Persuasive Mechanisms Research Articles

Decoding persuasion: a survey on ML and NLP methods for the study of online persuasion

The proliferation of digital communication has profoundly transformed the landscape of persuasive discourse. Online platforms have amplified the reach and impact of persuasive techniques. However, they have also enabled the rapid spread of manipulative content, targeted propaganda, and divisive rhetoric. Consequently, a wide range of computational approaches has emerged to address the multifaceted nature of digital persuasion, to detect and mitigate its harmful practices. In light of this, the paper surveys computational methods for detecting persuasive means in digital communication, focusing on how they integrate humanistic knowledge to operationalize this construct. Additionally, special emphasis is placed on models' explainability, a pivotal aspect considering these models are used by institutions to influence societal interactions. For the analysis, two primary perspectives in persuasion are defined: linguistic and argumentative. The linguistic approach analyzes specific textual features, allowing for highly accountable algorithms based on explicit rules. The argumentative approach focuses on broader persuasive mechanisms, offering greater scalability but often resulting in less explainable models due to their complexity. This tension between model sophistication and explainability presents a key challenge in developing effective and transparent persuasion detection systems. The results highlight the spectrum of methodologies for studying persuasion, ranging from analyzing stylistic elements to detecting explicitly propagandist messages. Our findings highlight two key challenges in using these algorithms to tackle societal issues of persuasion misuse: the opacity of deep learning models and the absence of a theoretically grounded distinction between vicious and virtuous persuasion. To address these challenges, we propose integrating social sciences and humanities theories to enhance the effectiveness and ethical robustness of persuasion detection systems. This interdisciplinary approach enables a more nuanced characterization of text, facilitating the differentiation between vicious and virtuous persuasion through analysis of rhetorical, argumentative, and emotional aspects. We emphasize the potential of hybrid approaches that combine rule-based methods with deep learning techniques, as these offer a promising avenue for implementing this interdisciplinary framework. The paper concludes by outlining future challenges, including the importance of multimodal and multilingual analysis, ethical considerations in handling user-generated data and the growing challenge of distinguishing between human and AI-generated persuasive content.

Religious Leaders’ Compliance with State Authority: Experimental Evidence from COVID-19 in Pakistan

Abstract A randomized controlled trial in Pakistan tests whether one-on-one engagement with community religious leaders can encourage them to instruct congregants to follow government regulations. Treated religious leaders are 25 percent more likely to comply with government requirements to tell congregants they should wear a mask to prevent COVID transmission when attending prayers. Treatment effects do not depend on the religious content of the message. Effects are driven by respondents who already understand the mechanics of COVID transmission at baseline, suggesting the treatment does not work by correcting basic knowledge about the disease, but rather through a mechanism of persuasion.

Silent suasions: interpersonal mediation in Thai meditation

AbstractDiscourse is the typical modus operandi for persuasive practices, but silence also has an important role to play in many religious contexts. In this essay, I examine how silence works as a mechanism of persuasion in Thailand, where Buddhist logics of meditation permeate social life. Through a close analysis of a meditative retreat at Wat Pradhatu Sri Chom Thong Voravihan in Northern Thailand, I suggest three ways that silence comes to create its persuasive effects: it works in contrastive relation to speech; it is symbolic of moral personhood; and it points to interpersonal corporeal attunement. Attention to the corporeal aspect of silence is especially significant, I argue, because it is through the body that the practice in Thailand acts to alter intersubjective space. Such an approach to silence as disciplinary practice, rather than attention just to its supposed effects, allows us to see how religious forms of silent persuasion can be seen as a particularly powerful force for personal and political change.

Do Disciplinary Sanctions Affect Political Parties’ Re-election? Evidence from Colombia

Our study examines whether citizens punish political misbehavior by estimating the impact of disciplinary sanctions on the re-election of political parties in Colombian mayoral elections. Results reveal that disciplinary sanctions have no effect on the re-election of paramilitary-linked parties. However, they can have a significant negative impact on the re-election of traditional and minority parties. The lack of punishment suggests that organizations manipulate voters through persuasion mechanisms, aligned with the Schumpeterian view of political competition.

