abstract: Attitudes play a fundamental role when making critical judgments and the extremity of people’s attitudes can be influenced by one’s emotions, beliefs, or past experiences and behaviors. Human attitudes and preferences are susceptible to social influence and attempts to influence or change another person’s attitudes are pervasive in all societies. Given the importance of attitudes and attitude change, the current project investigated linguistic aspects of conversations that lead to attitude change by analyzing a dataset mined from Reddit’s Change My View (Priniski & Horne, 2018). Analysis of the data was done using Natural Language Processing (NLP), specifically information density, to predict attitude change. Top posts from Reddit’s (N = 510,149) were imported and processed in Python and information density measures were computed. The results indicate that comments with higher information density are more likely to be awarded a delta and are perceived to be more persuasive. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2020

More and more companies are making online presence by opening online stores and providing customers with company and products information but the overwhelming amount of information also creates information overload for the customers. Customers feel frustrated when given too many choices while companies face the problem of turning browsers into actual buyers. Online recommender systems have been adopted to facilitate customer product search and provide personalized recommendation in the market place. The study will compare the persuasiveness of different online recommender systems and the factors influencing customer preferences. Review of the literature does show that online recommender systems provide customers with more choices, less effort, and better accuracy. Recommender systems using different technologies have been compared for their accuracy and effectiveness. Studies have also compared online recommender systems with human recommendations 4 and recommendations from expert systems. The focus of the comparison in this study is on the recommender systems using different methods to solicit product preference and develop recommendation message. Different from the technology adoption and acceptance models, the persuasive theory used in the study is a new perspective to look at the end user issues in information systems. This study will also evaluate the impact of product complexity and product involvement on recommendation persuasiveness. The goal of the research is to explore whether there are differences in the persuasiveness of recommendation given by different recommender systems as well as the underlying reasons for the differences. Results of this research may help online store designers and ecommerce participants in selecting online recommender systems so as to improve their products target and advertisement efficiency and effectiveness.

Yes / Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) plays an important part in consumer purchase decision. The way consumers perceive the persuasiveness of eWOM message can affect their attitude, and purchase intention, and hence sales. Thus, the topic of persuasiveness of eWOM communications has received much attention from scholars. The objective of this paper is to provide a brief review of the existing literature related to the effectiveness of eWOM communications and offer an overview of the determinants of eWOM persuasiveness. This paper contributes to the existing eWOM literature by reviewing the existing studies on eWOM communications, identifying gaps in the current research and providing directions for future research.

