Abstract
To optimize effectiveness of persuasive technology, understanding also psychophysiological processes of persuasion is crucial. The current research explored cardiovascular reactions to persuasive messages using four persuasion principles proposed by Cialdini (authority, scarcity, consensus, and commitment) in a laboratory experiment. The study had a randomized within-subject design. Participants (N = 56) were presented with 4 × 14 persuasive messages while cardiovascular reactions were measured with electrocardiography. Findings showed significantly different cardiovascular arousal regarding inter-beat interval and standard deviations of normal-to-normal heart rate peaks during persuasive principles compared to baseline or startle reflex. Results show no relation between cardiovascular arousal and self-reported susceptibility to persuasion. However, during the presentation of authority-based persuasion messages, data of the first stimulus condition showed a negative correlation between self-reported susceptibility and inter-beat interval reactivity. This explorative study advances our knowledge of psychophysiological processes underlying persuasion and suggested that at least certain persuasive principles may relate to physiological changes.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Other physiological recordings were done as well, and will be reported on elsewhere.
References
Zhu, W.: Promoting physical activity through internet: a persuasive technology view. In: de Kort, Y., IJsselsteijn, W., Midden, C., Eggen, B., Fogg, B.J. (eds.) PERSUASIVE 2007. LNCS, vol. 4744, pp. 12–17. Springer, Heidelberg (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77006-0_2
Markopoulos, P., Kaptein, M.C., De Ruyter, B.E., Aarts, E.H.L.: Personalizing persuasive technologies: explicit and implicit personalization using persuasion profiles. Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud. 77, 38–51 (2015)
Cacioppo, J.T., Tassinary, L.G., Berntson, G.G.: The Handbook of Psychophysiology. Cambridge University Press, New York (2007)
Correa, K.A., Stone, B.T., Stikic, M., Johnson, R.R., Berka, C.: Characterizing donation behavior from psychophysiological indices of narrative experience. Front. Neurosci. 9, 1–15 (2015)
Falk, E.B., Berkman, E.T., Mann, T., Harrison, B., Lieberman, M.D.: Predicting persuasion-induced behavior change from the brain. J. Neurosci. 30, 8421–8424 (2010)
Vezich, S.I., Katzman, P.L., Ames, D.L., Falk, E.B., Lieberman, M.D.: Modulating the neural bases of persuasion: why/how, gain/loss, and users/non-users. Soc. Cogn. Affect. Neurosci. 12, 283–297 (2016). nsw113
Cacioppo, J.T., Petty, R.E., Koa, C.F., Rodriquez, R.: Central and peripheral routes to persuasion: an individual difference perspective. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 51, 1032–1043 (1986)
Cialdini, R.B.: Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion. Harper Collins, New York (2007)
Festinger, L.: Cognitive dissonance theory. In: Primary Prevention of HIV/AIDS: Psychological Approaches. Sage Publication, Newbury Park, California (1989)
Cacioppo, J.T., Petty, R.E., Kao, C.F.: The efficient assessment of need for cognition. J. Pers. Assess. 48, 306–307 (1984)
Shoemaker, J.K., Goswami, R.: Forebrain neurocircuitry associated with human reflex cardiovascular control. Front. Physiol. 6, 1–14 (2015)
Ajzen, I.: Constructing a TPB questionnaire: conceptual and methodological considerations (2006)
Kaptein, M.C., De Ruyter, B.E.R., Markopoulos, P., Aarts, E.H.L.: Adaptive persuasive systems: a study of tailored persuasive text messages to reduce snacking. ACM Trans. Interact. Intell. Syst. 2, 1–25 (2012)
Mathôt, S., Schreij, D., Theeuwes, J.: OpenSesame: an open-source, graphical experiment builder for the social sciences. Behav. Res. Methods 44, 314–324 (2012)
R Development Core Team: R: a language and environment for statistical computing. (2016). https://www.r-project.org/
IBM Corp.: IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows (2017)
Lance, C.E., Butts, M.M., Michels, L.C.: What did they really say? Organ. Res. Methods 9, 202–220 (2006)
Norman, G.: Likert scales, levels of measurement and the “laws” of statistics. Adv. Heal. Sci. Educ. 15, 625–632 (2010)
Dillard, J.P., Shen, L.: On the nature of reactance and its role in persuasive health communication. Commun. Monogr. 72, 144–168 (2005)
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by INHERIT, and has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 667364.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this paper
Cite this paper
Spelt, H., Westerink, J., Ham, J., IJsselsteijn, W. (2018). Cardiovascular Reactions During Exposure to Persuasion Principles. In: Ham, J., Karapanos, E., Morita, P., Burns, C. (eds) Persuasive Technology. PERSUASIVE 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10809. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78978-1_22
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78978-1_22
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-78977-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-78978-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)