Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality

Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality -Society is no longer the sheep, It has become the shepherd

Alex Kurian Varkey M Postgraduate Dissertation 2021 M.Des. Product Design The Design Village, Noida Mentor: Mudita Pasari, Lena Ragade Gupta

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Student Declaration

This paper is the result of the ‘Master’s Dissertation’ undertaken by Alex Kurian Varkey M, semester 4 student of Postgraduate Program in Design, at The Design Village, Noida, in 2021. No part of this document, titled ‘Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality - Society is no longer the sheep, It has become the shepherd’, has been carried out elsewhere and is an original work produced for this course. The work produced here is the interpretation of the author and is not published elsewhere in the form of books, articles or any other format. All resources which have informed the author are acknowledged at the respective place in text.

Place: Noida

Alex Kurian Varkey M

Date:

Student

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Mentor Declaration

I, the undersigned, approve the following study as creditable work on the above subject carried out and presented in the manner, sufficiently satisfactorily to warrant its acceptance as a prerequisite to the evaluation of the dissertation. The student has satisfactorily worked in tandem with the mentoring provided for the same. It is to be understood, that by this approval, the undersigned does not endorse or approve the statements made, opinions expressed or conclusion drawn therein, but approves the study only for the purpose for which it has been submitted and satisfies them to the requirements laid down in the academic programme.

Name of the Mentor: Signature:

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Acknowledgement

I thank The Design Village, Noida for taking me this far in my education and providing me an opportunity to do this dissertation project. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my mentors Ms Mudita Pasari and Mrs. Lena Ragade Gupta, for being patient with me and guiding me throughout this dissertation.

Thank you for always pushing me to do better.

I would like to give a special thanks to my parents for the never ending support and encouragement they have given me, to help me complete my dissertation, through such troubled times.

I would like to thank my friends for their help in progressing my dissertation and I’d like to thank my senior Mr Karan Pal Singh Virdi for guiding me through this domain of research.

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Abstract In the current age, information is easily available to those who seek it. How knowledge is communicated to the people, depends on the people themselves, their approach to where they wish to acquire it from and what to trust. The knowledge that guides people, that which influences them, persuades them, in making decisions is now essentially governed by the people themselves.

Persuasive design is an area of design practice that focuses on influencing human intentions and behaviour through a product’s or service’s characteristics and through media communication. Designers also tend to use it in any field requiring a target user group’s long term engagement. These persuasive design elements influence people towards a projected goal or personal decisions. Just as these products influence their users, people themselves influence each other as well.

Social groups, through herd mentality, themselves have become a reference for individuals on the choices that they need to make in their daily lives. This dissertation aims to look at why influencing people by developing herd mentality is the most productive persuasive design technique in the 21st century.

This study aims to do so by examining the combination of factors that decide a person’s buying behaviour. To study how much of this is done based on an individual’s personal preference or research done by themselves and how much they are influenced by others. This includes conducting personal interviews or surveys with consumers and also looking into past research and case studies done in this field.

The literature review includes the work done by B. J. Fogg, Robert Cialdini, Edward Bernays, Bibb Latane and others to understand how persuasive design affects its

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users and the reasons for them being persuaded. By doing a comparative study between past research and surveys to understand buying behavior of people during present times, this study has gained insight on how productive it is to persuade people by developing herd mentality. It has also uncovered trends in how herd mentality affects different user groups in society.

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Contents

Student Declaration………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….iii Mentor Declaration…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….v Acknowledgment……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..vii Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….ix

Chapter 1 | Introduction to Persuasive Design and Herd Mentality 1.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………2 1.2 Persuasive Design……………………………………………………………………………………………………….3 1.2.1 Power of Persuasive Design over its Users……………………………………………4 1.2.2 Types of Persuasive Design…………………………………………………………………………6 1.3 Herd Mentality……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..11 1.3.1 Characteristics of a Herd……………………………………………………………………………..12 1.3.2 Why do People Want to Belong in Groups?..............................................13 1.4 Relevance of This Study………………………………………………………………………………………….14

