CHAPTER 23
Principles of Persuasive Speaking
CHAPTER CONTENT OUTLINE
I. Persuasive speaking
A. The goal of a persuasive speech is to influence audience members’ attitudes, beliefs,
values, and/or behavior by appealing to their needs, desires, interests, or fears.
II. Persuasive speeches appeal to human psychology.
A. Several factors increase the odds that a speaker’s efforts at persuasion will succeed.
2. Establish your credibility and build common bonds with the audience.
4. Expect to be more successful if your position is only moderately different from that of
the audience.
5. Demonstrate how any change you propose will benefit the audience.
III. Classical persuasive appeals: Ethos, pathos, and logos
A. Aristotle explained that persuasion could be brought about by three persuasive appeals or
proofs: ethos, pathos, and logos.
B. Appeal to reason.
C. Appeal to emotion.
1. Pathos refers to persuasive appeals directed at the audience’s emotions.
2. Vivid imagery, compelling stories, and repetition and parallelism evoke pathos.
2. Speaker credibility strongly influences how receptive the audience will be to your
proposals.
IV. Contemporary persuasive appeals: Needs and motivations
A. Modern social scientists have developed additional strategies for persuading audiences:
1. Targeting audience members’ motivations
3. Appealing to how listeners are likely to mentally process the persuasive message
B. Appeal to what motivates audience members.
1. Winning over audience members requires appealing to their motives, or
C. Appeal to audience members’ needs.
1. Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has long been a basis for motivation-oriented
persuasive speeches. Maslow suggested that each person has a set of needs
D. Encourage mental engagement.
1. The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion (ELM) outlines two routes for
audience members to mentally process a persuasive message.
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E. Demonstrate speaker credibility.
1. Research verifies that vital importance of ethos, or speaker credibility, in gaining
an audience’s trust.
a. Speaker credibility builds in stages:
i. Initial credibility: based on factors such as information provided about the
speaker ahead of the event.
ii. Derived credibility: once into the speech, audience members will assign
F. Consider cultural orientation.
1. The audience’s cultural orientation—its core values, cultural norms, cultural
premises, and emotions—will significantly affect their responses to persuasion.
KEY TERMS
persuasive speech speech whose goal is to influence the attitudes, beliefs, values, and/or behavior
of others
logos Greek rhetorician Aristotle used this term to refer to persuasive appeals to reason and logic
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pathos Greek rhetorician Aristotle used this term for appeals to emotion. Such appeals can get the
audience’s attention and stimulate a desire to act but must be used ethically.
ethos Greek word for “character.” According to the ancient Greek rhetorician Aristotle, audiences
listen to and trust speakers if they exhibit competence (as demonstrated by the speaker’s grasp
of the subject matter) and good moral character.
motive a person’s predisposition to behave in certain ways; persuading audience members
requires paying attention to what motivates them
hierarchy of needs classic model of human action developed by Abraham Maslow and built on
central processing mode of processing a persuasive message that involves thinking critically
about the contents of the message and the strength and quality of the speaker’s arguments
peripheral processing mode of processing a persuasive message that does not consider the
quality of the speaker’s message but is influenced by such noncontent issues as the speaker’s
appearance or reputation, certain slogans or one-liners, and obvious attempts to manipulate
emotions. Peripheral processing of messages occurs when people lack the motivation or the
ability to pay close attention to the issues.
speaker credibility quality that reveals a speaker has a good grasp of the subject, displays sound
reasoning skills, is honest and nonmanipulative, and is genuinely interested in the welfare of
audience members; a modern version of ethos
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CHAPTER STUDY GUIDE
I. SUMMARY QUESTIONS
What are some key factors or principles that, when heeded, will increase the odds that
efforts at persuasion will succeed?
Paying attention to the following principles will increase the odds that your efforts at
persuasion will succeed.
• Use audience analysis to create a message that meets the psychological needs of the
audience.
