Persuasion in Communication

Introduction

Persuasion involves influencing attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors through effective messaging. The ability to persuade is a critical skill for organizations in fields like business, politics, social activism, and more. Persuasive techniques allow organizations to inspire customers, motivate employees, sway public opinion, and drive meaningful change.

This course consists of two core components:

1) A lecture series providing an in-depth look at the psychological mechanisms that make certain messages persuasive to target audiences in different contexts.

2) Hands-on group project where you'll apply these concepts to analyze real-world examples and create your own pieces of persuasive media.

Course content

The topics below are exemplary and subject to change.

• Introduction to concepts, definitions, and ethics
• Methods of testing persuasive communication
• The attitude – behavior relationship
• Models explaining cognitive responses to persuasive communication
• The role of source characteristics
• The role of message characteristics
• The role of audience/receiver characteristics
• The role of settings/contexts
• Models of interpersonal compliance
• How to produce persuasive messages
• How to design persuasive campaigns