Question 1

Which of the following is the best example of asynchronous persuasion?

Accepted Answer

A)  A teenager asks her parents to purchase concert tickets for her sixteenth birthday 
B)  A television commercial claims that a juicer is three times more durable than its competitors 
C)  A salesperson in the fragrance department encourages you to try a new perfume 
D)  The cashier at a department store asks if you would like to donate to a charity

Question 2

Pete has an authoritarian personality. Tom has a dogmatic personality. Larry is a social vigilante. Which of these people is most likely to think his beliefs are superior to others' beliefs, impress his beliefs onto others, argue more, AND be more resistant to persuasion?

Accepted Answer

A)  Pete. 
B)  Tom. 
C)  Larry.

Question 3

Babbs, an impressionable 16-year-old, sees a movie in which her favorite actress has a tattoo of a seahorse on her lower leg. Babbs decides she, too, will get such a tattoo. Her behavior illustrates that

Accepted Answer

A)  movies export values around the globe 
B)  movies foster or perpetuate stereotypes 
C)  movies model risky, unsafe behavior 
D)  movies promote popular culture

Question 4

Bjorn has decided to join a fraternity, but before he gets in, he has to go through an initiation. During the initiation he has to endure all sorts of pain and humiliation. Based on this account, which of the following is most likely to occur?

Accepted Answer

A)  Bjorn will join the fraternity but hate it. 
B)  Bjorn will refuse to be a member of the fraternity. 
C)  Bjorn will join the fraternity and feel more committed to it than he would have without the initiation. 
D)  Bjorn will be influenced by informational but not normative factors.

Question 5

Which of the following influence scenarios represents persuasion through symbolic action?

Accepted Answer

A)  Art sees a picture of a malnourished African child in his local newspaper and decides to donate $100 to an international charity organization. 
B)  A human resource executive decides not to hire a particular job candidate after learning of her criminal history. 
C)  Participants in a social scientific study rate a taller speaker as more credible than a shorter speaker even though the two speakers delivered speeches of the same quality. 
D)  A passer-by observes a protest march by members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PET
A)  and afterwards decides to volunteer to help at the local animal shelter.

Question 6

The fact that people working in a group do not expend as much effort as they do when working alone is known as

Accepted Answer

A)  conformity. 
B)  deindividuation. 
C)  social loafing. 
D)  group polarization.

Question 7

All of the strategies below have been shown to be effective except

Accepted Answer

A)  shock advertising 
B)  image-oriented advertising 
C)  anti-ads or subvertising 
D)  NLP

Question 8

Which of the following is not appropriate advice for enhancing credibility?

Accepted Answer

A)  Cite your own or your source's qualifications and expertise up front 
B)  Attempt to build trust by demonstrating that you are sincere 
C)  Improve your likeability, or L-factor 
D)  Engage in a powerless style of communication

Question 9

Finding additional reasons for a bad decision, or providing rationalizations for a risky decision, involve

Accepted Answer

A)  denial 
B)  bolstering 
C)  differentiation 
D)  fortifying 
E)  romanticizing

Question 10

Instead of straightforwardly informing Cameron that he is fired, Darin explains that the company is down-sizing its personnel. This is an example of

Accepted Answer

A)  the power of labeling. 
B)  vividness. 
C)  language intensity. 
D)  doublespeak.

Question 11

Which theory or model states that messages that fall within a listener's latitude of acceptance will be assimilated and perceived as closer to the listener's position than the message actually is?

Accepted Answer

A)  Reinforcement Expectancy Theory 
B)  Elaboration Likelihood Model 
C)  Theory of Reasoned Action 
D)  Social Judgment Theory

Question 12

Loretta loves her parents. She also loves her boyfriend, Dion. But her parents don't approve of Dion. Which triad of attitudes best reflects this scenario? (assume Loretta is in the lower left corner)

Accepted Answer

A)  
B)  
C)  
D)  
E)

Question 13

Which statement best describes the doctrine of "Socialist Realism"?

Accepted Answer

A)  Art is created for art's sake 
B)  Art sometimes imitates life, life sometimes imitates art 
C)  Art must be representational rather than impressionistic 
D)  Art is subordinate to the goals of the state

Question 14

Hanisch examined whether fragrances could reduce arachnophobia (fear of spiders) among females. The results revealed that

Accepted Answer

A)  an unpleasant fragrance reduced fear the most 
B)  a pleasant fragrance reduced fear the most 
C)  the no-fragrance condition reduced fear the most 
D)  no significant differences were attributable to fragrances

Question 15

According to the Theory of Reasoned Action, the single best predictor of a person's behavior is

Accepted Answer

A)  the person's attitude towards the behavior 
B)  the person's intention(s) regarding the behavior 
C)  the person's normative beliefs about the behavior 
D)  the person's evaluation about the result of the behavior

Question 16

To the extent that self-help audio tapes do bring about changes in people, it is probably because

Accepted Answer

A)  they use very faint messages 
B)  they use very high-pitched messages 
C)  of the reaffirming content of the messages 
D)  of the placebo effect 
E)  of the mere exposure hypothesis

Question 17

Professor Kruger grades students' papers with a red pen. Professor Myer grades students' papers with a blue pen. Assuming the quality of students' papers in their classes is the same, one would expect that

Accepted Answer

A)  Prof. Kruger's students will work more diligently on their papers 
B)  Prof. Kruger will find more mistakes on students' papers 
C)  Prof. Meyer's students will be less likely to read the comments on their papers 
D)  Prof. Meyer's students will have worse writing skills than Prof. Kruger's students

Question 18

The Unimodel postulates that there is one route to persuasion whereby

Accepted Answer

A)  systematic processing overrides heuristic processing 
B)  there is less cognitive elaboration 
C)  decision rules are the main components 
D)  there is simply more or less processing

Question 19

Daniel O'Keefe (2002) defines persuasion as "a successful intentional effort at influencing another's mental state through communication in a circumstance in which the persuadee has some measure of freedom." His definition presumes that:

Accepted Answer

A)  persuasion may be accidental 
B)  persuasion must be effective 
C)  persuasion must be ethical 
D)  self-persuasion is common

Question 20

Generally, research on argument order suggests that when organizing a speech, ________ is your best strategy for being the most persuasive.

Accepted Answer

A)  putting your strongest argument either first or last 
B)  putting your strongest argument last 
C)  putting your strongest argument first 
D)  putting your strongest argument in the middle

Exam 1: Why Study Persuasion