Practice question · Match the pairs
Match each piece of real-world appeal copy to the principle of persuasion it exploits.
- A charity encloses a small unconditional gift with its appeal letter
- 'Sale ends at midnight - final three seats at this fare'
- 'You signed our pledge last year; here is the natural next step'
- 'Join the 40,000 people who have already switched'
- Reciprocity
- Commitment and consistency
- Social proof
- Scarcity
Hints
- None of the four says anything about how good the product actually is - each supplies a different reason to comply anyway.
- One creates a felt debt, one creates urgency, one invokes your own past self, and one points at the crowd.
Show the answer
- A charity encloses a small unconditional gift with its appeal letter → Reciprocity
- 'Sale ends at midnight - final three seats at this fare' → Scarcity
- 'You signed our pledge last year; here is the natural next step' → Commitment and consistency
- 'Join the 40,000 people who have already switched' → Social proof
Why
A gift creates an obligation to repay (reciprocity); a closing window creates urgency (scarcity); invoking a previous commitment makes refusal feel inconsistent (commitment and consistency); and a large crowd of adopters supplies social proof. All four are peripheral cues, which is why they work best on audiences who are not scrutinising the argument.
Practise Persuasion and Attitude Change: The Art of Influence
The app has 6 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Psychology I is free to start.
More questions on Persuasion and Attitude Change: The Art of Influence
- People given a weak version of a counter-argument, then shown how to refute it, later resist the strong…
- Under the Elaboration Likelihood Model, an audience affected by a policy next year is persuaded by argument…
- Central processing requires both motivation and ability. Why does an audience with high motivation and low…
- Select every statement that follows from the Elaboration Likelihood Model.
- Rank these four audiences from MOST likely to process a message by the central route down to LEAST likely,…