Tamia Hawthorne Period 6

Unit 14 Essay Central route persuasion is one of the most direct ways to try to persuade other people. Upon hearing an argument given from someone who opposes something that you like, you analytically combat this argument and try to make your side seem favorable. In the case of Ken, Elizabeth and Charlie, the three of them would have to hear the childrens arguments against practicing Chinese and combat any and all of these arguments. For example, if one of the children said that Chinese was boring, then Ken, Elizabeth or Charlie would probably use central route persuasion by talking about how cool it would be to speak Chinese as though it were a secret code between themselves and their friends. By directly addressing the issue a child had with Chinese and talking about it in their favor, they would be able to convince that child to want to learn Chinese. Peripheral route persuasion is very different from central route persuasion. Through peripheral route persuasion, people are more prone to be persuaded based on incidental cues. A common example is being persuaded due to the persuaders attractiveness. In the camp situation, peripheral route persuasion may occur by the camp advisors offering to give the kids candy after spending five hours a day learning Chinese. Peripheral route persuasion is often times more materialistic, so this form of persuasion may not have a lasting effect like central route persuasion would. Foot-in-the-door phenomenon is the human tendency to start fulfilling larger and larger requests upon agreeing to a small favor to begin with. In the case of our campers and camp advisors, if the advisors were to depend on the foot-in-the-door phenomenon, they would

probably convince the kids to practice Chinese for one hour one day, and progressively start to increase the amount of time spent on learning Chinese until they reach the full five hours. The door-in-the-face phenomenon, however, would be a person asking for a large request that will likely be turned down, then ask for a smaller and much more reasonable favor to follow. By giving the respondent the idea that what Im asking for could be worse, the respondents are much more likely to agree to the second favor. If the camp advisors asked the kids to learn Chinese for ten hours in one day they would definitely decline; and if they immediately after say that they should do it for five hours instead, the children will more than likely agree to it. Conformity is the adjustment of ones behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard. With conformity, the camp advisors would just have to get kids to already agree to learning Chinese for five hours a day. They would then have to one by one get kids to feel excluded by not being a part of this Chinese lesson, and they would then conform to the situation and feel the need to do what the larger group of kids is doing. Obedience is the simple idea of asserting that others must do something that you request, and depending on the authority you seem to give off, they will easily obey. If the advisors made the Chinese appear to be absolutely necessary and held onto their authority as camp advisors, the kids will likely comply without question. Superordinate goals are shared goals that override differences among people and require their cooperation. The camp advisors could probably convince the kids that unless all of them learn the five hours of Chinese, they wont be able to go and do the more amusing camp activities. In order to go out and do all these fun activities, the kids would all have to go and learn their Chinese together, or else all of them would miss out on the fun.