A report with the following title: Persuading in a low trust world

PERSUADING IN A LOW TRUST WORLD
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Persuading in a Low Trust World
Introduction
In a world of distrust, incivility, and ‘fake news,’ it can be challenging for professional communicators to build trust and credibility for their clients or the issues they are advocating for. With the audience being uncertain about the clients or the issues fronted by professional communicators, the theories of persuasion can offer guidance. Given an understanding of the psychological, sociological, economic, and political theories related to persuasion, professional communicators can be in a better position to persuade the target audience and build mutually beneficial relationships. This report uses relevant theories to inform how a professional communicator can succeed in persuading in a low trust world.
Understanding he Target Audience
The success of the professional communicator in a low trust world relies significantly on their understanding of the audience. It is through understanding the beliefs, attitudes, traditions, and values of the audience that a professional communicator can devise a message that can result in a change in behaviors and attitudes. A key premise of the social judgment theory is that people make judgments about the content of a message depending on their stance on specific topic messages (Asemah & Nwammuo, 2017). Therefore, the way the audience will react to a persuasive message is dependent on their position on the topic. Professional communicators must understand the attitude of the receiver towards their clients or the advocacy message they are trying to pass across. This can be done through carrying out of a survey that presents different viewpoints on the topic of interest as the professional communicator tries to find the latitudes of agreement and disagreement as well as the latitude of non-commitment (Teng, et al., 2015). Professional communicators can find out how ego-involved individuals in low trust world are about a topic. As informed by O'Keefe (2016), highly-ego involved receivers have small levels of non-commitment and acceptance, and as a result, it can be hard to persuade them. This is more so in a low-trust world. Therefore, to succeed in such an environment characterized by a highly ego-involved audience, it is important for professional communicators to attend to their level of ego-involvement and adjust their messages accordingly (O'Keefe, 2016). It is evident that the social judgment theory can help a persuader thrive in a low trust world. With an understanding of the pre-existing attitudes of the receiver, a professional communicator can send messages that fall in the receiver’s latitude of commitment to attain true persuasion.
Understanding the members of the audience is also important according to the elaboration likelihood model (ELM). As informed by Petty, et al. (2015), the communicators can use two methods to influence the audience: the central route and the peripheral route. In a low trust world, understanding the audience can help the professional communicator decide which one to take for successful persuasion. Messages delivered through the central routes are more likely to result in long-term changes in the audience compared to messages conveyed through the peripheral route. It is important, however, to note that not every person has the ability to receive messages through the central route (Petty, et al., 2015). Given this information, an understanding of the audience is integral to helping the communicator decide the route to take. According to the model, for central route messages to cause long term change, there must be high motivation among the target audience to process the information received and an ability to process it cognitively (Kitchen, et al., 2014). Therefore, if the communicator decides to pass the message through the central route, it is essential that they ensure that the audience has the necessary motivation and cognitive processing ability required for the message to achieve a long-term impact. In a low trust world, the communicator needs to determine how the audience will react to the quality and arrangement of the presented arguments. Strong arguments fronted by a communicator can create attitude change in the long term (Kitchen, et al., 2014). Therefore, when a communicator decides to take the central route in a low trust world, it is important that they present strong arguments to achieve long term change in the attitudes of the receivers. On the other hand, a peripheral route can be considered for persuasion by a communicator if the audience members are not interested in the information. This method aims to achieve a change of attitudes through superficial means. Several cues can be employed by the persuader, some of which include authority, liking, contrast, commitment, social proof, and reciprocity (Lee, et al., 2017). Given the different ways through which the professional communicator can deliver a message to the targeted audience, a focus must be put in understanding the key features that define an audience. In a low trust, determining the right technique of passing the message to the audience is imperative for successful persuasion process.
Understanding the audience is also helps the persuader determine the behavioral intention of the receivers. The four factors that determine behavioral intention according to the reasoned action theory include a person's descriptive form, a person’s injunctive form, one’s general evaluation of an action, and one’s perceived behavioral control (O'Keefe, 2016). By understanding the audience, a professional communicator can identify the targets to direct their messages. From the theory, a persuader can seek to understand the intentions of the target audience and the aspects that shape them. With such an understanding, persuaders can modify their persuasive messages accordingly.
Effective Communicators
Professional communicators can be effective in imparting change in attitudes in a low trust world if they are effective communicators. Furthermore, effective communicators should be selected to drive the message of change in low trust environments. Persuasive communicators deliver messages more effectively compared to those that are less persuasive. When the communicator has the ability to make the targeted audience feel good about themselves, they can be said to be effective. For example, resear...