Chapter 2 | Persuasion 2.1 What is Persuasion?.................................................................................................................16 2.1.1 Persuasion vs Influence……………………………………………………………………………….17 2.1.2 Persuasion vs Coercion……………………………………………………………………………….19 2.1.3 Key Takeaways………………………………………………………………………………………………..19 2.2 Theories of Persuasion…………………………………………………………………………………………..20 2.2.1 Fogg’s Behavior Model………………………………………………………………………………20 2.2.2 Theory of Cognitive Dissonance…………………………………………………………….22 2.2.3 Cialdini’s Principles of Persuasion…………………………………………………………23

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2.2.4 Elaboration Likelihood Model………………………………………………………………24 2.2.5 Key Takeaways……………………………………………………………………………………………...25 2.3 Discourse……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..25 2.3.1 Poststructuralism…………………………………………………………………………………………26 2.3.2 Poststructuralist Deconstruction………………………………………………………….27 2.3.3 Postmodernism…………………………………………………………………………………………...28 2.3.4 Key Takeaways…………………………………………………………………………………………..…28 2.4 Discourse and Persuasion……………………………………………………………………………………29

Chapter 3 | Consumer World 3.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...32 3.2 Consumers and Persuasion………………………………………………………………………………...33 3.2.1 Persuasion Knowledge………………………………………………………………………………34 3.2.2 Perception of Visual Ads…………………………………………………………………………...36 3.2.3 Perception of Products……………………………………………………………………………..38 3.3 Consumers and Herd Mentality…………………………………………………………………………39 3.3.1 Social Context…………………………………………………………………………………………………39 3.4 Key Takeaways………………………………………………………………………………………………………….44

Chapter 4 | Data Collection & Analysis 4.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..46 4.2 Methodology……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..46 4.2.1 Primary Research Plan………………………………………………………………………………47 4.2.2 Product Selection……………………………………………………………………………………….48 4.3 Data Collection…………………………………………………………………………………………………………50 4.4 Data Analysis……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..50

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4.4.1 Quantitative Analysis…………………………………………………………………………..……..50 4.4.2 Quantitative Analysis Grouped By Age……………………………………………..54 4.4.3 Qualitative Analysis………………………………………………………………………………..….64

Chapter 5 | Insights & Conclusion 5.1 Discussion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….66 5.2 Implications of the Study……………………………………………………………………………………..70 5.3 Future Possibilities Based on the Study………………………………………………………….71 5.4 Limitations of Current Study………………………………………………………………………………..71 5.5 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………71

References…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..75 Annotated Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…101 Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…109

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Chapter 1

Introduction to Persuasive Design and Herd Mentality

1.1 Introduction In present times, our world has a large number and a wide variety of products or services that people use in their day to day life. These products or services exist in areas that address aspects of lifestyle, environment, health and safety, education, entertainment, hospitality, commerce, science, traditions and culture. Everyone uses such products, no matter where they’re from, who they are, what community they belong to, how they choose to live their life. Designers across disciplines have been designing products or services to meet the requirements of their users. As such, people's lives have become a lot easier and their needs are being met using these products or services. They have become a part of our lives in such a way that our thoughts and actions are being affected as well.

Fig 1.1 Piano Stairs

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An example of such a product or service would be the Piano Stairs, Fig 1.1. At first sight it’s a staircase with the steps made to match like the keys of a piano. Though when a person steps on each of these keys, a note in the piano is played. As a product it functions as a fun path to take when commuting, but this also brings about a change in the person using these stairs. By repeatedly using the stairs, the person develops a physical activity that strengthens their body and eventually using a stair would be thought of more than using an escalator. When others see people having fun using these stairs, more would join the activity.

