One example of a persuasive
message is a speech given by Winston Churchill to the Houses of Commons on 4th
June 1940. This speech has been given the title of ‘we shall fight on the
beaches’. Within the speech there are various persuasive techniques making it
very powerful. To put it into context,
the main reason Churchill gave this speech was to warn his audience of the
terrible struggle lying ahead of them, urging them to fight and defeat the
enemy but without lowering
morale.
One of the most prominent aspects
of the speech is the use of repetition. He repeats the words ‘we shall fight’. Empirical
studies have shown that repeating something makes it more powerful as communication
effectiveness is mediated by familiarity (Campbell & Keller, 2003). This is
also present in the mere exposure effect (Zajonc, 1968).
Also, the scenes of
fighting he depicts actually follow the course of a successful rather than a
defeated invasion “on the beaches……in the hills”. This is also in collaboration
with other positive framing of words for example the last lines use the words
“the New World” referring to the end of the war. This clearly puts a more positive
frame on the consequences of the war. This
concept is used by many political parties and was given the name ‘newspeak’ by
Orwell (1949). It involves negative words being framed more positively for
example, bad becomes ‘ungood’. It has been shown that you are able to control
thought through the use of positively framed language. Tversky and Kahnemans
(1981) classic study shows that people will make different decisions to a
choice depending on whether it is presented as a loss of a gain.
He also establishes a
strong rapport with his audience (both the MPs in the House of Commons and the
public listening to the radio) by repeating the word “we”. This denotes
solidarity, commitment and a shared sense of purpose in trying to do everything
possible to repel a hated enemy. This creates ingroup favouritism and outgroup
prejudice, otherwise known as an ingroup bias. The Robbers Cave experiments is
commonly used to exemplify this (Sherif et al., 1961). Young
boys were studied in a mock summer camp situation. They were broken into
two groups and their behavior was studied. It was revealed that regardless of
two groups’ similarity, group members will behave viciously toward the
out-group when competing. The in-group/out-group bias could readily be seen in
the boys' behaviors toward each other. They underestimated the performance of
the other group and overestimated the performance of their own group. Moreover,
"the pro-ingroup tendency went hand in hand with the anti-outgroup
tendency". Churchill speech is utilizing this natural bias that appears to
occur between two opposing groups to motivate his audience to defeat the enemy.
A small section of the
speech can be accessed here:
References
Campbell, M.C., &
Keller, K.L. (2003). Brand familiarity and advertising repetition effects. Journal of Consumer Research, 30, 292-304.
Orwell, G. (1949). Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Signet Classics.
Sherif,
M., Harvey, O.J., White, B.J., Hood, W., & Sherif, C.W. (1961). Intergroup
Conflict and Cooperation: The Robbers Cave Experiment. Norman: The
University Book Exchange. pp. 155–184.
Tversky. A., & Kahneman,
D. (1981). The framing of decisions and the psychology of choice. Science, 211, 453-458.
Zajonc, B. (1968).
Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 1-27.
Thank .in helped me to do my hw.
ReplyDeleteAnd the "NEW WORLD "refer to USA and not the "end of war".
HAHA it means USA after the war, so like, New world=USA after the war
Deleteit was very helpful
ReplyDelete