WEEK 5: AT A GLANCE EMOTIONS AND PERSUASION

In previous weeks, you have examined how cognitive connections influence your ability to be persuaded. This week your focus will be exclusively on the affective, or emotional, component of your attitudes as they inform your behavior. Two of the emotions that you will consider are how guilt and fear influence people’s actions. Some persuaders are adept at tapping into those strong feelings because guilt and fear are uncomfortable emotions that people want to avoid or relieve. As you begin the week, take a moment to consider any examples of being persuaded by guilt or fear in your own experience or from history that can provide a context for your learning.

Social scientists have a name for uncomfortable feelings, which they call “dissonance.” Dissonant feelings involve society’s social display rules. For example, recall the Week 1 Discussion when you analyzed the methods you used to persuade another person. Although your aim was positive, you might have felt uncomfortable if you recognized coercive or manipulative strategies that you applied. When people’s behavior does not align with what they say they believe in, that may create dissonance. Sometimes dissonance can lead to gaining a new perspective.

This week, you will have the opportunity to imagine wearing the hat of a social justice advocate. You will create ways to induce and relieve dissonance in others in order to persuade them to consider other viewpoints. As you have throughout the course, remember that ethics are always a necessary consideration where persuasion, even for just purposes, is involved.