11.1: An Overview of Persuasion

Wh  What Is Persuasion?

Persuasion today looks very different than it did fifty years ago. A century ago, a speaker’s competition for attention might have been a newspaper or a radio program. Today, college students navigate nonstop persuasive messages through group chats, political ads on YouTube, Netflix documentaries, campus flyers, and even the ads on BART or Muni buses. Public speakers must find ways to stand out while remaining ethical and credible (Tan et al., 2021).

Persuasion is the process of influencing an audience’s attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors (Albarracín et al., 2021). Unlike informative speeches, which explain, persuasive speeches aim to motivate change.

Changing Attitudes, Values, and Beliefs

• Attitudes are judgments about whether something is good or bad, right or wrong. Example: Persuading classmates that proposed curfew laws for under-21 students in Los Angeles are unfair.
• Values reflect what we consider important. Example: California students who value sustainability may join coastal clean-ups, push for composting on campus, or support statewide plastic bag bans.
• Beliefs are what people accept as true. Core beliefs (e.g., belief in equality) are harder to change, while dispositional beliefs (e.g., thinking the Golden Gate Bridge is the longest in the U.S.) are easier to shift. For novice speakers, focusing on dispositional beliefs, rather than deeply held convictions, is more realistic (Albarracín et al., 2021).

 Changing Behavior 

Sometimes persuasion means encouraging action. For example:

• Voting in a city or campus election.
• Signing a petition to prevent tuition hikes at CSU or UC campuses.
• Using public transit instead of driving to reduce emissions.
• Choosing reusable water bottles to cut down on California's landfill waste.

These actions show how persuasion can move people from belief to behavior (Cruz et al., 2025).

Why Persuasion Matters

Frymier and Nadler (2007) highlight three reasons to study persuasion:

• To become more persuasive. Understanding persuasive strategies helps you deliver stronger, more effective speeches (Albarracín et al., 2021)
• To resist manipulation. In an age of ballot proposition ads, Instagram influencer campaigns, and political messaging around California’s housing crisis, persuasive literacy helps you spot half-truths and faulty logic (Fransen et al., 2015).
• To understand the world. Analyzing why speakers like Dolores Huerta or Cesar Chavez galvanized movements, while others failed to connect, deepens your awareness of how persuasion shapes society (McKenna, 2025).

Most importantly, persuasion carries an ethical responsibility. Speakers should not manipulate, coerce, or mislead. Ethical persuasion relies on truth and transparency, while ethical listeners evaluate messages critically (McKenna, 2025).

Example 11.1.1  

Persuasion in Action

Persuasion surrounds us every day, sometimes in serious public debates, and sometimes in fun campus campaigns. Here are a few real-life examples from California:

• Ban the Bottle at SFSU: Students at San Francisco State persuaded the administration to stop selling single-use plastic water bottles on campus. They appealed to values of sustainability and coastal protection while offering practical alternatives like refill stations and free reusable bottles.
• Taco Truck Tuesdays in LA: A community college student convinced the student government to bring a taco truck to campus by appealing to cultural pride, convenience, and humor. His slogan, “The library feeds your brain, but tacos feed your soul” won over both peers and administrators.
• Wildfire Safety Campaigns: In Northern California, local groups persuade communities to prepare “go bags” for wildfire season. By showing real stories of students displaced by fires, they connect preparedness behaviors to the value of safety and the belief that “it could happen to us.”
• Free Transit for Students in the Bay Area: Student activists persuaded local officials to expand discounted BART and Muni passes for college students. They framed it around values of equity, the belief that public transit reduces emissions, and the behavior change of leaving cars at home.

Key Takeaways

• Persuasion surrounds us in daily life, from ballot ads to campus campaigns, and speakers must learn how to connect effectively with audiences (Tan et al., 2021).
• Persuasion influences attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors, with dispositional beliefs and everyday actions being the most realistic targets for short speeches (Albarracín et al., 2021).
• Ethical persuasion relies on honest and respect, empowering audiences to critically evaluate messages without manipulation (McKenna, 2025).

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Exercises

• Persuade Me in 60 Seconds: Students pair up. One student picks a random everyday topic (e.g., pineapple on pizza, cats vs. dogs, best coffee shop in town) and has one minute to persuade their partner. Then they switch roles. Partners give quick feedback on what worked - was it humor, logic, or emotional appeal?
• Ad Makeover Challenge: Students take a common product or campus issue (e.g., reusable water bottles, study groups, Taco Tuesdays) and create a 30-second "ad pitch" to persuade their classmates. The twist: they must choose a strategy: ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), or logos (logic) and classmates guess which appeal they used.
• Hashtag Persuasion: In small groups, students invent a catchy hashtag campaign to persuade peers about a lighthearted issue (e.g., #NapZonesNow for campus nap spaces, #NoWiFiNoPeace for stronger Wi-Fi, #TacoTruckTuesdays). Each group shares their hashtag and one-sentence persuasive pitch, and the class votes on the most creative.