Persuasive Potential Research Articles

“Kyiv regime,” “junta,” “neo-Nazis,” “ethnic Jew”: discursive derogation of Ukrainian authorities and enemy-other constructions in Vladimir Putin’s speeches

ABSTRACT In this paper, the author analyzes the discursive strategies of derogating Ukrainian authorities used by Vladimir Putin and their persuasive impact on shaping public opinion and social cognition. Using ideological discourse analysis, she investigates Putin’s tactics for reinforcing negative attitudes towards the “Kyiv regime” in his speeches since 2014. Focusing on derogatory labelling, semantic implications, and pragmatic implicatures, this paper outlines Putin’s discursive devaluing and dehumanizing of the Ukrainian authorities, justifying, first, the annexation of Crimea and, eight years later, the invasion and war in Ukraine. The analysis aims to reveal the persuasive potential of derogatory language with its semantic manipulation and capacity to format public opinion and social cognition, contributing to the categorization of “the out-group” as an “enemy-other.” It is crucial not only for legitimizing certain policies but also for constructing collective self-identity. Revealing a deliberate shift from subtle insinuations to pronounced adversarial portrayals over time, the conflictive othering of Ukrainian authorities continues to evolve.

Effects of metaphorical communication on vaccine confidence in the adolescent population

Abstract Vaccine hesitancy, defined as delay or refusal of vaccination despite the availability of vaccination services, has been included by WHO among the top 10 global health threats. Individual decision-making process can be strongly affected by communication. The use of metaphors is common in public health communication and increased during the COVID19 pandemic. Although some evidence has supported the persuasive potential of metaphorical language over scientific language, further research is needed. Our study aimed at comparing the effects of neutral scientific talk with war and protective metaphors on health communication. An online survey was conducted on a convenience sample of Italian teenagers randomly allocated to three study arms. Each participant was invited to watch a specific version of an informative video on infections and vaccines (group 1: neutral-scientific approach, group 2: metaphorical-war, and group 3: metaphorical-protective approach). After watching the video, each participant responded to an ad-hoc questionnaire. A total of 2681 subjects were randomly allocated to the three groups. No significant differences regarding age, sex and geographical area were detected between groups. Median age of the sample was 17 years (mean 16,8) and 56.8% were girls. The general attitude towards vaccination in group 2 and 3 was largely positive, with the majority agreeing (strongly or tend to agree) on the fact that vaccination is important (group 2: 89%; group 3: 92%), safe (group 2: 91%; group 3: 92,5%), effective (group 2: 85%; group 3: 88%), and does not generate anxiety (group 2: 80%; group 3: 83%). Higher level of distrust against vaccines was found in group 1, where 32% of participating adolescents are strongly or tend to be anxious about getting vaccinated. The results of our survey suggest that emotional involvement evoked through the use of metaphorical language may have, at least in the short run, some positive effect on vaccine confidence. Key messages • Use of metaphors can be successfully used in public health communication. • Messages evoking either war or protecting concepts are more efficacious than plain scientific language.

Beyond likes: the persuasive potential of romantic parasocial relationships with influencers

While existing studies emphasize the crucial role of amicable parasocial relationships in influencing the audience, research on the persuasive potential of romantic parasocial relationships with influencers remains limited. These relationships, characterized by a blend of physical and emotional love, are believed to be particularly intense. Therefore, we aim to investigate the persuasive impact of romantic potential with influencers, which may lead to the development of romantic parasocial relationships. Specifically, we analyze the influence of romantic potential (no romantic potential vs. romantic potential) and its interaction with follower status (follower vs. non-follower) on romantic parasocial relationships, evaluative persuasion knowledge, and subsequently purchase intention. Conducted among German social media users (N = 220), our experiment revealed no significant main effects of romantic potential on evaluative persuasion knowledge and purchase intentions. However, we found a significant indirect effect of romantic potential on the dependent variables mediated by emotional love but not physical love. Additionally, a significant interaction effect revealed that while the formation of the physical dimension in romantic parasocial relationships occurs relatively quickly, emotional affection requires a longer period to develop. This study significantly contributes to our understanding of persuasive dynamics in influencer marketing and opens avenues for further research.

Embodying Similarity and Difference: The Effect of Listing and Contrasting Gestures During U.S. Political Speech.