Persuasion in the Business Speeches of Chief Executive Officers of Selected International Companies

This study investigated the persuasive strategies employed in the business speeches of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of selected international companies. Anchored in Speech Act Theory within the broader aspect of pragmatics, it analyzed 12 speeches, totalling 14,938 words, from a diverse range of international CEOs. These speeches, intended for both employees and shareholders, provided a rich corpus for examining the nuances of persuasion in a business context. The analysis focused on identifying various categories of persuasion, particularly distinguishing between direct and indirect speech acts. Utilizing a qualitative approach, 1,172 clauses were coded to elucidate the persuasive mechanisms at play. Findings revealed a predominant use of indirect persuasion by CEOs. Despite their intention to persuade, these business leaders predominantly opted for subtle, indirect speech acts, making their persuasive intent both non-obvious and inherent. Contrary to expectations, the study found a marked absence of direct rhetorical devices such as rhetorical questions, suppositions, and wonderings. This aligned with the pragmatic realities of business communication, which often eschews overtly unrealistic assertions. The analysis proposed a novel model for understanding the linguistic strategies of persuasive speech in business, highlighting both utilized and potential areas of persuasive speech acts. The implications of these findings extended beyond the specific speeches analyzed, suggesting avenues for further research. Recommendations included exploring persuasion directed at varied audiences, analyzing the perlocutionary effects post-delivery, and integrating paralinguistic and extralinguistic elements with verbal aspects of business speeches. This research not only mapped the current landscape of persuasive strategies in CEO speeches but also opened new possibilities for linguistic exploration in the realm of corporate communication.

Eudaimonic entertainment overcoming resistance: an update and expansion of narrative persuasion models

Abstract A growing body of research reveals that entertainment narratives are persuasive across a variety of topics. Models of narrative persuasion highlight key mechanisms, but one limitation of this theorizing is that it has not directly considered the full range of entertainment narratives that exist. Viewers select media content to fulfill various needs—hedonic needs for pleasure and enjoyment or more eudaimonic needs gratified by appreciation and mixed affective responses. Narrative persuasion theorizing would benefit from explicitly considering eudaimonic entertainment narratives and how they may uniquely lead to persuasion. Doing so will expand on existing narrative persuasion mechanisms and identify contingencies regarding when and for whom distinct types of entertainment narratives may persuade. This article builds on the entertainment overcoming resistance model by advancing a set of testable propositions regarding narrative persuasion by meaningful entertainment and offering an agenda for future research in this area.

Framing Slogans for Responsible Gambling Campaigns: A Tale of Two Models.

This study investigates the persuasive mechanism of slogans employed in responsible gambling campaigns. We analyse slogans from official posters in the U.S., Singapore, and Macau, focusing on two domains. First, the Theory of Planned Behaviour is applied to examine the intention to gamble expressed in the slogans to reveal how gambling is positioned in social contexts. Second, two framing devices-i.e., conceptual metaphors and the frame of gains/losses-are examined to understand how these framing devices reinforce the persuasive message while interacting with each other. Two models of persuasion emerge from our data-one encouraged 'grounded games' for enjoyment, while the other discouraged gambling due to its potentially 'harmful' consequences. We advocate for a gestalt view on the theoretical constructs that contribute to the overall effectiveness of persuasive messaging. These constructs should be integrated into an analytical framework, with particular attention given to the framing effect of conceptual metaphors and the gain/loss frame, and their interplay.

Derandomization of persuasion mechanisms

We consider a setting where one sender can communicate with several privately informed receivers through a persuasion mechanism before the receivers play a game. We show that for any potentially randomized persuasion mechanism, under certain conditions, there is an effectively equivalent deterministic persuasion mechanism, and these two mechanisms have the same set of equilibria. We exhibit the usefulness of our result in an information disclosure application, where our technique helps to derive the optimal persuasion mechanism. Overall, this paper provides a rationale for the fact that persuasion mechanisms are often deterministic in practice.

Concept of FOREIGNER in the militia film. A contribution to the research on ludic and propaganda discourse in the Polish People’s Republic

An increasing interest in the popular culture of the Polish People’s Republic has been noticeable in recent years. The author believes that the ludic and propaganda discourse, which combines entertainment and persuasive functions, has a major part in it. This is evidenced by numerous multimodal texts, including crime stories, the so-called militia crime stories. They provide an interesting research material for the contemporary media linguistics. This article presents a media linguistic reconstruction of the discursive image of a foreigner in militia cinema. The tool applied in the analytical procedure is the cognitive definition model. The analysis has proved that the image of foreigners is dominated by negative evaluation, which concerns Germans and Americans in particular. In the author’s opinion, developing this type of research will contribute to broadening the knowledge of persuasion mechanisms and Polish cultural memory

A novel Ce-Ni@biochar nanocomposite withenhanced photocatalytic activity towards organicdyesdegradation: impact of process variables and water matrices.

