Social Engineering Blogs

(…through persuasion of course) I guess it’s safe to say this year has been full of many surprises (or shocks, horrors, crashes and burns), with Brexit and now Trump winning the elections; we’re either going mad or there’s something deeper happening. Much to my surprise, the definition of the verb ‘Trump’ is “to surpass (something) by saying or doing something better”, coincidence or not he really did find a way to say or do something better than his opponent, and much to my dismay this led to his victory! Unable to find evidence that the population is actually going crazy, I found theories that could explain different methods he has used to persuade the public.So how did Trump’s triumph trump them all? Firstly, as much as we think we’re in control of our decision making, a lot of the time we’re influenced by the things that we’re constantly exposed to without actually realising. We must look back and ask where Donald Trump even came from… how could someone who wasn’t even a politician have a chance at becoming the President of the United States? Trump actually featured on 11 seasons of The Apprentice U.S.A for 11 years, with a total of around 64 million viewers in that time, which is about 20% of the population! So adding that to his constant appearance on the news and debates with his outrageous comments, he became someone at the forefront of everybody’s minds. How? Familiarity: The mere exposure theory (1968) explains that by simply being exposed to something consistently, it can actually make you like it more…which also why explains why constant exposure to advertisements makes them stay in your mind (even when you don’t want them to)! In addition to this, our subconscious brain sometimes pushes certain ideas to the front of our minds purely because its more available than other ideas – the availability heuristic. For example a study by Schwartz (1991) asked people to write 12 or 6 examples of where they had been assertive. When writing 12 examples, as opposed to 6, people rated themselves as less assertive. This is because it was easier to recall 6 occasions rather than 12 therefore recalling 6 occasions made them feel more assertive, and struggling made them feel less so. So with Trump constantly in the headlines, it became easier to think about him and also made him the more favourable candidate. RepetitionOne of his most commonly used and visible persuasive techniques was repetition of attractive phrases and words. One of his most common phrases was “Let’s Make America Great Again” which actually became his slogan, and was very catchy. In the video however we see him repeat in a more subliminal message by using the word “Win” 11 times in 22 seconds! The Likelihood Elaboration Model (Cacioppo, Petty & John, 1986) explains that if we are attracted a positive cue as opposed to the content of the message we will use the Peripheral Route of processing, which is more automatic and based on almost illogical processing. The message he used says that we will start to win (a positive cue) at all the things we are losing in, but he doesn’t provide how we could do it and instead just uses an irrelevant positive buzzword! As he repeats a positive word several times we associate his message with a positive outcome and believe that by voting for him we are actually going to start winning (…and who doesn’t love winning!?). Fear: I think this was one of his most POWERFUL persuasive techniques during his propaganda-filled debates… He seemed to always over-exaggerate the threat of minorities which ignited a lot of resentment as a result! In this video he talks about “large segments of the muslim population” hating American’s and he talks about murder, beheadings and the world trade centre. All of these statements were untrue but he preyed on the American populations’ fear of a repeated attack on the World Trade Centre’s, and makes it more viable for things to get “worse and worse”. A study by Asch (1951) showed that when the majority make a decision, the minority agrees even if they know that it is a wrong decision. This supports the idea of hating on minorities unrightfully, as he uses the normative influence by making everyone feel that hating is what the majority are doing, so we should all be doing it.Relief:And then in response to his fear provoking, what he does is try and provide relief through voting for him. The “win” video was a great example of this as he made himself the solution to all of the problems we are losing at. Dolinski and Nawrat’s (1998) study showed that a fear and then relief procedure actually increases compliance. They showed that when anxiety is provoked and then revoked by a positive solution, people are more likely to comply with several requests, which could explain why people trusted him and voted for Trump even though his claims were Bogus (excuse my language).Dominance:Last but not least, Trump had a great knack for making himself look like the better candidate regardless of the insults he was throwing around, he often created a setting of playground bullying. Trump quite often wound up his opponents during debates or quoted statistics of how he was better than they were, which from an outside perspective is very clearly a childish thing to do, but somehow it always made him look more dominant. In one of his debates with Jeb Bush we see that Trump looks at the audience but Jeb looks at Trump for most of the debate as if to say to seek reassurance through watching Trump’s reactions. This is a very common reassurance seeking technique that anxious children use for self-affirmation (to feel like they’re doing the right thing), therefore making trump look more powerful. Knutson (1996) also showed that participants actually rated people who present angry and disgusted facial expressions towards others as more dominant. In this video and throughout a lot of his debates, Trump tends to do to discount the argument of his opponent by using these types of facial expressions to ridicule his opponents and look more dominant (like a bully).Jeb constantly looking to TrumpSo in conclusion, though we may have thought Trump was a clown at times and highly inadequate, he seems to have done some things right to have won over the U.S population. Who knew people could be so easily influenced hey?Asch, S. E. (1951). Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgment. In H. Guetzkow (ed.) Groups, leadership and men. Pittsburgh, PA: Carnegie PressDolinski D. and Nawrat R. (1998). Fear-then-relief procedure for producing compliance : Beware when the danger is over. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 34, 1, 27-50.Knutson, B. (1996). Facial expressions of emotion influence interpersonal trait inferences. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 20(3), 165-182.Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In Communication and persuasion (pp. 1-24). Springer New York. Schwarz, N., Bless, H., Strack, F., Klumpp, G., Rittenauer-Schatka, H., & Simons, A. (1991). Ease of retrieval as information: Another look at the availability heuristic. Journal of Personality and Social psychology, 61(2), 195.Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under uncertainty: Heuristics and biases. Science (New Series), 185, 1124-1131. Zajonc, R. B. (1968). Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9(2, Pt.2), 1–27

Barbie has had many critics who claim she has a negative impact on the ambitions of young girls. This successful advert (with over 23million youtube views) was designed to change the public perception of Barbie, showing that she is not just a pretty face. Instead, Barbie is a professor, a vet, a sports coach and a businesswoman. By playing with Barbie, your daughter can also be anything she wants to be. This advert achieves this by attempting to change individuals subjective norms about Barbie, and also, general attitudes towards women’s career aspirations. This is an effective tool for persuasion because it is in line with Ajzen’s (1985) model of behaviour change – The theory of planned behaviour. The theory of planned behaviour suggests that in order to change an individual’s behaviour you need to first change their intentions. Ajzen (1985) suggests that this can be done in three ways; by changing the individual’s attitude, subjective norms or perceived behavioural control (see figure 1). The impact of changing subjective norms on behaviour has been highlighted in many studies looking at various behaviours such as smoking, drinking and recycling. For example, one study found that the amount of households who claimed to recycle regularly increased  as recycling became normative in the UK (Thomas & Sharp, 2013) (see figure 2). This shows how changing the subjective norms regarding a behaviour can be a powerful tool in changing the actual behaviour. Thus, these findings suggest that adverts such as ‘Imagine the possibilities’ can help to change an individual’s view of Barbie. Instead of the stereotypical view that Barbie negatively affects the ambitions of young girls, individuals may now have positive view, and thus, be more likely to purchase the doll.Furthermore, one reason that this advertisement was incredibly successful and went viral in 2015 is its target audience. Unlike typical Barbie adverts the target audience of this ad isn’t young girls, but their parents. It aims to change adult’s perceptions of the Barbie brand, not encourage young girls to play with the toys. This advert cleverly creates positive feelings in individuals through its use of ‘cute’ images. However, research has shown that although cute advertisements aid recall, they do not seem to have an impact on persuasion (Phillips & Stanton, 2004). This is interesting in the context of this advert because it suggests parents will have increased memory for this Barbie advert, but are unlikely to buy more Barbie dolls as a result of viewing it. The fact that cute images do not increase persuasion is not a problem for the makers of this advert. This is because Barbie also has many other adverts that specifically target children. It is these adverts that persuade the parents to buy Barbie products, as young girls use many powerful persuasion techniques to get the toys they have seen. For example, by simply asking their parents for the toy, research suggests they are likely to get what they want 50% of the time. For instance, Flynn and Lake (2008) found that to get five people to answer a questionnaire, participants only had to ask 10 passers-by to complete it. In addition, children often use repetition and ‘pester power’ to get items they have seen advertised. In order to keep their children happy, parents often give in and buy the product (Lawlor & Prothero, 2011) All these findings combined suggest that when young girls are pestering their parents to buy toys, the parents will have increased recall for this advert and a positive view of the doll. This acts as an availability heuristic and brings these products to the front of parent’s minds, thus, they will be more likely to purchase Barbie’s for their children. ReferencesAjzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. 50(2), 179–   211. Flynn, F. J., & Lake, V. K. (2008). If you need help, just ask: Underestimating compliance with direct requests for help.       Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 128–143.Lawlor, M., & Prothero, A. (2011) Pester power – a battle of wills between children and their parents. Journal of                   Marketing Management, 27, 561–581.Phillips, D. M., & Stanton, J. L. (2004). Age-related differences in advertising: recall and persuasion. Journal of                   Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing 13(1), 7–20.Thomas, C., & Sharp, V. (2013). Understanding the normalisation of recycling behaviour and its implications for other     pro-environmental behaviours: a review of social norms and recycling. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 79, 11–20.