Public speakers like politicians carefully craft their words to maximize the clarity, impact, and persuasiveness of their messages. However, these messages can be shaped by more than words. Gestures play an important role in how spoken arguments are perceived, conceptualized, and remembered by audiences. Studies of political speech have explored the ways spoken arguments are used to persuade audiences and cue applause. Studies of politicians' gestures have explored the ways politicians illustrate different concepts with their hands, but have not focused on gesture's potential as a tool of persuasion. Our paper combines these traditions to ask first, how politicians gesture when using spoken rhetorical devices aimed at persuading audiences, and second, whether these gestures influence the ways their arguments are perceived. Study 1 examined two rhetorical devices-contrasts and lists-used by three politicians during U.S. presidential debates and asked whether the gestures produced during contrasts and lists differ. Gestures produced during contrasts were more likely to involve changes in hand location, and gestures produced during lists were more likely to involve changes in trajectory. Study 2 used footage from the same debates in an experiment to ask whether gesture influenced the way people perceived the politicians' arguments. When participants had access to gestural information, they perceived contrasted items as more different from one another and listed items as more similar to one another than they did when they only had access to speech. This was true even when participants had access to only gesture (in muted videos). We conclude that gesture is effective at communicating concepts of similarity and difference and that politicians (and likely other speakers) take advantage of gesture's persuasive potential.

More than entertaining: a typology of family portrayals and inherent persuasive potential

ABSTRACT Family portrayals in entertainment media represent a significant concern for both media and family communication scholars. These fictional families can model both effective and ineffective family behaviors. Research within this realm often focuses on either the content or the effects of portrayals rather than providing a comprehensive picture. The family portrayal typology offers a tool to bridge this content-effects gap by providing explanatory and predictive power regarding family portrayals’ persuasive potentials. Stemming from social cognitive and entertainment theories, this paper identifies six family portrayal types and proposes their varying levels of persuasion based on the latent constructs of a family’s wishful identification arousal, eudaimonic quality, and general family outcomes. Suggestions for future research utilizing the typology are proposed.

Stylistyka artykułów poradnikowych o tematyce kulinarnej adresowanych do mężczyzn – na podstawie materiałów z miesięcznika „Men’s Health”

The subject of the analyses in this article are food related articles addressed to men, published in the monthly “Men’s Health” in 2020. In order to encourage the readers to read texts related to broadly understood nutrition, the editors use the persuasive potential resulting from the combination of various functional styles. Colloquial, natural and casual style, which is typical of everyday communication, makes it easier to get closer to the readers, creates the impression of a close and friendly relationship and enters into a dialogue with them, while the scientific style promotes the credibility of the message and gives it a professional character. The way of providing metaphors, which is unusual for food related texts (war metaphor, automotive metaphor), as well as anthropomorphisms translate into the imagery character of the text and serve to familiarize the readers with a sphere of reality that is unknown to them.

PERSUASIVE POTENTIAL OF PRECEDENT STATEMENTS IN THE RHETORICAL DISCOURSE OF THE CORONAVIRUS DISEASE PANDEMIC (IN GERMAN-LANGUAGE MEDIA)

The article presents an analysis of precedent statements in socio-political discourse, which is reflected in different types of media texts thematically related to the coronavirus pandemic. The described means of language contributes to the realization of various communicative strategies, first of all the strategy of persuasion. The article demonstrates the role of precedent statements and illustrates their persuasive potential as one of the fundamental elements of intertextuality category in the framework of rhetorical media discourse. As an effective means of implementing both the global strategy of persuasion and specific communicative tactics - warning, threatening, manipulating, discrediting, etc. - precedent statements are regularly reproduced in different types of rhetorical discourse (political, economic, religious, etc.) and make a significant contribution to achieving the main perlocutionary effect - inducing the recipient to take a certain action.

Show me that you are advertising: Visual salience of products attenuates detrimental effects of persuasion knowledge activation in influencer advertising

In the realm of social media influencer advertising, the organic nature of sponsored content can deceive users by concealing persuasive intent. Regulators seek to reinforce users' persuasion knowledge through sponsorship disclosure guidelines, while advertisers explore ethical tactics to prevent the adverse effects of users' ad recognition on the effectiveness of influencer endorsements. With the increasing prevalence of image-based content, the investigation of visual factors, such as the presentation of products, and their moderating influence on the effects of ad recognition becomes ever more relevant. However, previous research has primarily focused on textual factors. Building on congruence theory, we demonstrate that marketers can harness bottom-up attention induced by high visual salience to counteract the detrimental effects of users’ ad recognition. Our findings indicate that ad recognition undermines favorable brand attitudes, word-of-mouth intentions, and purchase intentions by diminishing perceived influencer integrity and enhancing post skepticism. These effects are alleviated when the visual appearance of sponsored products is highly salient in terms of brightness or color. Our work offers a simple yet effective image-based solution for marketers to mitigate ad-related skepticism and elevate the persuasive potential of influencer advertising in the visually-driven realm of computer-mediated communication.

