Page 131 - The Social Animal

Mass Communication, Propaganda, and Persuasion 113

the presentation were systematically varied—the credibility of the
speakers, for example, or the order of the arguments—and the re-
sulting versions of the message were presented to audiences. When
audience opinion is polled, the effects of the variables can be meas-
ured. This procedure allows great control over the message and is
well suited for testing large numbers of participants. This method
is so efficient, in fact, that it has been adapted to a computer-con-
trolled procedure for varying certain factors surrounding the mes-
sages and presenting them to people seated at computer consoles. 81
With the advent of cable television networks that have the techno-
logical capability for home viewers to communicate back to the sta-
tion, it is now possible to instantaneously sample the responses of
thousands of viewers to actual presentations.
Suppose that, instead of deciding to televise the documentary,
you opted to broadcast the series of more subtle messages disguised
within the regular programs and presented repeatedly. It would be
much more difficult to measure and assess the impact of this ap-
proach, but it probably is more common. Rarely are we presented
with explicit persuasive messages in favor of a given position imme-
diately prior to deciding on an issue, except perhaps during political
campaigns. Most of our beliefs develop more gradually, through re-
peated contacts with people and information over an extended pe-
riod of time. In general, it is difficult to change important beliefs
through direct communication. There appears to be a basic differ-
ence between an issue like national health insurance, on the one
hand, and issues like the feasibility of atomic-powered submarines,
whether antihistamines should be sold without a prescription, and
the practical importance of arithmetic, on the other. What is the dif-
ference? One possible difference is that the medical-care issue feels
more important. But what is the criterion for judging whether an
issue is important or trivial?
To provide an answer to this question, we must first examine
what we mean by the term opinion, which has been used through-
out this chapter. On the simplest level, an opinion is what a person
believes to be factually true. Thus, it is my opinion that there are
fewer than 15,000 students enrolled at the University of California
at Santa Cruz, that wearing seat belts reduces traffic fatalities, and
that New York City is hot in the summer. Such opinions are prima-
rily cognitive—that is, they take place in the head rather than in the