Research around the implementations of human-like interactions during conversations with embodied conversational agents is currently at the forefront of Human-Computer Interaction as a field of science. In particular, conveying politeness through verbal and nonverbal behaviors is a significant challenge when modeling life-like virtual agents, as it underlies the conventional set of unspoken rules that govern human communication. In order to assess measures of perceived persuasiveness and politeness in human-agent interaction, in this study we compare six different politeness strategies - namely Baseline, Indirect, Asking, Proposing, Commanding and Pointing - to identify which combinations of verbal and nonverbal behaviors best persuade humans in joining a virtual conversational group while immersed in Virtual Reality (VR). 45 people were asked to walk towards the group with a specific scenario in mind, and answered questions on the perceived politeness of the agents inviting them. Results show that direct strategies are more persuasive than indirect ones, and the more imposing ones among them are perceived as more offensive, less friendly and inhibiting the interactant’s freedom of action. Additionally, strategies are less effective when participants feel more immersed in VR. We conclude that those giving the counterpart a higher freedom of action are most effective in conveying politeness, while those involving no behavior at all are least effective. / Forskning kring hur samtalsagenter kan förses med mer mänskliga beteenden under konversationer befinner sig i den vetenskapliga framkanten nar det galler människa-datorinteraktion. Det galler särskilt avseende att förmedla artighet genom verbala och icke-verbala beteenden hos realistiska virtuella agenter eftersom det finns en uppsättning bakomliggande oskrivna regler som styr mänsklig kommunikation. For att kunna utreda den upplevda förmågan att övertyga och att vara artig i människa-agentinteraktion sa har i denna studie sex olika strategier for artighet utvärderats, nämligen: Startläge, Indirekt, Frågande, Föreslående, Befallande och Utpekande. Ambitionen ar att kunna identifiera vilka kombinationer av verbala och icke-verbala beteenden som på basta satt övertygar människor att ansluta till en samtalande grupp i Virtual Reality (VR). 45 personer ombads att gå fram till en grupp med en särskild avsikt och därefter besvara frågor om den uppfattade artigheten nar de virtuella agenterna inviterade dem. Resultaten visar att direkta strategier uppfattas som mer övertygande an indirekta och de framfusiga som mer förolämpande, mindre vanliga och att de begränsar den interagerandes handlingsfrihet. Utöver detta sa ar alla strategier mindre effektiva i direkt förhållande till hur immersiv upplevelsen i VR ar. Vi kan sammanfattningsvis saga att de strategier som ger den interagerande större frihetsgrader ar mer effektiva att förmedla artighet, medan de som ar betydligt mer subtila ar minst effektiva.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is ever increasingly becoming more and more widespread, and is available, for the most part freely to anyone. While AI can be used for both good and bad, the potential for misuse exists. This study focuses on the intersection of AI and cybersecurity, with a focus on AI-generated phishing emails. In this study a mixed-method approach was applied and, an experiment, interviews, and a survey were conducted. Experiments and interviews were conducted with 9 participants with various backgrounds, but novices in phishing. In the experiment, phishing emails were created in three distinct ways: Human-Crafted, Internet-aided, and AI-generated. Emails were evaluated during semi-structured interviews, and each participant reviewed six emails in total, where two of these, were real phishing emails. The results from the interviews indicate that AI-generated phishing emails are as persuasive as those created in the Human-Crafted task. On the contrary, in the survey, participants ranked the AI-generated phishing email as the most persuasive, followed by Human-Crafted. The survey was answered by 100 participants. Familiarity plays a crucial part in both persuasiveness and also willingness to go along with the requests in the phishing emails, this was highlighted during interviews and the survey. Urgency was seen as very negative by both the respondents and interviewees. The results from the study highlight the potential for misuse, specifically with the creation of AI-generated phishing emails, research into protection measures should not be overlooked. Adversaries have the potential to use AI, as it is right now, to their advantage.

Background: With social media being ever present in today's marketing world, research guiding and aiding this phenomenon is of mount importance. With social credibility and source attractiveness being lucrative schemes on citizen influencers persuasiveness towards target followers on Instagram and ultimately the drive of online purchase intentions, a holistic approach is introduced to understand each key determinant of each phenomena. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of citizens influencers’ persuasiveness and its relationship with source credibility and source attractiveness, as well as determining a consumers’ online purchase intention on the social media platform Instagram. Method: The study was written in a quantitative manner, aiding the need for generalizable data within the field. An exploratory research design was used with web-based surveys sent out to the sample selection for completion. Main Findings: Four out of the five hypothesis regarding source credibility and attractiveness towards the persuasiveness of citizen influencers were rejected, indicating interesting results as it contradicts previous literature. Furthermore, online purchase intention hypotheses were found to have more positive alignments towards citizen influencers. Grounds for theoretical and practical implications as well as future research endeavors were found.