Avoiding the Abject and Seeking the Script: Perceived Mind, Morality, and Trust in a Persuasive Social Robot

Social robots are being groomed for human influence, including the implicit and explicit persuasion of humans. Humanlike characteristics are understood to enhance robots’ persuasive impact; however, little is known of how perceptions of two key human capacities—mind and morality—function in robots’ persuasive potential. This experiment tests the possibility that perceived robot mind and morality will correspond with greater persuasive impact, moderated by relational trustworthiness for a moral appeal and by capacity trustworthiness for a logical appeal. Via an online survey, a humanoid robot asks participants to help it learn to overcome CAPTCHA puzzles to access important online spaces—either on grounds that it is logical or moral to do so. Based on three performance indicators and one self-report indicator of compliance, analysis indicates that (a) seeing the robot as able to perceive and act on the world selectively improves compliance, and (b) perceiving agentic capacity diminishes compliance, though capacity trustworthiness can moderate that reduction. For logical appeals, social-moral mental capacities promote compliance, moderated by capacity trustworthiness. Findings suggest that, in this compliance scenario, the accessibility of schemas and scripts for engaging robots as social-moral actors may be central to whether/how perceived mind, morality, and trust function in machine persuasion.

Advertising to inspire–inspiring to persuade: how factors related to the source, message, and audience affect the persuasive effectiveness of influencer advertising

The persuasive potential of influencer advertising (IAd) has become a relevant field in academia. Followers see influencers as a source of inspiration, and inspiration can play a crucial role in purchase decisions. In the present study, we examined how factors related to the message, source, and audience interactions in influencer communication relate to the persuasive effectiveness of IAd, with a particular focus on the role of inspiration. Results from a quantitative survey (n = 311) indicate that followers’ inspiration and para-social interaction with the influencer are highly relevant to reported purchase behaviors. Moreover, the inspiration followers experience from IAd varies with the frequency of advertising posts in influencers’ feeds and followers’ persuasion knowledge.

Secular spirituality versus religiosity – communication strategies in advertising

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the article is to identify the specificity of religious and spiritual content in advertising aimed at different markets.
 THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The article demonstrates that the use of religious and spiritual content is specific to image advertising and is a trend that is functional: it serves to disguise the purpose of persuasion, to increase the contextual effect, to build community between sender and receiver and to inspire trust in the addressee. The methodology used in the text is content analysis, desk research, research into the persuasive potential of advertisements, and ancillary semiotic research.
 THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: Preliminary considerations introduced the concept of faith and secular spirituality. The body of the article then analyses the research material, which is a selection of television and online advertisements for the Merci brand, the jewellery manufacturer and retailer Pandora A/S, the Cartier brand and Ikea shops. In collecting the material for the article, purposive sampling was used, taking into account commercials aired in Italy, Poland, Germany, France, the Czech Republic and Russia before Christmas Eve between 2014 and 2022.
 RESEARCH RESULTS: The research showed that content relating to religious values and secular spirituality is selected syncretistically in order to broaden the group of planned ad addressees. The very construction of the advertisements resembles a multi-level structure, the elements of which, by levelling the criticism of the recipient, serve to achieve the inference planned by the sender.
 CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The process of secularisation is evident in advertising, which is reflected in spots aired during religious holidays, which are explored by advertising broadcasters. This is facilitated both by the temporal context and by different consumer experiences derived from knowledge structures built on religious and cultural perceptions.

ВИСВІТЛЕННЯ ПОНЯТТЯ "СТІЙКА МОДА" У ЗМІ: ЛІНГВІСТИЧНЕ ТЛУМАЧЕННЯ

Being one of the most exploitative and environmentally unfriendly industries in the world, modern fashion industry is gradually transforming from fast to slow, showing an urgent need for sustainability. Hence, conscious or sustainable fashion as a multidimensional and multifaceted phenomenon can be defined as an awareness about all the inputs and processes in garment making industry, including natural and human resources. Despite all increased media attention to sustainability and related issues, there is still a big gap between theoretical and practical research in the sphere of arts and humanities and other branches of science, such as economy, politics, engineering, building, education etc. Thus, the article analyzes media coverage of sustainability development, namely sustainable fashion, through the prism of modern linguistics. The main purpose, objectives and language data have predetermined the use of general scientific methods (namely, deduction, data collection, interpretation and verification) as well as methods of linguistic research (namely, lexico-semantic and content analyses). The study involves 30 textual fragments selected via continuous sampling method from world-renowned fashion and style magazines, such as Cosmopolitan, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, Vanity Fair, Vogue. Moreover, 20 visual images have been chosen with the same intent. Textual and visual content has been studied within the framework of Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA), aiming at synergy of two modes of communication, inter alia, verbal and non-verbal means of presenting information in media. As a result of the analysis it has been confirmed that journalists and columnists of high-end mass media on fashion are using their popularity, reputation and persuasive potential in order to establish a long-term pivot to sustainability in their readers’ minds.