The intent of this research work is to implement a biogenic, affordable, and highly effective Ce-Ni@biochar catalyst in order to study its photoactivity in the removal of crystal violet and malachite green oxalate. The catalyst was synthesized using liquid phase reduction method where cerium and nickel nanoparticles are embedded on the rice husk biochar for photocatalytic degradation of organic dyes in the presence of sunshine. Various characterization techniques were conducted on fabricated catalyst for adequate evaluation of the chemical composition as well as morphological and topographical properties of the formed compound. The nanoparticles embedded on biochar persuade increased charge separation that resulted in a substantial decrease in electron-hole recombination rate. The synergistic actions of the catalyst resulted in a high level of photocatalytic activity. The fabricated nanocatalyst showed excellent photoactivity that caused 96 and 99% degradation of crystal violet and malachite green oxalate, a growing industrial pollutant, within 35 and 25 min, respectively. A persuasive mechanism and kinetics are well presented. A series of investigations were done on other factors, such as contact duration, catalyst dosage, starting concentration, interfering ions, and pH, to know its degradation pursuance. The impacts of different water matrices were also investigated. The removal effectiveness of the synthesized catalyst persisted after five consecutive cycles. Marking the burgeoning industrial effluents as a result of rapid industrialization and also focusing on easy availability and low-cost source as well as high efficiency, reusability of the catalyst imparts its novelty and need of this research work.

The influence of need for cognition and need for emotion on elderly responses to advertising: an exploratory study and implications for change in management

PurposeThis paper examines the relationship between “chronological age” and the individual difference variables: “Need for cognition” (NFC) and “Need for emotion” (NFE). More specifically, this study investigates the influence of these individual difference variables on elderly responses towards advertising.Design/methodology/approachThis study is based on a sample of 600 individuals. 300 elderly aged between 60 and 75 years old (average age: 67.67 years old), recruited from institutions and third age universities in Paris and 300 young adults, aged between 20 and 35 years old (average age: 25.14 years old) from academic institutions in Paris.FindingsThe findings show that NFC and NFE have different levels depending on age. Indeed, NFC is lower among older than younger individuals, and NFE is higher among older than younger individuals. Moreover, different levels in NFC and NFE may affect responses to ads. Thus, a high NFC can elicit more favorable cognitive responses to ads and a high NFE triggers more favorable affective responses.Research limitations/implicationsThe study investigates specifically the effects of chronological age on the individual difference variables NFC and NFE; however, the influence of chronological age on these individual variables may be affected by other variables such as subjective age, level of education and physical condition.Practical implicationsGiven that NFC and NFE are dynamic variables that change with age and that they influence responses to advertising, it would be necessary to take them into account and to integrate them when building management persuasion models specifically targeting the elderly.Originality/valueThis study focuses on the influence of individual variables (NFE and NFC) on responses to advertising, of an underexplored population: the elderly. This could help to better understand the persuasion mechanisms when it comes to targeting the elderly both outside and inside organizations, with deriving implications for change in management.

The interpersonal semantics of rhetoric

Abstract Different from previous linguistic studies on rhetoric, which primarily concern the ideational semantics and the logic of sentences, this article attempts to deal systematically with the interpersonal semantics of rhetoric by drawing on the comprehensive appraisal framework of systemic functional linguistics (Martin and White 2005) and explores the mechanism of rhetorical persuasion in science communication via appraisal through a case study of the gene-modification (GM) debate in China. It first examines the rhetorical appeals of the subsystems of appraisal and then based on a self-constructed and coded corpus of GM debate discourses, it compares how institutional (the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and the Greenpeace Organization) and individual stakeholders (Cui Yongyuan and Fang Zhouzi) of different ideological interests in the GM debate mobilize the interpersonal semantic resources to rhetorical effects to persuade the audience of the safety/danger of the GM technology and products. The analysis reveals that while the opinion leaders choose ‘soft’ persuasion by heavily using affect and judgement resources, the institutions opt for ‘hard’ persuasion by utilizing more appreciation resources. The four parties all prefer contracting resources over expanding resources of engagement, which restricts the space of negotiation. Their communicative motives are interpreted through the lens of the rhetoric theory, and the implications and consequences for science communication in the post-truth era are discussed. Theoretically, the paper contributes to understanding the persuasion mechanism of appraisal and to understanding the science vs. society, and government vs. citizens relationship.

