Social Influence Persuasion

Persuasion comes under the category of social influence which comprises of the majority and minority influence when a person's self-belief, attitudes, and behaviour are deformed by the actions of others (1). According to Eagly and Chaiken (1984), persuasion is narrowly defined as the complex message which induces a change in beliefs and attitudes (2) inevitably resulting in an effective change. Thereby to convince the target to internalise the argument and acquire the attitude as part of their core self-beliefs system. Moreover, there are paths of cognitive processing and its effect that may lead to influence the form of persuasions such as the central route or the peripheral route. This was further supported by Richard Petty and John Cacioppo

This was investigated by Moore and Swift (2011) alongside Pentland [2010] as they have found that when offering an advice or pitching a business proposition, it can be vital for the communicator to be charismatic, valiant, and energetic when communicating to others.

Moreover, in order for the communicator to be proficient and stupendous enough to influence persuasion, their knowledge may need to enclose some credibility. Being perceived as both expertise and trustworthiness is a crucial part of communication. This was supported by researcher Rossiter and Smiat [2012] as they have found that celebrity as the communicator being perceived as expert users of the product was effective in leading individuals to put their interest in. However, on the other hand, Cook and Flay [1978] found that people tend to remember message better than the ideologies behind it. Thus, information may not be immersed and so individuals are not empowered enough to be influenced by the message. This may result in a sleeper

Also, how a message is presented using opposing views, such as political debates, and last of all how much information is presented. The researcher found that messages may influence persuasion when using emotion. For instance, Petty et al [1993] discovered that the effect of a good feeling message to become persuasive as they revealed that good feelings tend to enhance positive thoughts towards the message given. This was further studied by other researchers such as Bodenhausen [1993] along with Braverman [2005], Moons and Mackie [2007] that good feelings uplift individual's mood positively allowing them to make quicker and spontaneous decisions. Alternatively, the effect of arousing fear was reviewed by de hogg et al [2007] and Muller and Johnson [1990] that a message can be effective and persuasive by conjuring negative emotions such as showing the dangers of smoking. Therefore this, suggests that fear-arousing message can be influential. However, Elliot Aronson [1997] states that the effect of fear-arousing messages does not always work when the fear is connected to a pleasurable activity such as smoking or drinking, which may result into denial, rather than a behavioural change. He also states that people may be in denial due to the alarming messages which can have a tremendous effect on