Question

1.In social Judgement Theory, considering contrast and assimilation, when does an evaluation occur? What is assimilation and when does it occur? What is contrast and when does it occur?

2. What are the two routes in Elaboration Likelyhood Model? Describe each using an example.

3. What is biased elaboration? Provide an example.

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) (1) Social Judgement Theory states that the first stage is the “anchor.” This is their preferred position about a certain issue. For instance, a person can believe that a smartphone is a good and useful device.

The second stage is known as the “alternative” stage. At this stage, a person might see an advertisement for an iPhone and either accept, reject it or be non-committal towards it. At this stage, the evaluation would generally occur. A person might go to an apple shop at this stage and begin to look at the phones and evaluate them. After an evaluation, the person would compare and contrast features with another smartphone. Once they have decided whether they like or dislike the iPhone, the assimilation of judgement has taken place.

The ego-involvement is the third stage of social judgement. For instance, a person would evaluate the kind of social status or perception they would garner if they owned the iPhone. Therefore, the person would evaluate what kind of personal perceptions that accepting the iPhone would involve.

A contrast would occur if there was news about iPhones easily breaking. This would conflict with the interest of the consumer and bring about a contrast in the views that they have built up and held.

The elaboration likelihood model talks about the “message” and the two contrasting routes the message can take in the mind of the consumer. Under the positive central route, the message can bring high motivation in the audience factor, a deep and focused processing approach and a lasting persuasion outcome. Conversely, there is the peripheral route which entails that the message has bought about a low motivation to the audience, a shallow focus in the processing approach and a persuasion outcome that eventually dies out.

For instance, an iPhone user would ignore an Android phone commercial, would not be motivated to purchase and eventually not purchase it with the peripheral route. On the other hand, the central route would get the user excited about a new iPhone commercial, remember the advertisement and eventually purchase it.

The biased elaboration model suggests that there are times when preconceived ideas that one might hold, eventually affect the conclusion that is adhered to. For instance, supporting and purchasing the new iPhone, despite rumours of it breaking easily. This is because the consumer has certain conceptions about the iPhone that have affected their purchasing style and it is despite the rumours of it being a poor model.