Persuading Risk-Conscious Agents: A Geometric Approach

A Convex Programming Framework for Information Design Under Realistic Human Behavior Platform markets and services typically have additional relevant information in comparison with their users. Information design studies how the sharing of this information can be leveraged by the platform to influence user behavior and obtain desirable outcomes. Previous research has studied information design assuming that the users act to maximize their expected utility, but this assumption does not always hold in reality. Instead, people often exhibit biases and deviations from expected utility maximization. In “Persuading Risk-Conscious Agents: A Geometric Approach,” Anunrojwong, Iyer, and Lingenbrink study information design with “risk-conscious” agents whose utility functions may depend nonlinearly on their beliefs. They provide a convex programming approach for solving for the optimal persuasion mechanism and establish their structural properties in different settings. They illustrate their approach in an application involving the sharing of waiting-time information in a queueing system. Overall, this work contributes to the study of information design under realistic models of human behavior.

Public Risk Perception, Emotional Contagion, and Persuasive Mechanisms in the Yiling Pharmaceutical Price Increase Incident

Public Risk Perception, Emotional Contagion, and Persuasive Mechanisms in the Yiling Pharmaceutical Price Increase Incident

СИНОНИМЫ КАК СРЕДСТВО ПЕРСУАЗИВНОСТИ В ЛИНГВОКУЛЬТУРОЛОГИЧЕСКОМ АСПЕКТЕ В РУССКО- И АНГЛОЯЗЫЧНОМ СУДЕБНОМ ДИСКУРСЕ

The article deals with the process of forming persuasive arguments by means of lexical synonyms in the Russian and English judicial discourse. F.N. Plevako and K.S. Darrow’s closing arguments were chosen as practical material of the research viewed from linguacultural perspective. Synonymous groups are formed by the famous lawyers in accordance with the rhematic domains preconditioned by the corresponding national cultural values. The conclusion is drawn about the synonyms’ potential not only as the oratory resource but also as the cognitive mechanism of persuasion. This subject matter is of paramount importance for court interpreters.

Persuasion Mechanisms in Bilqis Story in Surat An-Naml

Linguistic Argumentation Theory offers new conceptions of meaning. It is one of the novel semantic theories that seek to uncover the logic of language: the internal rules of discourse governing the order of words and their gradual sequence. Relying on this theory, the present paper highlights the argumentative aspects and their persuasive mechanisms in the feminist argumentation found in Bilqis’s speech. It sheds light on the objectives of this argumentation, the contexts in which it occurs, and what distinguishes it from other types of argumentation. The paper paid attention to the argumentative discourse used by Bilqis and attempted to deconstruct the argumentative structures it is made up of. It highlighted some of her personal qualities, namely reason and good governance. It observed a shift in discourse levels. While Bilqis was the one directing the discourse, especially in the first section when she was the Queen, she seemed to be the weakest link in the second section; her speech was characterized by gentleness and leniency.

The Dark Triad and Sensory Marketing:

With the commodification of the body image in modern day media and advertising, marketing of the self to gain power over one’s surroundings has become a commonplace phenomenon. Well-adapted individuals are seen to manifest a perfect body image of themselves that give them the power to influence the behavior and decisions of others. From a psychological perspective, this propensity of self-glorification through sensory marketing reveals a narcissistic strain of manipulative behavior which embodies characteristics of “the dark triad.” But for manipulation to occur, the victim must be willing for influence to take place. Through an in-depth analysis of Grace Paley’s “The Pale Pink Roast,” this article looks at how Peter’s personality, infused with traits of the dark triad, appeals to Anna’s sexuality and influences her into behavior that renders her feeling helplessly guilty and confused. From the very beginning of the short story, the sensory experience engages Anna’s perception, clouds her judgment and affects her behavior. Here sensory marketing has been considered as a mechanism of persuasion that powerfully overwhelms Anna into sexual acquiescence and results in her surrendering to a desire that has an unwholesome effect on her sense of self. Through Anna, Paley explores the complexity of female sexuality that the modernized women of her time were facing.

