Persuasive Communication - How Audiences Decide. 2nd Edition

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286 Understanding Intuitive Decision Making


Similarity biases a wide range of audience decisions. Mock jurors are less likely to convict when

they and the defendant have similar backgrounds, ethnicity, and beliefs.^368 Recruiters give higher


ratings to job applicants who have similar attitudes and characteristics.^369 Similarities between a


recruiter and a job applicant on demographic characteristics,^370 attitudes,^371 and experience^372 also


affect the likelihood that the applicant will be offered a job.


Studies of group decision making fi nd that as a group becomes more tight knit, the group’s

evaluation of their leader’s effectiveness comes to depend less on the leader’s fi t with a generic leader


schema and more on the degree to which the leader is perceived to be prototypical of, or similar to,


the specifi c group’s membership.^373 Perhaps this bias explains why U.S. presidents who put greater


emphasis on their similarity to their followers are rated as more charismatic.^374


Audiences also like more and are more persuaded by professionals who exhibit nonverbal behav-

iors similar to their own.^375 For example, people like conversational partners who mimic their


smiling behaviors more than partners who do not.^376 A conversational partner’s similar posture can


also lead to increased rapport.^377 Mimicking the audience’s behavior without their awareness causes


them to be more helpful,^378 and in service situations, to provide bigger tips.^379 In a negotiation,


vocal mirroring occurring within the fi rst fi ve minutes of the negotiation is highly predictive of


the negotiated outcome, with more mirroring leading to better outcomes for the negotiator doing


the mirroring.^380


The Salience Bias: The Persuasive Appeal of Standing Out


Attention-getting or salient professionals are more persuasive than those who do not attract atten-


tion. Members of group discussions see attention-getting or salient group members as intrinsically


persuasive. They may credit them with setting the tone of the meeting, deciding on topics to be


covered, or guiding the discussion.^381 When a speaker gains attention and becomes salient by deliv-


ering an unexpected message—for example, when a member of the Republican party advocates a


liberal policy—the persuasiveness of their message is amplifi ed.^382


In addition to being more persuaded by salient individuals, participants in meetings tend to view

salient individuals as representing the group to which they belong. For example, a lone marketer in


a meeting of accountants is likely to be seen as presenting the “marketing” perspective. Audiences


will also exaggerate their evaluations of salient people. When a person is salient, audiences tend


to evaluate the person’s positive attributes more positively and to evaluate their negative attributes


more negatively than when the person does not attract as much attention.^383


Cognitive Centrality: The Power of Knowing What Others Know


Group members who possess more information shared by other group members (for a discussion


of shared information, see Chapter 5 , pp. 235–236), or who are more cognitively central, tend


to be more persuasive in group decision making than those who possess less shared informa-


tion.^384 A study of persuasive minority members fi nds that when the person in the minority in


a three-person group possesses the most shared information, the other group members agree with


their position 67% of the time.^385 When the person in the minority possesses the least amount


of shared information, the other group members agree with their position only 42% of the time.


Groups also tend to agree with the minority position when the person in the minority repeats more


shared information than is repeated by those in the majority.^386


Group members who possess more shared information tend to participate more in group dis-

cussions, get more reactions from other group members, and agree more with the group’s decision


than those who possess mostly unshared information that only they possess.^387 Group members

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