ePortfolio Part 3

Persuasion theories and concepts in The Office

I am writing this blog post for the class of COMM 333 on Persuasion. The artifact I have chosen to analyze is Season 5 Episode 13 of the popular TV series “Office.” In this episode, Michael Scott, the manager of a regional office of a fictitious paper company Dunder Mifflin, disguises himself as a potential client to get a competitor firm run by the Prince family to divulge information about its customer base, while his employees split into two groups trying to win a swinging vote on whether the actress Hilary Swank is hot or simply attractive. This episode illustrates such persuasion concepts and theories as credibility, traits and characteristics, self-esteem and persuasion, and the elaboration likelihood model.

Credibility

Gass and Seiter (2016) cite O’Keefe (2002) who defines credibility as “judgments made by a perceiver (e.g. a message recipient) concerning the believability of a communicator.” They go on to say that “credibility exists in the eye of the beholder”. In this episode, Michael Scott manages to establish his credibility with the Prince family, getting them to divulge important information about their business. Although Michael’s intentions are totally deceitful, the Prince family chooses to believe this perfect stranger.

Back in the office, Michael’s employees are having an argument on whether Hilary Swank is hot or just attractive. They split into two groups to vote, but each group is missing one decisive vote. They, then, have each group member present their views on the matter in an attempt to win over a non-voting employee. The problem is, they know each other only too well to consider themselves credible.

It appears that credibility exists in a particular context: since the Prince family do not know Michael, they have no reason not to believe him; the Dunder Mifflin employees know each other and, therefore, do not believe each other even though they may have reasonable arguments. Indeed, “credibility exists in the eye of the beholder.”

Traits & Characteristics

Credibility of the Office characters is influenced by the specific traits and characteristics of their perceivers, such as age and gender.

Age.

According to Gass and Seiter (2016), “a newer generation of research supports the life-stages hypothesis… which suggests that there is a curvilinear relationship between age and persuadability.” According to this hypothesis, elderly people and younger children are more persuadable than middle-aged people. This thesis finds support in this episode where Michael successfully uses his persuasive tactics on the elderly head of the Prince family and his wife, and on their young granddaughter. At the same time the middle-aged people back in the office are having trouble trying to persuade each other.

Gender.

Doctors have authority over their patients because the patient’s health and life depends on them. Similarly, people on whom we rely for our wellbeing have authority over us. Michael as a client has authority over the Prince family. Michael gains their compliance in accordance with the male doctor theory. He uses a positive persuasive strategy to get the Prince family to believe him, and a negative persuasive strategy to ultimately persuade the business owner to give Michael the list of his top clients which is more than Michael could expect.

The female gender factor plays out in an unexpected way in this episode. According to Gass and Seiter (2016), women are more persuadable by men than otherwise. Also, the course material treats that women are more persuadable in face-to-face settings. However, the women of Dunder Mifflin demonstrate resilience against men’s persuasive tactics. One of the female characters encourages other women of the office not to let “the Kevins of the world decide who is hot, or decide anything at al.” Opposite to theory, women refuse to be persuaded by men.

Self-esteem and Persuasion.

The Prince family owns their business since 1968. They are friendly and well-wishing people who are proud of their accomplishments. At the same time, their self-esteem is not inflated. Gass and Seiter (2016) hold that “people with moderately high self-esteem are easier to persuade than people with either high or low self-esteem.” Indeed, self-esteem is one of the factors that makes the Prince family easily persuadable and, therefore, determines the success of Michael’s less than honorable mission of persuasion. On the other hand, people back in the office hold their colleagues in contempt and feel insecure at the same time. They fall under the extreme ends of the continuum and, therefore, have a hard time persuading each other.

The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion

This model explains why the Prince family chooses to believe Michael, while Dunder Mifflin employees do not trust each other. Depending on their motivations, people choose either central processing or peripheral processing route to decipher persuasive messages. The persuasion of the Prince family is taking place via the peripheral route. According to Gass and Seite (2016), “the peripheral route, or peripheral processing … involves focusing on cues that aren’t directly related to the substance of a message.”

The Prince family focuses on Michael’s “legend” and his deceptively friendly demeanor. Although the questions he asks them clearly indicate his hostile intentions, the victims’ involvement in the issue gives them the motivation to comply. On the other hand, the Dunder Mifflin employees engage in the central processing of persuasive messages conveyed to them by their colleagues expressing their views of Hilary Swank’s hotness. Therefore, they are able to see the deceitful nature of these messages.

From this assignment I learned several persuasion concepts and theories, such as credibility, traits and characteristics, self-esteem and persuasion, and the elaboration likelihood model. These theories help understand and analyze persuasive messages we receive at workplace, through media and advertising. By understanding these theories and concepts, we can choose to use the central processing route to decipher persuasive messages rather than the peripheral one. This will help solve problems stemming from misinterpreting persuasive messages and falling for their unsubstantial elements rather than substance.

Work Cited

Gass, R; Seiter, S. (2016). Persuasion: Social Influence and Compliance Gaining. New York: Routledge.