The linguopragmatic characteristics of modern polycode-multimodal media text in the context of information-psychological influence

The article is devoted to the study of linguopragmatic characteristics of media text in the context of information and psychological impact on individual and collective addressee in the context of mass information broadcasting. As is known, as a special form of text existence in the modern information space, media text contains not only verbal elements realizing direct speech impact, but also non-verbal ones. This symbiosis of verbal and non-verbal means, as well as a number of pragmatic factors and attitudes, multiply the persuasive potential of a modern media text. In this connection, following other scientific fields, linguistics enters into interaction with the phenomenon of informational and psychological impact, which combines linguistic and extra-linguistic aspects of communication. From a structural point of view, media text is a complex communicative organization that combines text, hypertext, dynamic and static images, sound and provides non-linear, multi-channel, multi-layered and multi-dimensional perception of the embedded conceptual meanings, creates opportunities for feedback. What makes a modern media text polycode-multimodal. The purpose of this article is to analyze the linguopragmatic characteristics of the media text as the main form of realization of information influence. We use descriptive, synchronic-diachronic and functional research methods, as well as methods of contextual and communicative-pragmatic analysis. Based on the results of the study, we analyzed and described in detail the linguopragmatic characteristics of the media text as the main form of realization of information and psychological impact on the addressee in the modern information and communication space.

THE SUBTLETY OF COMIC REGISTER IN PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATION

: Humour is a discursive strategy with huge persuasive potential, which values the interlocutor. The use of comic register is not only proof of the communicator's intelligence, but also a form of interlocutor consideration, who is credited from the beginning with a sense of humour. Using comicality in persuasive communication is an option as tempting as it is risky, because not everyone tastes the same kind of humour. In this article we shall try to reveal the specifics of the comic register in discursive strategies and propose a humour typology, based on five relevant criteria: thematic, attitudinal, intentional, axiological and narrative, starting from the attributes that accompany the noun "humour" in various communication situations.

Is voice really persuasive? The influence of modality in virtual assistant interactions and two alternative explanations

PurposeVirtual assistants are increasingly used for persuasive purposes, employing the different modalities of voice and text (or a combination of the two). In this study, the authors compare the persuasiveness of voice-and text-based virtual assistants. The authors argue for perceived human-likeness and cognitive load as underlying mechanisms that can explain why voice- and text-based assistants differ in their persuasive potential by suppressing the activation of consumers' persuasion knowledge.Design/methodology/approachA pre-registered online-experiment (n = 450) implemented a text-based and two voice-based (with and without interaction history displayed in text) virtual assistants.FindingsFindings show that, contrary to expectations, a text-based assistant is perceived as more human-like compared to a voice-based assistant (regardless of whether the interaction history is displayed), which in turn positively influences brand attitudes and purchase intention. The authors also find that voice as a communication modality can increase persuasion knowledge by being cognitively more demanding in comparison to text.Practical implicationsSimply using voice as a presumably human cue might not suffice to give virtual assistants a human-like appeal. For the development of virtual assistants, it might be beneficial to actively engage consumers to increase awareness of persuasion.Originality/valueThe current study adds to the emergent research stream considering virtual assistants in explicitly exploring modality differences between voice and text (and a combination of the two) and provides insights into the effects of persuasion coming from virtual assistants.

Language policy ambivalence

This article focuses on historicising Singaporean English/Singlish and tracing its genealogy as a demotic language to understand the changing relationship between Singlish and the Singaporean state. It takes as an entry point a recent infomercial-style music video featuring the well-known fictive Singlish-speaking character Phua Chu Kang that was released by the Singaporean government in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It encouraged residents to get vaccinated for their own protection and was widely circulated across mainstream news media as well as other platforms. Mining the character of Phua Chu Kang, previously fiercely criticised by the government for speaking Singlish, the article historicises Singlish and its shifting place in Singapore’s cultural politics and language policy. It demonstrates how the language has shifted from a previous position as a state antagonist to a demotic language now actively mobilised by the state. In so doing, it updates extant understandings of Singlish in relation to language policy and culture in Singapore where antagonism has given way to a relationship of ambivalence with the state. More broadly, it also highlights the instrumental value of mobilising a demotic language for its persuasive potential within speech communities that have an affinity for it.