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• The persuader who seeks only minor changes is more successful than the persuader who
seeks major changes.
How can Abraham Maslow’s five-level hierarchy of needs be used to appeal to an audience’s
needs and interests?
Maslow’s model of needs has long been a basis for motivation-oriented persuasive speeches.
Maslow maintained that each person has a set of basic needs ranging from the essential,
life-sustaining ones to the less critical, self-improvement ones. Needs at the lower, essential levels
must be fulfilled before the higher levels can become important and motivating. The principle
behind the model is that people are motivated to act on the basis of their needs; thus, to best
Chapter 24, p. 500
II. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Which do you think is most important to achieving persuasive outcomes in a speech: logos,
pathos, or ethos? Why?
This question requires students to be persuasive, in that they must argue convincingly for
the superiority of one of the forms of proof over the others. In doing so, students should be
aware of the benefits and strengths of each form. Logos is the form that deals with the
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2. List some needs that are common and salient to people your own age. Where do these needs
fall among the categories on Maslow’s hierarchy?
Assign this question as a short report that requires students to (1) do a serious inventory of
their own needs and (2) discuss how these are common to others in their age group. Students
CONTENT PRESENTATION IDEAS
I. GROUP ACTIVITIES
1. If students bring laptops to class and internet access is possible, have them log in to LaunchPad
Solo for A Pocket Guide to Public Speaking and watch one of the full persuasive
speeches—Hahn, “Becoming a Socially Conscious Consumer,” or Lui, “Preventing
Cyberbullying.” In groups of three to four, have students analyze the speaker’s use of pathos,
ethos, and logos. What emotional appeals does the speaker use to captivate the audience? How
does the speaker demonstrate his authority and credibility to speak on the topic? What sound
reasoning or logical arguments does the speaker base his arguments on? What specific details
did he provide to convince you that he has an intimate connection with the topic? If one appeal
is missing, note how the speaker could integrate it.
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2. In a group of four or five classmates, take turns stating each of your needs that are especially
sensitive to persuasive appeals. Consider television commercials or a recent election campaign
as possible sources of persuasive appeals that have affected you.
This activity is effective if students view some examples of commercials or public service
3. Discuss with classmates the aspects of persuasive messages that draw your attention away
from the message itself, leading you to peripheral processing. On the basis of this discussion,
choose some strategies that you could use to maintain your classmates’ central processing of
a persuasive message.
This activity may be extremely helpful because research suggests that central processing of
messages leads to better recall of the message in the future. Recall that central processing
II. ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES
QUESTIONS
The following questions may be used by instructors to help illustrate important points in the
chapter and to facilitate students’ learning of this material. These questions can be used as:
• Homework questions
1. What is persuasive speaking? Give an everyday example of persuasion.
2. The text identifies five factors that increase the odds that your efforts at persuasion will
succeed. List as many of them as you can.
• Set modest goals and seek minor changes in listeners’ attitudes and behaviors.
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3. Choose a topic for a persuasive speech, and then apply Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, bottom to
top.
4. Identify the three types of claims, and give an example of each.
• Claims of fact
• Claims of value
• Claims of policy
ACTIVITIES
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Purpose: To allow students to become familiar with and understand Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Instructions: Using speech topics from a previous activity or another list of possible persuasive
Practice Debating
Purpose: To provide students with the opportunity to practice basic argumentation.
Instructions: For this activity, students should pick a partner. Each team of two should be given a
note card with two comparable objects, events, or issues. With minimal preparation time, each
student picks one of the two and argues convincingly why it is somehow better than the other. Each
speaker has one minute to present his or her case.
Here are some sample comparisons to use.
rap versus rock ’n’ roll
rural versus city life
dirty versus clean
New Year’s Eve versus your birthday
going to a movie versus streaming a movie at home
cake versus pie
living in the dorms versus living off campus
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Walter, O. M., & Scott, R. L. (1973). Thinking and speaking: A guide to intelligent oral
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SUGGESTED WEBSITES
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