Question

List and explain the 5 important factors of persuasion and apply the factors to a brand of your choice. Be thorough and insightful with your application of the persuasion concept.

Answer 1

Age

According to the life-stage hypothesis, there's a curvilinear relationship between persuasion and age. As you may have guessed, children fall victim to persuasion quite easily, especially to strangers (uh-oh).The American Academy of Pediatrics states, “young children — younger than 8 years — are cognitively and psychologically defenseless against

Gender

Gender stereotypes affect persuasion more than actual gender differences," says Robert Gass and John Seiter, authors of Persuasion: Social Influence and Compliance Gaining. These gender stereotypes showed that audiences thought that males were more competent than females. A study mentioned in their textbook explained that female doctors were expected to be more warm and nurturing, unlike male doctors who were expected to be more assertive and stern. Female doctors who were more assertive and had more masculine behavioral characteristics were not favored, and their patients were not persuaded by what they were telling them. The Reinforcement Expectancy Theory goes on to say that, ultimately, women are at a disadvantage because of the stereotypes that limit how influential they can be.

Recent studies have suggested that there is no reason to believe that one sex is more easily-persuaded than the other, but studies do show that there is a cross-sex effect. This means that people are more easily persuaded by the opposite sex than by those of the same gender.

3. Ethnicity and Culture

There are two main types of cultures: individualistic and collectivistic. Individualistic cultures value independence, personal gain, and personal success (i.e. the United States) while collectivist cultures focus on fitting in, benefiting the group rather than the individual person, and they strive for little-to-no conflict (China).

Self-Esteem

Researchers have suggested that individuals with moderately high self-esteem can be more easily influenced than those with very high or very low self-esteem. Studies suggest that individuals who have low self-esteem are more likely to stop and listen to the persuader, but they are less likely to agree to what the persuader is saying. On the other hand, that same study showed that those with very high self-esteem were much less likely to stop and listen to the persuader, but if they did, they were more likely to go through with the persuader's instructions.

Being a High Self-Monitor vs a Low Self-Monitor

High self-monitors (HSMs) are individuals who are more adaptable and sensitive to social cues. Because of this, HSMs are easily influenced when it makes them look good or makes them fit in with their environment. Low self-monitors (LSMs) tend to not be phased by conformity, and they are more dependent. LSMs care more about - and are persuaded more by - the actual features and functions of a product or the results of a decision rather than what they hear about it through the grapevine.

There are four benefits of studying persuasion also. They are the instrumental function, the knowledge and awareness function, the defensive function and finally the debunking function