Psychologiczne mechanizmy perswazji i zmiany postaw

Abstract

The present article addresses the issue of persuasion and attitude change in human communication. Providing a discussion of classical and psychological definitions of persuasion, this text presents the role of persuasion research in experimental social psychology and explores its psychological mechanisms. Nowadays, persuasion is defined as the process by which a person is influenced to change their attitudes and opinions. This definition emphasizes mutual links between persuasion and attitude change which are lucidly seen in dual models of persuasion: the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and the heuristic-systematic model (HSM). The models are considered the most important and influential contemporary theories of persuasion. They allow understanding and prediction of what variables affect attitudes and in what general situations they do so. Drawing on cognitive psychology the models propose two routes that may be taken when people process persuasive messages. The central route implies relatively extensive and effortful information-processing activity, aimed at scrutinizing the central merits of the issue. Individuals are likely to use this route when they are motivated to think about an attitude issue and have ability to process the content of a message. In contrast, the peripheral route is used when there is minimal cognitive elaboration of a message, and then non-message factors are largely responsible for any attitude change that occurs. Because of so many links between the concepts of persuasion and attitude change this article provides an extensive overview of the issue of attitudes. Playing a crucial role in our lives attitudes are summary evaluations of an infinite range of things from ourselves and other people, to actions, events and ideas. After presenting their origins, structure and functions it deals with the influence of attitudes on information processing. Finally, the paper focuses on general processes mediating effects of independent variables on attitude change.