Re: Preaching To The Converted

From: Immortalist (Reanimater_2000_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 10/25/04 

Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 12:20:14 -0700

"Bunx" <bifjoy@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:4fcfd.188$4k7.50@newsfe1-gui.ntli.net...

> What the *** is a one sided argument supposed to be
>
> The phrase is a contradiction.
>

It is not an argument that brings out the important opposing arguments and then
proceeds to refute them but an arguement that presents one side that is assumed
to be favorable to the audience, hence preaching to the already converted.

(B) Prior Experience of the Audience.

Another audience-related factor of considerable importance is the frame of
mind the audience is in just prior to the communication. An audience can be
made receptive to a communication if it has been well fed and is relaxed and
happy. Indeed, as Irving Janis and his associates have discovered, people
who have been allowed to eat desirable food while reading a persuasive
communication are more influenced by what they read than are people in a
control (noneating) group. Similarly, research by Richard Petty and his
colleagues suggests that being in a good mood can make people more
vulnerable to persuasion.

Conversely, there are ways in which members of an audience can be made less
receptive and less persuadable. As I noted, people predict they will be able
to resist persuasive communications such as television commercials.
Accordingly, one way of decreasing their persuasibility is by forewarning
them that an attempt is going to be made to persuade them. This is
especially true if the content of the message differs from their own
beliefs. I would argue that the phrase "And now, a message from our sponsor"
renders that message less persuasive than it would have been if the
communicator had simply glided into it without prologue. The forewarning
seems to say, "Watch out, I'm going to try to persuade you," and people tend
to respond by marshaling defenses against the message. This phenomenon was
demonstrated in an experiment by Jonathan Freedman and David Sears.
Teenagers were told they would be hearing a talk entitled "Why Teenagers
Should Not Be Allowed to Drive." Ten minutes later, the speaker presented
them with a prepared communication. In a control condition, the same talk
was given without the 10-minute forewarning. The subjects in the control
condition were more thoroughly convinced by the communication than were
those who had been forewarned.

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The Nature of the Communication
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(1) Logical vs Emotional Appeals
(2) Statistical Evidence vs 1 Personal Example
(3) One-Sided vs Two-Sided Arguments
(4) The Order of Presentation
(5) The Size of the Discrepancy Between Views

######################################
(6) Characteristics of the Audience
######################################

  (A) - Self-Esteem
  (B) - Prior Experience of the Audience
  (C) - People tend to protect their sense of freedom
  (D) - Reactance operates innumber of interesting ways
  (E) - How Well Do the Principles Work?

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The Social Animal - Elliot Aronson - 8th Edition 1999
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0716733129/

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