Penafsiran al-Qur’an Retoris di Media Sosial:

Technological developments in the media are used by speakers to expand the range of meaning of the Qur'an rhetorically. Meaning is presented interactively to provide an effective impact of understanding by involving persuasive tools in explanatory rhetoric. This study aims to show Adi Hidayat's persuasive mechanism on the Adi Hidayat Official YouTube Channel as the new face of Qur'an interpretation on social media. To achieve this goal, this study uses qualitative methods with content analysis as an analytical tool. The emphasis on the persuasive model in Hidayat's interpretation was identified using the rhetorical approach initiated by Aristotle. This study concluded that the effectiveness of Hidayat's expression was influenced by his appearance as a credible and authoritative figure in the meaning of the Qur'an. This method is strengthened by the selection of arguments to emphasize and strengthen the meaning given properly and legitimately. Meanwhile, the emphasis on a meaning related to law, ethics, and theology utilizes the emotions of the listener with its various functions and goals. The use of various aspects of meaning has an impact on the effectiveness of interpretation on social media dynamically and adaptively.

Understanding Grotesque Transparency as a Strategy for Fundamentalist Radicalization: Implications for Social Marketing Theory and Practice

Background To counter the effects of radicalization, we should first understand the persuasion mechanisms used by fundamentalist organizations to reach and engage with potential candidates to religious radicalization, particularly in Western societies. Focus of the Article The paper analyzes ISIS and Al-Qeada (AQ) propaganda as grotesque transparency strategy, with particular attention to the so-called “Islamic State.” Research Questions The main research question guiding this case study is: how the “grotesque transparency” strategy is articulated in the context of radicalization propaganda by Islamist terrorist organizations? The secondary research question is: how the understanding of the “grotesque transparency” strategy could inform social marketing and policy initiatives to counter the effects of such propaganda? Importance to the Social Marketing Field The novelty of grotesque transparency in the context of digital networks lies in the ease with which potentially everyone can be a propagandist, transforming the strategic prescriptions of the organized terrorist into an individual “creative” tactic or action. In this context of media fragmentation, the notion of social marketing as mainly a strategic endeavor to favor general change of attitudes and behaviors may be reconsidered as a more dialogic and individualized interaction to understand the expectations, needs and ideas of the “tribal groups.” Methods By applying the “aquarium metaphor”, the author describes the narrative of such radical groups, including the visual elements that are key in the case of grotesque transparency in the digital media ecosystem. Results The visually grotesque gives meaning to events in a world of excess, fragmentation, and disenchantment. The language of the ocular reduces ambiguity, privileges the concrete, and facilitates moral judgments. It has become a way of “knowing” based on emotion. Recommendations for Practice Social marketing experts and officers might reconsider the very notion of strategy when trying to counter the effects of grotesque transparency radical propaganda among certain groups of the population, moving beyond the more traditional approach of control-command to a more open and interactive process to engage in a dialogue and connect with individuals, their families and peers through strategizing. Limitations The analysis presented here of the Islamist terrorist propaganda is based on a literature review and some empirical research. The question of reception and tactical appropriation by some groups remains an important area to be explored in future research.

Digital Communication and Multimodal Features: Functioning of Emoji in Interpersonal Communication

Technical advances and digital means of communication have led to the development of digital semiotics which is characterised by its multimodality and abounds in paralinguistic elements such as emojis, emoticons, memes, etc. These extralinguistic elements serve as a compensatory mechanism in the new communication means. The increasing interest of users in various iconic signs and symbols generates the research interest in different fields of knowledge. The study aims to consider cognitive, semiotic and psycholinguistic features of emojis in interpersonal communication through analysing their functions in text messages and in social network messages. An attempt to reveal their persuasive mechanism is made. The research is based on a large scale dataset comprised of the private text messages as well as public posts on social networks which include verbal and nonverbal / iconic elements. The research data presents a multilingual bank of English, Russian and French sources. The research methods include context analysis, linguistic and pragmatic analysis and content analysis. The findings show that emojis in private interpersonal communication perform a number of functions, namely nonverbal, emotive, pragmatic, punctuation, substitutional, decorative and rhetorical functions. These iconic symbols incorporated in the interpersonal digital communication present a compensatory mechanism and the means of persuasion of a message addressee / recipient. The combination of verbal and iconic elements triggers a double focusing mechanism, and the perception is shaped by all cognitive mechanisms including rational and emotional, unconscious components.