The primary purpose of this study is to explore a case of remarkably powerful contemporary rhetoric, namely Robert Parker’s wine writing, which has had an unprecedented impact in the world of prestigious wine for more than two decades. Parker, an American autodidact who gave up his career in law to become a fulltime wine critic, is considered the most influential critic of all time. This background motivates the approach of the current enquiry, which targets the persuasiveness in Parker’s writing. The investigation strives to bring to the fore both explicit and implicit elements of his wine reviews that have the potential to contribute to rhetorical success. The material selected for analysis comprises a corpus of reviews extracted from Parker’s extensive bulk of wine writing. The texts are studied against the backdrop of socio-cultural and institutional frames. Considerable importance is assigned to the fact that the reviews occur within a strictly specialized field of discourse with a highly conventionalized configuration. This hermeneutic enquiry approaches the topic from three analytical perspectives, designed to highlight persuasiveness in representations, argumentation and appraisal. The presentation reports on schematic patterns in Parker’s discourse as well as close interpretation of individual texts. The analysis of representations shows that both visual and verbal representations contribute to the persuasiveness of the text. The argumentative exploration of Parker’s discourse, which is assisted by the analytical tools of pragma-dialectics, demonstrates that the reviews involve rational argumentation on several subordinate levels, given in support of assessments and recommendations. Finally, the perspective of appraisal draws on the analytical resources provided by the Appraisal model to shed light on the way in which the audience is positioned to respond with respect to emotional, associative and perceptual values. The results indicate that the persuasiveness of Parker’s discourse arises as a result of concordance among an intricate array of interrelated factors. The audience is recurrently demonstrated to play a crucial role as co-constructors of the message. The present study also has methodological outcomes, presenting a novel combination of analytical methods to perform contextually situated discourse analysis. In addition, the material is allowed to challenge the theoretical ideas and notions that are addressed.

This diploma work is mainly a monography of a Czech author Pavel Zajicek. The base of this study is the analysis and the interpretation of his lifelong official and samizdat literary work. In the analysis of some of his prerevolutionary books as the main source I used mainly the critiques of the contemporary literary magazines. I also present the life of the author itself, especially in the context of the period he lived in. I will briefly mention two musical bands that are closely related to this personality {--} DG 307 and PPU. In my studies I use my personal e-mail with Pavel Z. and I do not forget to observe all accesible dialogues with this poet. This diploma work is mainly a monography of a Czech author Pavel Zajicek. The base of this study is the analysis and the interpretation of his lifelong official and samizdat literary work. In the analysis of some of his prerevolutionary books as the main source I used mainly the critiques of the contemporary literary magazines. I also present the life of the author itself, especially in the context of the period he lived in. I will briefly mention two musical bands that are closely related to this personality {--} DG 307 and PPU. In my studies I use my personal e-mail with Pavel Z. and I do not forget to observe all accesible dialogues with this poet. This diploma work is mainly a monography of a Czech author Pavel Zajicek. The base of this study is the analysis and the interpretation of his lifelong official and samizdat literary work. In the analysis of some of his prerevolutionary books as the main source I used mainly the critiques of the contemporary literary magazines. I also present the life of the author itself, especially in the context of the period he lived in. I will briefly mention two musical bands that are closely related to this personality {--} DG 307 and PPU. In my studies I use my personal e-mail with Pavel Z. and I do not forget to observe all accesible dialogues with this poet.

The present dissertation verifies the possibility of objects concrete I will be generating stimulus on the visual sense , the dot of I'll be functioning I eat inductors of behavior, without imposition authoritarian. She picks understand the rhetoric Visual for the purpose of use yours basis as the means of examination of elements what sensitize the sense from view, materialize in a space built of the Shopping Iguatemi (Mall) in Maceió - Alagoas. About to as many, breaking of the concept from rhetoric I eat the art of persuade at speech verifies - if the possibility of relating the theories the respect, what originally linked together on the communication oral / writing, with the language visual. Understanding the language like a system of sign what serve about to communication, can you - if observe what the language visual differ - if from oral / writing &, given this, has characteristics proper I eat the tendency the be synoptic & analogical and that is, generally, learned of she forms tacit. From this she forms, I eat the use from the grammatical rules & of another originating in from linguistic as the means of I study, they seemed no deliver account from Rhetoric Visual, she sought - if elucidate I eat the excitements sensorial visual could, according to the fundamental from Neuroscience & from Psychology, be sensed at human being induced - the, without imposition authoritarian, to a determined behavior. I find that - if what it is possible use the fundamental from Rhetoric Visual, as the means of examination from communication visual persuasiveness a space architectonic, where if verifies, in the event of I study, the attendance of signals visual inductors of determined behaviors. / A presente dissertação verifica a possibilidade de objetos concretos gerarem estímulos à percepção visual, a ponto de funcionarem como indutores de comportamento, sem imposição autoritária. Busca compreender a Retórica Visual a fim de utilizar seus fundamentos como instrumento de exame de elementos que sensibilizam o sentido da visão, materializados no espaço construído do Shopping Iguatemi em Maceió, Alagoas. Para tanto, partindo do conceito da retórica como a arte de persuadir pelo discurso verificou-se a possibilidade de relacionar as teorias a este respeito, que são originalmente ligadas à comunicação oral/escrita, com a linguagem visual. Entendendo a linguagem como um sistema de signos que serve para comunicação, pode-se observar que a linguagem visual difere-se da oral/escrita e, assim sendo, possui características próprias como a tendência a ser sinóptica e analógica e que é, geralmente, aprendida de forma tácita. Desta forma, como o emprego das regras gramaticais e de outras oriundas da lingüística como instrumento de estudo, pareciam não dar conta da Retórica Visual, procurou-se elucidar como os estímulos sensoriais visuais poderiam, de acordo com os fundamentos da Neurociência e da Psicologia, ser percebidos pelo ser humano induzindo-o, sem imposição autoritária, a um determinado comportamento. Constatou-se que é possível utilizar os fundamentos da Retórica Visual, como instrumento de exame da comunicação visual persuasiva em um espaço arquitetônico, onde se verificou, no caso em estudo, a presença de sinais visuais indutores de determinados comportamentos.

