ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with incorrectly generalizing from one piece of information, and considers how influencers can exploit this phenomenon in decision-making. It was mentioned at the start of this book that psychologists have distinguished between two general approaches to influencing, which they label central route and peripheral route. Central route persuasion occurs when interested influencees focus on the arguments that you present, mentally construct their own arguments and counter-arguments, before reaching a decision. For these analytical influencees, it is the arguments that you present that are persuasive, as these encourage your listeners to think (Petty and Cacioppo, 1986; Eagely and Chaiken, 1992). Computer advertisements use central route influencing. They describe product features and rarely have film or pop stars advertising their products. In contrast, peripheral route persuasion occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker’s attractive face or the way the message is presented. This approach to influencing is likely to be most effective on mundane issues which do not trigger people’s thinking, and with image-conscious people who care less about being right or wrong and are more interested in the impression that they are making. For example, advertisements for face cream do not contain much information about the product’s features, but associate it with successful and beautiful women. This is because potential buyers will respond more to such peripheral cues. However, even analytical people sometimes form tentative opinions through attending only to selected cues and simple heuristics which expose them to biases (Myers, 1993). It is the biases associated with this peripheral route to influencing that we shall examine in this chapter.
