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A Survey of the Persuasion Landscape

Rafael A. Villar | Chadwick Co Sy Su

Discipline: Psychology

 

Abstract:

Fourteen references on the subject of persuasion were reviewed. Three of these references (DeFleur and Rokeach, 1989; Littlejohn, 1978; Tan, 1981) are books on general communication theories and the rest are specifically on persuasion (Bostrom, 1982; Bettinghaus, 1980; Fogg, 2009; Fotheringham, 1966; Hovland, 1957; Hovland and Janis, 1959; Larson, 1973; Simons, 1986). Another book is on social psychology (Sampson, 1971). It should be noted at the outset that these books, especially those three on general communication theories, are not unanimous on the studies or authors/researchers to cite or include in their respective reviews. Neither are the books settled on the label to use when referring to the same study or group of related studies; for example, the Hovland et al. studies are variously labeled as psychodynamic, behavioral, attitude change, or instrumental theories/models of persuasion. 

The first part of this paper details the various, yet similar, definitions of persuasion, and surveys selected persuasion models. The second part features a clustering of the theories and models and a proposed model, on top of additional commentary by the authors