現代的行銷管道已經不同於以往，不會只透過單一的行銷管道與消費者做溝通；相反的，行銷人員較常使用整合行銷溝通的方式，透過全方位的溝通媒介，向消費者傳遞廣告資訊。除了傳統的溝通媒介以外，更誕生了不同的新興媒體，像是Youtube影片行銷、論壇口碑行銷等等。本研究將鎖定在美妝產業，並研究新興媒體之一的Youtube平台，探討消費者觀看美妝Youtube的動機，以及廠商利用Youtube業配影片對於消費者購買意願的影響究竟為何。本研究盼給予未來品牌商找Youtuber合作影片實務上的建議。 本研究使用質化訪談焦點團體的方式，訪談對象篩選標準為平常會觀看美妝Youtuber且擁有上妝習慣的女性消費者，以四人一組的方式，總共進行一場前測，兩場正式測驗，共訪談12位女性，研究結果歸納如下： 1. 觀看美妝Youtube的動機為獲得產品新知識、使用心得和學習化妝技巧。 2. 教學性的內容行銷業配影片較受觀看者喜愛，並可以減少對於業配影片的排斥感。 3. 教學性的業配影片同時有要加強產品的介紹以免模糊焦點。 4. 觀看者很在乎Youtuber是否具有「誠懇」、「親和力」、「相似性」、「聲音真誠」等特質。 根據研究結果，本研究將針對Youtuber和品牌廠商提供實務建議，同時也提供未來研究參考。 / Marketing channels have evolved over the years. Nowadays, marketers can use a number of channels to communicate with and approach their target consumers. While the word of mouth (WOM) has always been the way to promote a product, new ways of Integrated Marketing Communications, such as the use of Social Media including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, have widened the reach of marketers and product endorsements. Thus, this thesis focuses on one of the new marketing channels - YouTube Marketing, particularly studying Youtube videos in the Beauty Industry. The study aims to find out what motivates a consumer to watch videos made by Beauty YouTubers, and whether video sponsorships influence a consumer’s willingness to purchase the merchandise. This study adopts focus group interviews to collect qualitative data. Individuals who have make-up everyday and frequently watch Beauty Youtube Videos were invited to be the respondents. We arranged four people in a group, and there are one pre-test interview and two official interviews, the amount of interviewees are twelve in total. Results and discussions are summarized as follows: A. The motivation of watching Beauty YouTubers’ videos are getting new product information, reviews and learning makeup skills. B. People prefer the sponsored videos with educational contents as it decreases their boredom toward sponsored videos. C. To avoid blurring the focus, sponsored videos with educational content should enhance the details of product usage and characteristics. D. Those Beauty YouTubers who are considered persuasive by YouTube Viewers have the following characteristics: Honesty, affinity, similarity, and sincere tones and attitudes. The study provided pratical advice, notes, and tips for YouTubers, Beauty Brands, as well as further research suggestions on the new channel of social media marketing.