Page 117 - Today’s Business Communication; A How-to Guide for the Modern Professional

106 TODAY’S BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

calculation of how much money that has cost the individual. Then, you
comment that you know the employee is a good person and a good worker
who would never steal from the firm. Yet, habitual tardiness has the net
impact of actually stealing from the organization—which is relatively
high involvement.
Petty and Cacioppo’s ELM explains that persuasion exists on a con-
tinuum. In the example we provide above, we are looking at using both
routes to persuasion with an ultimate outcome of strong persuasion and
substantial behavioral change (i.e., stop coming to work late!).
When audiences evaluate persuasive appeals, they process information
simultaneously about both the sender of that appeal and the appeal itself.
The theories driving research in this area have substantial range when it
comes to their complexity. When it comes to persuasion and influence,
we don’t want to confuse you; we prefer to keep it simple. Therefore, in
this chapter, we will share with you some simple ideas to keep in mind
when making any type of persuasive appeal.

How People Learn Our Persuasive Messages

We have come to appreciate the simplicity and effectiveness of what is
known as message learning theory. Message learning theory is the result
of research conducted by researchers at Yale in the 1940s and 1950s under
the direction of Carl Hovland. The theory argues that when processing
information about a persuasive message, audience members have to go
through a series of steps before real attitude change will occur. The steps,
identified in Figure 8.2 below, suggest that for persuasive messages to be
effective, they must capture the audience’s attention, be comprehensible,
and cause the audience members to yield to and retain the message’s
information.
2
The takeaways from message learning are clear. To improve your odds
at persuading or influencing others, you must present them with messages
that capture their attention, make the information easy to understand,

Acceptance
Attention Comprehension
(yielding)
Figure 8.2 Message learning process