Page 121 - The Social Animal

Mass Communication, Propaganda, and Persuasion 103

adequate are more easily influenced by a persuasive communication
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than individuals who think highly of themselves. This seems reason-
able enough; after all, if people don’t like themselves, then it follows
that they don’t place a very high premium on their own ideas and have
less confidence in their convictions. Consequently, if their ideas are
challenged, they may be willing to give them up. Recall that people
want to be right. If Sam, who has high self-esteem, listens to a com-
munication at variance with his own opinion, he must make up his
mind whether he stands a better chance of being right if he changes
his opinion or if he stands pat. A person with high self-esteem may
experience some conflict when he finds himself in disagreement with
a highly credible communicator. He might resolve this conflict by
changing his opinion, or he might remain firm. But if Sam had low
self-esteem, there would be little or no conflict. Because he doesn’t
think very highly of himself, he probably believes he stands a better
chance of being right if he goes along with the communicator.

Prior Experience of the Audience Another audience-related
factor of considerable importance is the frame of mind the audience is
in just prior to the communication. An audience can be made recep-
tive to a communication if it has been well fed and is relaxed and
happy. Indeed, as Irving Janis and his associates have discovered, peo-
ple who have been allowed to eat desirable food while reading a per-
suasive communication are more influenced by what they read than
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are people in a control (noneating) group. Similarly, research by
Richard Petty and his colleagues suggests that being in a good mood
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can make people more vulnerable to persuasion. Geoffrey Cohen
and his colleagues 61 found that people who have recently received
self-esteem–affirming feedback (such as learning they are well liked)
are also more receptive to being persuaded by a communication.
Conversely, there are ways in which members of an audience can
be made less receptive and less persuadable. As I noted, people pre-
dict they will be able to resist persuasive communications such as
television commercials. Accordingly, one way of decreasing their
persuasibility is by forewarning them that an attempt is going to be
made to persuade them. This is especially true if the content of the
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message differs from their own beliefs. I would argue that the phrase
“And now, a message from our sponsor” renders that message less
persuasive than it would have been if the communicator had simply