Statistical Representation of the Volatility of Scientific Interest in the Category of Persuasiveness as a Subject of the Linguistic Research

The article presents the results of research of the category of persuasiveness in academic linguistic works. Persuasiveness is considered in the present paper as a property of discourse, realized by means of verbal influence on the consciousness of the addressee with the purpose of changing his worldview. The urgency of the study is due to the growing interest of the research community to persuasive potential of discourse and mechanisms of verbal impact on the target audience, as well as the crucial importance of studying tactics and strategies of persuasive impact, aimed at inducing the recipient of information to share the views of the addressee. Analysis of the selected research works has shown that, despite the existence of different approaches to the interpretation of the notion «persuasiveness» and the resulting differences of methodical approaches to the study of the phenomenon, the universal meaning of the concept of «persuasiveness» in the linguistic aspect can be reduced to the idea that persuasiveness can be defined as the manipulative use of special language techniques aimed at strengthening the addressee’s arguments. The purpose of the paper is to identify and systematize the dynamics and research directions of the persuasiveness study. The study was conducted on the basis of theses selected form the «DisserCat» electronic scientific library of theses and abstracts. As a result 118 theses, published during 2000-2021 period, were catalogued and analyzed. The obtained results allowed to consider and generalize various approaches to the study of the persuasiveness, as well as to determine the dynamics and vectors of the interest to the studied phenomenon. The following research methods were used in the paper: targeted sampling, qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis, content analysis, statistical observation and processing of sample texts. Visualization was carried out by using Microsoft Office Excel program. A quantitative and chronological analysis of the selected works allows us to conclude that the interest in studying the realization of the category of persuasiveness is far from losing its relevance; on the contrary, from a prognostic point of view one should expect a significant demand for its research.

Designing effective corporate social advocacy campaigns using valence, arousal, and issue salience

Corporate social advocacy (CSA) is a growing communications practice that involves corporations taking a public stance on a controversial social issue. Some CSA campaigns have failed in the past (e.g., Pepsi’s 2017 Live for Now Moments Anthem video) by generating public backlash and damaging corporate reputation. To test how to design CSA campaigns that are beneficial for both the corporation and the advocacy issue, the current between-subjects experiment (N = 508) employed a 2 (issue salience: moderate vs. high) X 2 (valence: negative vs. positive) X 2 (arousal: moderate vs. high) factorial design to test the effects of salience, valence, and arousal on memory and four persuasion outcomes: company attitudes, purchase intentions, political participation intentions, and social media intentions, while also analyzing the mediation of information processing. Findings support prior research suggesting that negative valence increases persuasion in CSA contexts. A high-salience issue and high-arousal language increased political participation and social media intentions but had no effect on company attitudes or purchase intentions. Practical implications for CSA campaign designers highlight the persuasive potential of negative valence in CSA messages, and the utility of high-salience and high-arousal for political action and social media engagement.

The persuasive potential of metaphor when framing Mexican migrants and migration

AbstractResearch into the persuasive quality of metaphor has a long standing tradition, with the topic of migration embodying one of its pet discourse genres. Yet, only few studies have recognized the existence of identical metaphors occurring across the ideological divide. The present paper explores the way in which three US-based news outlets with broadly different group alignments and overall attitudes in relation to the issue of migration wield metaphor to frame the Mexican migration debate in the US. The data suggests that, contrary to what one might expect, the mayor point of variation between these news instances does not consist in a predilection for idiosyncratic source domains. Rather, the three news sources appear to diverge most significantly in their situational use of similar metaphors. On a methodological plane, this case study illustrates the necessity of inspecting metaphor frames more closely, attending to their semantic roles and broader context, if we want to make assertions about the ideological implications and potential social impact of metaphor on public opinion formation. On a social and theoretical level, it sheds light on the ways in which these three news outlets employ metaphors to construct the social identity of ‘Mexican migrants’ living in the US in line with their stance on the matter, and to a possibly persuasive effect.

Персуазивный потенциал языковых средств выражения оценки в дискурсе СМИ (на материале немецкоязычных текстов дискуссии по вопросу присуждения Нобелевской премии по литературе Петеру Хандке)

The aim of the research is to study the persuasive potential of the linguistic means of expressing evaluation in the German-language mass media discourse by the material of the discussion on the issue of awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature 2019 to the Austrian writer Peter Handke. The scientific novelty of the research lies in studying the positive and/or negative persuasive potential of the linguistic means of evaluation in the media discourse dedicated to a socially resonant cultural event. As a result of the analysis, it has been revealed that the authors of the texts often use various tropes and figures of speech as persuasive linguistic means depicting the fact of awarding the Nobel Prize to Handke either in a positive or negative subjective-modal way.