social judgment theory - theory top five

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!