social judgment theory
DESCRIPTION
TRANSCRIPT
Guys stop. I can’t
help it.
Inked? Again? Really? Gross.
It just got on
my little fin.
JUDGMENT…
We all deal
with it
SOCIAL JUDGMENT THEORY
Sounds like it explains a lot of the whole “judgment” issue, doesn’t it?
Well, there’s so much more to it!
Social Judgment Theory (SJT) helps predict how successful persuasion will
be by relating how close or far the message is to the belief already held by the person you are trying to persuade.
SJT aka Ego-involvement theory.
Basically, the more ego-involved one is with a situation, usually the more knowledgeable in the subject…therefore
making the person much harder to persuade.
Go on, go on!
SJT is made of
important concepts
12
3
Latitude of acceptance
Latitude of rejection
Latitude of noncommitment
Everything found acceptable
Everything found not worthy of being acceptable or being fully rejected
Everything found rejected
ACCORDING TO SJT, TO BE A SUCCESSFUL PERSUADER, YOU HAVE TO MAKE AN ARGUMENT
THAT APPEALS WITHIN THE PERSON’S LATITUDE OF ACCEPTANCE!
PERSUASION IS SOMETHING WE ALL ENCOUNTER. SINCE WE ALL WANT TO BE SUCCESFUL
PERSUADERS, SJT IS SUPER IMPORTANT BY HELPING US LEARN NOT ONLY HOW TO BE A STAR
PERSUADER, BUT ALSO WHY WE ARE EASILY/NOT EASILY PERSUADED!
The more ego-involved one is
The more
narrow
latitude of
acceptanc
e held
The wider latitude of
rejection held
SJT’s connection to
persuasion
Assimilation
Anchor
Contrast effect
the degree to which the new idea is accepted
beginning position held about the subject
Contrasting belief compared to our own, leading to failed persuasion
Based on the concept of assimilation, if you told Muffy
that life with possible parole (#7) should be what is done
with murderers, since it is close to her anchor, she will see it as
closer to her own belief and will more easily accept it with
persuasion.
ANCHOR
EXAMPLE?
Based on the concept of contrast effect, if you told Mort that a slap on the wrist (#2) is what should be done with murderers, it would be very hard to persuade him due to it being so far from Mort’s anchor.
ANCHOR
EXAMPLE?
Um…in English now please?...
Um ... in inglese ora per favore? ...
ええと ...英語で現在してください! ...
Um ... en Inglés ahora, por
favor? ...
Гм ... на английском языке теперь, пожалуйста? ...
Um ... i mBéarla le do thoil anois? ...
Euh ... en anglais maintenant s'il vous plaît? ...
Let’s looks at an example…
Everyone meet Bruce
“Hi Bruce”
Everyone meet Bruce
“Hi Bruce.”
Bruce is given a fish to eat & is told that it
weighs 15 pounds.
After the 15 lb. fish (the ANCHOR), he is then thrown a bag of fish to eat that is 25 pounds and then one that is 60 pounds.
(he wasn’t told the weight of the last two bags but is told to guess)
According to SJT, Bruce
would guess that the 25 lb.
bag of fish weighs about the same as
the 15 lb. fish (or close).
Because it is closer to his anchor and his latitude of acceptance!
Because it is farther away from his anchor and latitude of acceptance!
On the other hand, when guessing the weight of the 60 lb. bag of fish, Bruce
would guess it to be much
heavier than it really was.
Remember the 3 important concepts of SJT mentioned earlier?!
DO YA? DO YA?
These relate to Bruce’s situation
Latitude of acceptance Latitude of rejection
15 lb. bag = Bruce’s anchor
25 lb. bag
60 lb. bag
HOW?!
The same goes for everyday
persuasion. The closer the
argument is to the belief of the
one being persuaded, the easier
it will be to persuade them.
m a k i n g s e n s e I h o p e!?
We’re almost don’e! I promise!
In a persuading situation, SJT says that a person basically hears the argument and involuntarily makes an immediate decision based on how the individual already feels about that topic.
Different persuasion techniques are effective with different people.
Other influences on the success of persuasion are:
Majority misconceptions
Past experiences with the situation
Group formation
Ex: using models that are
only size 0. Is that really
what is wanted or is it just
assumed because that is
what is more commonly
seen? Who would more likely have a stronger argument on teasing?
One will be more easily persuaded by
one in the “same group” as
themselves.
Ego-Involvement
This is the range of acceptance one holds. The more involved with a situation, the more one is ego-involved.
Criticism? With the latitudes of acceptance and rejection being different for everyone, it is
questioned as to how precise the reliance on these latitudes is when trying to persuade. It is hard to know whether appealing to these latitudes are truly making a majority of the success in persuasion due to not being able to totally confirm whether the width of the latitudes is due to the individual person or to the topic the persuasion is dealing with.
How is persuasion being studied? – as
an influence on attitude CHANGE or
attitude FORMATION?
How big of a part does ego-
involvement really play in
persuasion being successful or
unsuccessful?
What exactly is considered attitude change? To some, it is a complete change of the position held, but to some, it is ANY change (even if only a slight change) to how the person originally saw the situation.
Helpful to…
Electronic Media
Political Communication
Public Address
Public Relations
Intercultural Communication
Anyone trying to persuade at some point in life…which is
EVERYONE!
You did it!!THE END!
Good luck on exams!