Yale Attitude Change Approach

A yale research project showed that:


1. The speaker should be credible and attractive to the audience.


(my thoughts) Well that is true because as much as we like to believe that an advanced society such as ours does not take looks and appearances as our first lieu of judgement, its true. We are human nonetheless and appreciate things for their appearances. If a speaker is visually attractive to the audience, the audience is more likely to listen attentively, and actually take into consideration and value what the speaker is "saying".


2. Messages should not appear to be designed to persuade.


(my thoughts) -Everyone knows when they are being persuaded. Being persuaded leads someone to think that they are being conned or tricked into something. An argument designed to persuade cannot appear that way to the audience as it will most likely be rejected because the audience will either see the speaker and his/her argument as fake and conniving or just feel like they are being forced to make a choice by someone who doesn't have their interest in mind.


3. Present two-sided arguments


(my thoughts) Ignoring the downside to an argument will, in fact, NOT lead your audience to assume that your resolution or argument is flaw-free but instead, to assume that you, the speaker, is trying to hide the faulty sides to your argument. It will then be instinctual for people to feel like they are being lied to and believe that their is probably a bigger downside to your argument that you are trying not to share. Therefore I believe thats its always a good idea to present both the good and the bad in your argument. Of course, you have to be able to offer solutions and upsides to every single one of these flaws. You can't expect to just gain trust by exposing the bad sides because the baseline is: you want these people to side with you, not think you're honest and quite sweet. 


4. If two people are speaking one after the other, it is best to go first:


(my thoughts) The primacy effect. Go first, thats what I always say. People will pay more attention to what you're saying. The speaker first in line has this effect of having more power over everyone else because he or she came first and has the advantage of having this strong and persuasive look. People who come first appear to have more say, more strength. Therefore, in an argument I think that it would be smart to always try and go first.