Essentials of Organizational Behavior, 14/e

Persuasive Communication

We’ve discussed a number of methods for communication up to this point. Now we turn our attention to one of the functions of communication—persuasion—and the features that might make messages more or less persuasive to an audience.

Automatic and Controlled Processing

To understand the process of persuasion, it is useful to consider two different ways we process information.27 Think about the last time you bought a can of soda. Did you carefully research brands, or did you reach for the can that had the most appealing advertising? If we’re honest, we’ll admit glitzy ads and catchy slogans have an influence on our choices as consumers. We often rely on automatic processing, a relatively superficial consideration of evidence ...