The Perils Of Eating Junk Food Video

Social Proof/Influence

One of Cialdini’s 6 principles is Social Proof. The effect arises when a social situation occurs but the typical behaviour of the group or of certain people is out of the ordinary. This causes the individual to assume this behaviour is right or acceptable and they can change their behaviour just to appear normal even though they consciously know which the right way to behave is. We have used social proof in our video by suggesting that eating junk food and becoming unhealthy is actually good. By appearing to come from an authoritative figure it increases the social pressure and increases the chance of a change in social behaviour. - Jack Pauley

Rhetoric Devices

In the most elementary cases rhetoric is equivalent to persuasion. To make people contemplate ideas suggested through media and social influence. The most obvious example of this is a rhetoric question, a question where the answer is apparent to everyone before it is asked. These are more of statements formulated as a question where an answer is unnecessary. Rhetorical tropes (metaphor/metonym/synecdoche/irony) all rely on the language they have in common, in the understanding between the signifier and the signified. It is the contrast between what is literal and how the literal has been changed that gives rhetoric tropes the ability to persuade. - Christopher Hewitt

Reverse Psychology

Reverse Psychology is used by parents on a daily basis to get their children to do things they would rather not do. Humans love to break rules young and old and in that respect thats why it can work so effectively. One theory that is strongly linked to reverse psychology is that of 'Dissonance' (Leon Festinger 1957)

'a negative, unpleasant state that occurs whenever a person holds two thoughts that are psychologically inconsistent'.

It is the inconsistence between thoughts that causes the person to think, stop, and consider what's actually correct, this uncertainty makes people uncomfortable a feeling they want to get rid of as quickly as possible by assessing what is actually correct. In terms of the video dissonance is used by claiming that Mcdonalds is a 'well balanced meal', and that salad is only eaten by rabbits, this is the opposite to what we are told on a daily basis, and because of this we hope to make the audience stop and think, people must persuade themselves in order to change their attitude about something and this is just one step taken in the hope of completing this.

A Topic of Authority

The decision to add an authoritative figure to the beginning of our video was based on the idea that the average Joe is more likely to listen to an important message from a higher authority level. This idea plays on the Pathos element of rhetoric and the set-up of introducing the video as a ‘Broadcast Message’ from the Department Of Health is a form of pre-persuasion to make the video seem important and a must-watch. Also, another reason we chose to make the video from the DoH was the credibility of source; referenced from Pratkanis’ 107 social influence tactics. Using a High Status voice of the video should generate views and potential action from the audience. However, authority isn’t always listened to as Police and Armed Forces are seen as authoritative figures; but there are some people that will not work along-side them, or listen to them. This could be a problem with our authority idea. 

Salience and Persuasion

The Perils of Eating Junk Food –

One method commonly used in the art of persuasion is salience to overcome the cognitive miser effect; using shocking imagery and information to ‘cut through the noise’ and ultimately promote the underlying message to the audience. As the human brain is processes information subjectively it is important to stimulate the audiences’ attention to the message being given. Salience is important here, as it tends to increase the amount of processing effort given to the information given.

For the purpose of this video, the switch from the positive associations of junk food to salient imagery cause the viewer to switch from mode 1 to mode 2 thinking, therefore, making them pay attention to the important underlying message; the real perils of eating junk food. 

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