryant (Eds.), Selective exposure to communication, (pp. 11-33). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Festinger, L. (1957) A theory of cognitive dissonance, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Festinger, L. and Carlsmith, J. M. (1959) Cognitive consequences of forced compliance, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 58, 203-211.
Festinger, L., Riecken, H., & Schachter, S. (1956). When prophecy fails. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Sherman, S., & Gorkin, L. (1980). Attitude bolstering when behavior is inconsistent with central attitudes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 16, 388-403.
Stone, J., Aronson, E., Crain, A., and Winslow, M. (1994). Inducing hypocrisy as a means of encouraging young adults to use condoms. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 116-128.
Chapter 11 Inoculation Theory
Search terms: Inoculation theory; William McGuire; Michael Pfau; Korean War traitors; John McCain War College.
McGuire, W. (1964). Inducing resistance to persuasion: Some contemporary approaches. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 1, pp.191-229). New York: Academic Press.
Pfau, M., & Burgoon, M. (1986). Inoculation in political campaign communication. Human Communication Research, 15, 99-111.
Pfau, M., Kenski, H., Nitz, M., & Sorenson, J. (1990). Efficacy of inoculation strategies in promoting resistance to political attack messages: Application to direct mail. Communication Monographs, 57, 25-43.
Pfau, M., Van Bockern, S., & Kang, J. (1992). The effectiveness of peer and adult inoculation videos in promoting resistance to smoking in adolescents. Communication Monographs, 59, 213-230.
Chapter 12 What You Don’t See Is What You Get
Search terms: subliminal persuasion; tachistiscope; Robert Zajonc; Lloyd Silverman; Mommy and I are One; mere exposure; priming.
Baldwin, M.W., S.E. Carell, and D.F. Lopez. 1990. Priming relationship schemas: My advisor and the pope are watching me from the back of my mind. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 26, 435-454.
Bornstein, R.F. 1989. Exposure and affect: Overview and meta-analysis of research, 1968-1987. Psychological Bulletin, 106, 265-289.
Kilbourne, W. E., Painton, S., & Ridley, D. (1985), The effect of sexual embedding on responses to magazine advertisements. Journal of Advertising, 14, 48-56.
Weinberger, J. (1992). Validating and demystifying subliminal psychodynamic activation. In R. F. Bornstein & T. S. Pittman (Eds.), Perception without awareness (pp. 170-190). New York: Guilford.
Zajonc, Robert B. (1980). Feeling and thinking: Preferences need no inferences. American Psychologist, 35, 151-175.
Pratkanis. http://www.csicop.org/si/9204/subliminal-persuasion.html
Part IV. Payoffs
Chapter 13 Prove It!
Search terms: research methods; experimental design; statistical analysis; meta analysis; effect size and power analysis.
Campbell, D. & Stanley, J. (2005). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for research. Houghton & Mifflin.
Cohen, J. (1977). Power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Revised Edition. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
Donnelly, Robert. (2004). Complete Idiot's Guide to Statistics. Alpha Press.
Kerlinger, F. & Lee, H. (1999). Foundations of behavioral research, 4 th ed. Wadsworth Publishing.
Rosenzweig, P. (2007). The halo effect. Free Press.
nyc blackout http://www.jstor.org/pss/2060151
http://www.snopes.com/pregnant/blackout.asp
Chapter 14 Persuasion Scripts
Search terms: persuasion scripts; Howard Dean; Rudy Wellstone; International Association of Fire Fighters; six sigma;
The books provided here are not aimed directly at persuasion, but they do offer excellent illustrations of using scripts in complex social interactions.
Havens, R. (2002). Hypnotherapy scripts. Routledge Press.
Steiner, C. (1994). Scripts People Live: Transactional Analysis of Life Scripts. Grove Press.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/e/emeril_lagasse.html Emeril quote
http://www.voteractivationnetwork.com/WP/CBS%20News%20%20A%20Giant%20Mathematical%20Puzzle%20%20January%2013,%202004%A0023829.htm Ryan Lizza story
http://www.iaff.org/politics/pa/forms.html click on "persuasion script pdf"
retrieved on January 27, 2008 at http://www.wellstone.org/
If you identify any errors or omissions in the book References or these Additional Resources, please contact me. I'll look into immediately and get on the case.
Finally . . . Research Bete Noire
You found References and Additional Resources. That means you should find them and read them. I didn’t cite them to be polite or cover my case against charges of plagerism. So, if you’re being a Good Girl or Boy, maybe you’ve been doing just that . . . except you can’t find Leon Festinger’s 1957 classic on dissonance ANYWHERE on the Web. Same thing with that Petty and Cacioppo 1986 book.
Hey, Steve, why are the examples and citations so old?
People who ask this question are pop culture dweebies and should pull down their pants so that a friend can paint their butts red.
Only a postmodern hipster doofus counts years or Web access as a way of determining truth. If the references and readings are “too old” does that mean that the principles of persuasion presented in this primer (don’t say that in the face of anyone you love unless that person likes a wet face) are untrustworthy because they aren’t dated within the past 30 minutes? Or past 10 years? That you have to actually read the book. The real book.
Look, we’re talking about all faces, places, times, and rhymes in this Guide. If it worked in 1990 with Michael Jordan, do you really think that things are different in 2009 with LeBron James? Get real my brother from another mother. The principles are eternal, only the wrapper changes.
To a certain extent, I’m turning into an old guy who’s getting more than a little peeved with the young guys who aren’t hitting the library as hard as I did back in the day. Over the past ten years, I’ve read more and more work in the social sciences (and medical sciences, too) that clearly demonstrates an aversion to reading anything published before 1992 or isn’t easily available on the Web. I can pick up an issue of virtually any good social science journal every month and read a new research paper that boldly proclaims a new finding . . . except I can remember reading an old research paper from the 1970s or the 1930s that reported the samething and oddly enough that old paper is either uncited or misrepresented.
Most of this is just human nature. I’m forgetting what it was like to be learning a new area, so I get crusty and crotchety. And people can be too quick to closure, too fast in our need for certainty, or we can be just plain lazy taking the peripheral route when we should have hung tough on the central route. My point here is that we need to keep our minds open, searching, and tentative when learning. If you’ve read several of the Guide chapters, you’re probably struck by the incredible variety of methods by which people change. There is a lot of knowledge out there and it is difficult to keep it all in your head. It is simpler to stick to what is recent, convenient, and active. But in this case, simple isn’t better. The past holds an enormous vault of value.
Why don’t you go over to the library and go back into the dusty stacks. Find old books and journals. Dust them off, sit on the floor, and read them. In many respects you should do the same thing with movies. For many folks “black and white” is the great divider. Who wants to watch a flick in grey tones? Well, if you haven’t seen “Citizen Kane” or the “Treasure of Sierra Madre” or “Casablanca” or “Dr. Strangelove” and other black and white classics, you’ve missed a lot of great movies.
And don't say anything to me about fMRI or molecular genetics!
