Discussion Questions

Discussion question 1:

The text authors talk about the central route of persuasion, which is a situation in which someone directly and logically appeals to logic to persuade someone. We often see this in commercials. An example would be a cleaning product which is guaranteed to clean the toilet better. Often though commercials are enhanced with other factors which appeal to us in an emotional way. I remember seeing a commercial which had cute cleaning brushes with eyes and smiles. Can any of you post ideas from commercials which illustrate means of persuasion? (clip art okay)

Discussion question 2:

Carter and Seifert begin to talk about attribution theory in section 16.3.  They lists a number of attribution biases.  Would anyone like to comment on them? Let me get this started by mentioning one in the text which is called defensive attribution. An example of this is blaming the victim. The idea is that some people need to believe that the world is fair so they decide that when someone has a misfortune happen to them that they “must have deserved it.” (give an eample)

Discusion question 3:

The Solomon Asch study is mentioned in the text and this is a study in which the researchers are trying to experimentally produce a biased opinion. The subjects in the experiment were asked to look at lines and match the line in card 1 to the line in card 2. The procedure was used to look at social influence on the subjects. Would they let others influence their opinion even when the others gave an opinion that was clearly false? What were the results of this study?