In this project, I looked at five ads from Coastal Edge. I focused on the ways these ads try to motivate their audience. This task involved checking how these motivations affect what consumers do and how well they share the brand’s message. I discovered how various advertising methods, like appealing to emotions, using logic, and showing credibility, impact how people see a brand. This blog post is meant to explain my findings and give thoughts on how Coastal Edge uses persuasive methods to relate to their audience. It should be helpful for those curious about marketing and advertising methods.
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JEREMY A. MEADE E-PORTFOLIO
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This post is to look at how persuasion works in The Social Dilemma, a film that looks into how social media tricks individuals. Using ideas from our COMM 333 class at Old Dominion University, I will see how the film uses persuasion with Social Judgment Theory, Elaboration Likelihood Model, and Traits and Characteristics focusing on age and how it makes people more open to being persuaded.
Artifact: The Social Dilemma
The Social Dilemma shows the tricky sides of social media and how these tools are made to grab and keep our focus. The documentary has former workers from Facebook, Google, and Twitter talking about what goes on behind the curtains about how algorithms and targeted ads change behavior in ways we often don’t see. It claims this manipulation leads to many issues like mental health problems, political splits, and trouble for democracy. Now, let’s look at how persuasion appears when using what we learned in class.
1. Social Judgment Theory (SJT)
Social Judgment Theory helps us understand how people see messages based on their existing beliefs, sorting them into groups of acceptance, rejection, or non-commitment. In The Social Dilemma, the aim is to push viewers from thinking social media is alright or neutral to seeing it as bad. Many may first see social media as a good thing linked with friendships or easy chats.
But the film turns this view around. With expert views and strong images, it shows the real risks hiding behind social media habits that seem harmless. The filmmakers give clear examples like the increase in teenage sadness and suicide rates noted alongside rising usage of platforms such as Instagram and Facebook to get viewers thinking differently. These emotional triggers move many from seeing social media positively or neutrally to negative. Consequently this may lead to completely doubting its value entirely.
Personally, viewing The Social Dilemma changed my thoughts deeply. I had thought of social media mostly as a good tool for connecting with friends while following news stories. But after watching the documentary, my view towards seeing these platforms as designs to trap us in addiction made me reevaluate my interaction with it for daily use.
2. Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM)
The Elaboration Likelihood Model details two methods of persuading: one central method requiring deep thought about messages, while another superficial relying on surface cues like messenger’s physical attributes or emotions like trustworthiness. The Social Dilemma skillfully mixes both techniques for its audience.
The documentary grabs viewers through the central path by presenting strong arguments showing how social media networks manipulate users’ actions. For example, when it explains algorithms' role in creating “filter bubbles” that just repeat user biases makes audiences think critically about what they witness. Such analysis evokes deeper processing typical of central routes seen where platforms like Facebook can tap into users’ psychological trends causing extended scrolling without awareness of time passing. Continually, these thorough posts target those keen for insight into people's behaviors swayed by outside elements.
Meanwhile, it uses peripheral approaches through strong visuals that stir feelings... and trustful, strong interviews with firsthand knowledge for better persuading. The tech workers interviewed in the movie give good reasons cause they know crucial entail from working on these platforms within the industry. The stories about teens with social media-related worries and sadness also hit viewers in a strong way, helping the film's purpose reach more people.
After seeing The Social Dilemma, I felt a push to change what I do on social media. The mix of clear points (central processing) and touching tales (peripheral processing) came together to get me to cut back on social media and think twice about how, when, and why I use it the way I do. Before, I saw social media as a big part of my life, but the film’s ways of persuading made me really think about how much I depend on these sites for satisfaction that will never truly come.
3. Features and Traits: Age & Persuasion
One big persuasive move in The Social Dilemma is its focus on age being a factor in getting persuaded. From class, we learned that kids and younger people are easy targets for persuasion. This may be the case if they do not fully get why persuasive messages exist (Straker, 2020). This weakness shows up strongly in the film with teenagers influenced by social media tricks.
The film shows how social media hits younger users harder by taking advantage of their growing minds and feelings. It points out that algorithms aim at teens with content that keeps them hooked, leading to more anxiety, depression, and even suicide among this demogrphic. By showing that young folks are especially open to sneaky tactics from social media, the movie raises worries in viewers’ minds, especially parents wondering what role these sites have in their children's everyday lives.
As a young adult myself, this part of the film struck home for me. I thought back to my teenage days when social media impacted my self-worth and views of life even more than they do today. I recall feeling nervous about my online image while chasing likes and comments for approval. Watching The Social Dilemma brought those feelings back and made me see how manipulative these platforms can be; this is especially true for younger users who struggle more with judging themself and what they see through social media.
Reflection
Looking at The Social Dilemma through lenses like Social Judgment Theory, Elaboration Likelihood Model, and Traits & Characteristics like age has helped me learn how media can shape public thought and personal actions. The documentary shows how convincing talks can change opinions with SJT, pull viewers in with both reasoned thoughts and or peripheral/emotional process ELM, plus focus on specific traits like age for stronger influence.
This writing assignment not only broadened my grasp of persuasion methods but also changed how I'll look at the media I consume from now on. I now see it's key to engage critically with messages seen in documentaries or other forms instead of just accepting everything. As I keep using varied media outlets, I'll be more aware of persuasive tricks used and more careful about their effects on how I think and act.