The Snickers chocolate bar advertisement campaign is well-known. You have probably seen television or poster advertisements online and in public areas.Why is it so successful?The consistent repetition of the simple phrase; ‘you’re not you when you’re hungry’ acts as a constant reminder of the branding that Snickers aims to create. Suggesting that Snickers ‘satisfies’. This makes the message easier to remember and therefore recall at a later date. The availability heuristic suggests that this may make individuals place more importance on the message and therefore the Snickers brand because they are using this ease of retrieval as an indicator of its overall importance. Previous research has found evidence to support this availability heuristic in many different topic areas. For example, do you think there are more words that start with the letter ‘K’ or have the letter ‘K’ as the third letter?Most of you probably opted for the first choice and thought that more words start with ‘K’. This is because these words come to mind more readily and therefore you think there are more of them. When in fact, the latter option is the correct one, but these words are often harder to think of and so you place less importance on them and think there are fewer (Tversky & Kahneman, 1973). This is an example of the availability heuristic and can be applied to many advertisement campaigns, such as with Snickers.The agenda setting theory develops this idea further. Studies have found that when a form of the availability heuristic is applied to other settings, such as the news, people perceive the importance of issues by how much they are repeated or emphasised (Scheufele & Tewksbury, 2007). When items and ideas easily come to mind, due to them being repeated and emphasised persistently, we think they are more important or true! In this case, because the snickers slogan easily comes to mind we place more emphasis on it and believe it to be true, making us more likely to invest in the advertisement idea and ultimately buy the chocolate bar. In summary, you are what you expose yourself to. According to this theory, the more you expose yourself to the Snickers adverts, ultimately the more likely you are to buy the chocolate bar.The mere exposure effect (Zajonc, 1968) suggests that this frequent repetition is effective advertising because those items which we are exposed to more frequently we will later deem to be more favourable or desirable. This is the power of familiarity and suggests that the more familiar and frequently seen the advertisements and Snicker chocolate bar are, the more popular and desirable they will become.The television video advertisements above demonstrate an individual in each acting negatively out of character, who then returns to normal after eating a Snickers. The positive change and outcome in behaviour demonstrated by these individuals is desirable for others to also want to achieve. From a behaviourism perspective, Skinner (1958) may have suggested that this is a form of reinforcement of the behaviour created by eating the Snickers. This type of reinforcement makes the behaviour more likely to be repeated by others following observation, through operant conditioning.Bandura, Ross and Ross (1986) demonstrated the behaviourism perspective through social learning theory with their bobo doll experiment. Children who observed an adult displaying aggressive behaviour were then more likely to display an increased amount of aggressive behaviour, when they became frustrated, whilst interacting with the bobo doll. Ultimately this implies that people learn by observing others. Similar results were found when children watched a real-life model or a film-mediated model (Bandura, Ross & Ross, 1963). The same can therefore be applied to advertisements. People here are learning that these individuals behaviour and outcomes are preferable once they have eaten the Snickers chocolate bar. This vicarious reinforcement makes other individuals watching the advertisement want to emulate and reproduce the behaviour and success the have observed by buying and eating the Snickers chocolate bar.Social Cognitive TheoryThe diagram above demonstrating the social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) provides insight into the behaviours. According to the theory behaviour that is observed creates an environment. The person observes other individuals abilities to perform certain behaviours and so they believe that they are also able to complete these behaviour and tasks. For example, eat a Snickers chocolate bar and improve their behaviour. This is referred to as self-efficacy (Bandura, 1977). Together the vertices of the triangle influence one another and the behaviour of eating a Snickers becomes more likely due to the advertisements in their environment. Both advertisement videos above depict an individual who is struggling to fit into their ingroup. They eventually manage to be accepted and adapt their behaviour once they have eaten a Snickers bar. This implies that the Snickers bar has enabled them to fit into their ingroup and identify with them once more. According to the social identity theory (Tajfel, 1981) individuals have a desire to obtain membership within their ingroup and associate with the group by adopting group norms. The videos therefore indicate that the Snicker bar helps individuals achieve this and so promotes the bar to the audience. When watching the two YouTube video advertisements above, consider; ‘Who says what, by what means, to whom?’ These are important principles when analysing advertisements and the embedded persuasion to purchase the product within them. The Yale Attitude Change Approach (Hovland, 1953) suggests that persuasion is influenced by 3 factors:The source (Who) – Within these videos well known figures, such as Mr Bean, played by Rowan Atkinson, are used. These celebrities represent individuals that people recognise, associate with and want to be like, altering subjective norms and therefore individuals intention for their behaviour. This is according to the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991). Also, they are portrayed in ways that make them similar and relatable. This makes the source and overall advertisement have a greater impact and persuading influence on consumers to buy the Snickers chocolate bar. The Message (What it is) – According the primacy-recency effect (Murdock, 1962), the messages presented at the beginning and end are most likely to be remembered. The messages in the middle are most likely to be displaced and forgotten. This is often known as the serial position effect. Murdock (1962) asked participants to recall word lists consisting of 20 words. Murdock found that words were more often remembered if they appeared near the start or end of the word list, as displayed in the graph below.The most important message within the video advertisement is displayed at the end. This shows the Snicker chocolate bar, the slogan and the positive effects eating the bar has. According to this theory these are most likely to be remembered. As previously mentioned repetition amongst the whole Snickers advertising campaign for the key message is used. For example, the slogan ‘you’re not you when you’re hungry’ is repeated throughout. Hitler has said that a good propagandist technique ‘must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over again’. The campaign attempts to achieve this and ultimately increase liking and validity of the messages.  The Audience (To whom) – The advertisements require limited prior knowledge and can therefore be understood easily by a wide audience. This encourages the audience to use the peripheral route to persuasion by paying limited attention, according to the Elaboration-Likelihood Model (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986).  The Elaboration-Likelihood ModelAlternatively, showing role-models achieve desired behaviour caused by eating the Snickers increases the audiences self-esteem and belief that they can also achieve this by eating the chocolate bar.Other advertisements, such as this image above, encourage people to use the peripheral route of persuasion. This is an advert containing an attractive person and the message is associated with positive ‘rewards’, such as those with sexual connotations. This is presented in such an eye-catching way that the audience will be unable to defend themselves from making these associations. This means that the audience is unlikely to process the information through thoughtful or careful thinking via the central route. Instead they will use the cues present in the advertisement and work on general impressions of the product. This is also due to the message of chocolate bars being relatively unimportant and so individuals will become cognitive misers, reducing cognitive effort by not elaborating or thinking in depth about the message. They are using system 1 or heuristic processing, which is fast, implicit and associative according to the heuristic-systematic model (Chaiken et al., 1989).  This advertisement could also be described as a clever use of pictorial analogy, making the audience more likely to remember such an image. Other clever advertisements have also been created for the Snickers chocolate bar. For example, the image below provides a competition template, where Snickers is wrapped up using other chocolate bar wrappers. Below, we have the wrapping of the Bounty bar on the left and the Twix bar on the right.Extreme situation template has also been used. Below this is displayed showing a Zebra chasing a Lion.To briefly conclude, successful advertisements and their underlying persuasion and influence on the audience are rather more complex then they first appear!References: Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational behavior and human decision processes, 50(2), 179-211.Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological review, 84(2), 191.Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall, Inc.Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1963). Vicarious reinforcement and imitative learning. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67(6), 601.Bandura, A., Ross, D., & Ross, S. A. (1963). Imitation of film-mediated aggressive models. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 66(1), 3.Chaiken, S., & Eagly, A. H. (1989). Heuristic and systematic information processing within and. Unintended thought, 212.Hovland, C. I., Janis, I. L., & Kelley, H. H. (1953). Communication and persuasion; psychological studies of opinion change.Murdock Jr, B. B. (1962). The serial position effect of free recall. Journal of experimental psychology, 64(5), 482.Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In Communication and persuasion (pp. 1-24). Springer New York.Scheufele, D. A., & Tewksbury, D. (2007). Framing, agenda setting, and priming: The evolution of three media effects models. Journal of communication, 57(1), 9-20.Skinner, B. F. (1958). Reinforcement today. American Psychologist, 13(3), 94.Tajfel, H. (1981). Human groups and social categories: Studies in social psychology. CUP Archive.Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1973). Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive psychology, 5(2), 207-232.Zajonc, R. B. (1968). Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of personality and social psychology, 9(2p2), 1.