Assignment: Find a copy of a print ad that appeals to the central route of persuasion, and one that appeals to the peripheral route of persuasion. Bring your ads to class.

1. What other dichotomies in persuasion, besides the central/peripheral distinction, does Aronson discuss? Are these the same as central/peripheral distinction? Totally different? Partially correlated?

2. How does familiarity affect persuasion?

3. "Who says what to whom"--explain why this phrase is important in persuasion. How does changing the answers to these questions affect persuasiveness? Think of at least one example for each part of the phrase.

4. What happens when a person delivers a message counter to our expectations?

5. Persuasion is not always a simple science. Give some examples of how certain variables can moderate the expected effect of other variables. For example, what is the role of fear in persuasion? And what evidence is there that the same information may mean different things to different people?

6. Which are more effective: consensual, statistical appeals, or personal, testimonial appeals? Is this difference consistent with what you know about statistics?

7. When it comes to persuasive appeals, is forewarned forearmed?

8. When do one-sided appeals work better? When do two-sided appeals work better?

9. What is our latitude of acceptance, and how does it affect attempts at persuading us?

10. Give it your best shot--you have been hired by the U of O admissions office. How will you use what you have learned in this chapter to convince students to attend the U of O next year?

11. How do the research findings in this chapter affect our legal system?