References
Orlowski, J. (Director). (2020). The Social Dilemma [Film]. Exposure Labs. Netflix.
Gass, R. H., & Seiter, J. S. (2018). Persuasion: Social influence and compliance gaining (7th ed.). Routledge.
Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 19, 123-205. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60214-2
Sherif, C. W., Sherif, M., & Nebergall, R. E. (1965). Attitude and attitude change: The social judgment-involvement approach. W.B. Saunders Company.
Straker, D. (2020). Age and persuasion. Changing Minds. https://changingminds.org/techniques/general/age_persuasion.htm
Attitude scales are tools in social science research used for seeing what people think, feel, or believe about stuff. In this blog for my ODU persuasion class, I'm gonna talk about two scales you will see: the Likert scale and the visually oriented scale. We'll look at some good things about them, when they work well and where they mess up. I’ll also mention two theories called Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) to help figure out how these scales do their job.
Likert Scale
The Likert scale is a usual way to check what people think or have opinions on. It’s named after some psychologist guy Rensis Likert. It has statements, and folks say how much they agree or disagree with those statements. Typically, there are five or seven choices from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree" (Likert, 1932).
Example: If we want to see how students feel about online learning, a statement might be: "I like online learning more than going to a classroom." Then the person picks from "strongly disagree" (1) to "strongly agree" (5).
Benefits of the Likert Scale: The Likert scale is easy-peasy to use; it helps collect answers fast from many folks. It gives numbers to feelings so researchers can spot trends or connections easier too.
The Likert scale is handy for measuring complicated attitudes with lots of opinions, like politics or how happy customers are. Like a business can use this scale to learn if customers enjoy their services.
Criticism of the Likert Scale: A downside is that people sometimes pick answers that don’t really match their real views. For instance, some might skip choosing extremes and stick in the middle. Also, it might not show all the details of what someone feels, and different people could see the same point on the scale differently (Joshi et al., 2015).
Visually Oriented Scale
The visually oriented scale checks meaning or feeling using pairs of opposite words like "good-bad" or "happy-sad" (Osgood et al., 1957). People rate their feelings between these two opposite words.
Example: To find out how folks feel about electric cars, we could ask them to rate on a line from "environmentally friendly" to "environmentally harmful," using seven points across.
Benefits of Visually Oriented Scale: This type helps grab onto emotions related to topics better than just plain words sometimes do. Knowing this is super useful for companies wanting insight into how people feel emotionally about stuff they make. For instance, a car brand may want to know if drivers think their cars are "reliable-unreliable" or “modern-outdated."
Criticism of Visually Oriented Scale: A big problem here is that the adjectives could confuse some people depending on what they've experienced before which causes inconsistent results. And even using pairs of opposites doesn’t always catch someone’s full attitude (Heise, 1970).
Analyzing Scales with ELM and TRA
The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) give us insights into how well these scales measure what’s going on in people's minds.
Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM): ELM says folks process messages either carefully thinking through them or just noticing simple clues (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). How much someone cares matters too that means their involvement changes how they take in info.
For highly involved individuals who put thought into it… When think lots about something, Likert scale can be good because it makes people think about each saying a lot. But other visual scale might help more for folks who don’t care much and just go with feelings instead of really thinking hard.
Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA): TRA says what someone does is based on how they feel about doing it and what they think others want them to do (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). Likert scale is nice for looking at thoughts behind an action. Like if wanting to know how people feel about recycling, could use lines like "Recycling helps earth" to see if they plan to recycle or not.
Visual scale shows the feelings side of actions. If we ask folks to rate "recycling" from "super important" to "not at all," we see how they feel about it, which also changes if they will recycle or not.
Thinking About This
From this look, I learned both Likert and visual scales have good and bad parts. Likert is neat for clear thoughts and beliefs from people, while visual scale catches emotional aspects of how people think. Knowing these differences is key to pick the right one when needed.
Elaboration Likelihood Model and Theory of Reasoned Action gives good clues on how people react to tools that measure attitudes. How much someone cares about a topic matters a lot in picking which scale works best. In future, I will remember the setup and type of feeling being checked when choosing an attitude scale, whether for study or real-world stuff like ads or surveys.
All in all, knowing these scales and their tie to persuasion ideas helps me understand better how attitudes get made, seen, and changed. This information will be super helpful down the line, especially in making ways to talk clearly and understand the public better.
References
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention, and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Addison-Wesley.
Heise, D. R. (1970). The semantic differential and attitude research. In G. F. Summers (Ed.), Attitude measurement (pp. 235-253). Rand McNally.
Joshi, A., Kale, S., Chandel, S., & Pal, D. K. (2015). Likert scale: Explored and explained. British Journal of Applied Science & Technology, 7(4), 396-403.
Likert, R. (1932). A technique for the measurement of attitudes. Archives of Psychology, 22(140), 1-55.
Osgood, C. E., Suci, G. J., & Tannenbaum, P. H. (1957). The measurement of meaning. University of Illinois Press.
Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). Communication and persuasion: Central and peripheral routes to attitude change. Springer-Verlag.
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