1.2 Persuasive Design Persuasive design is an area of design practice that focuses on influencing human intentions and behaviour through a product’s or service’s characteristics and through media communication. For this, it uses psychological and social theories that give an understanding of how people think and act to make them use the products or services. This does not include just a long term engagement with a product or service, but also in smaller decision making situations like choosing from which end a person would browse for items in a shopping mart, or choosing the apartment floor in a housing complex. B.J. Fogg, is a social scientist, who has given the most clarity and structure to the field of persuasive design. He has developed the Fogg’s Behaviour Model (FBM) to provide a framework on how behavioural changes can be brought about through this model. “Persuasive design focuses on increasing motivation, increasing ability (simplicity), and triggering behavior” (Fogg, 2009). Although Fogg’s work has been used extensively in creating persuasive technology, the framework applies to other products or services as well. Persuasive technology are technological products that are

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designed to change behavior and attitude of its users through persuasion. All products or services are at some level persuasive. Persuasive design intends to trigger a behaviour in its users, though the behavioural change could also be short term where it may not develop into a habit. As per the context in which the persuasive design is used, how much it persuades the users also changes.

1.2.1 Power of Persuasive Design over its Users Persuasive design would seem like a very advanced design practice that can control the direction of thought of those that use it’s products. By going deep into what makes a person think and act using psychological and social theories, a designer can create products or services that would make it’s users follow a predefined path. Designers can create products that reinforce positive changes in its users.

Fig 1.2 Power - Aware Cord, (Crilly, 2011)

For example, the Power – Aware Cord, Fig 1.2, (Crilly, 2011) from the Interactive Institute, has a cord that lights up whenever the product is in use. The design of

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the product is such that it gives its users a visual indicator of the energy that appliances use. This causes people to reflect on how much power is being used and brings the aspect of power conservation into awareness. Repeated interactions with such products will reinforce the positive changes that are intended by the designer.

The power the designer wields in making a positive impact is huge and as such it comes with its own dangers, see Fig 1.3. For example, smart phones have made life easier for many people. The level of detail in its design is tremendous. By making a product that is easy to use regardless of a person’s age and incorporating a wide variety of utility based functions into it, it has turned into a personalized computer that every individual can carry around in their pockets. The physical product design of its form, placement of buttons, size of screen have all been designed in a way that the action of using the product comes as a natural thing for its users. The system design of the software in it, it’s visual appearance and the level of interaction that is possible with it make it something that people can always depend upon. It was designed to think for us, to take the load off our brains in making daily decisions or choices. Though this product perfectly solves many issues for its users, it also brought about a side effect where the user is far too dependent on it. According to studies by Kim and Flanagan, smartphone overuse can be a sign of smartphone addiction (Davey et al, 2014). Studies by Katz and Akhus show that the age group of 25-34 years was found to have the highest Smartphone usage rate of 62%. 50% of Android Smartphone's and 43% of Apple iPhone users are younger than 34 years of age (Davey et al, 2014). Life without a mobile phone is something that people these days cannot think about.

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Fig 1.3 Pros & Cons of Persuasive Design, (Author, 2021)

1.2.2 Types of Persuasive Design As persuasive design exists in every product or service, a level of classification is required in analysing the characteristics of each design to make it easier. B.J. Fogg in his works had classified persuasive technology into 3 categories, called the functional triad, Fig 1.4.

Fig 1.4 Functional Triad, (Wiafe, 2012)

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The persuasive technologies were classified, by Fogg, based on their functional role of technology used as tools, media and social actors (Wiafe, 2012). As tools, they increase the ability of users to perform a target behavior by breaking down the process into simpler steps. An example would be, how in Google Search, our search history is recorded and each time we search new things the results become more tailored to things we want to view based on our past preferences. Shown in Fig 1.5

Fig 1.5 Google search auto-complete

As media, they are represented as technology that enhances the symbolic or sensory experiences of the information that is conveyed to the users. An example would be the 3D try on feature in lens kart, Fig 1.6. This is a feature that is available on the lens kart website. By using this feature, a user can upload images of their face into the application and then it will show how the user would look, wearing their selected glasses. Through this, the user can visually see how they would look with the glasses they wish to buy.

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Fig 1.6 LensKart 3D

As social actors, technology uses social influence methods to persuade its users.

They do this by giving social cues of support and motivation just as another human would. An example would be, how in language learning apps like Duolingo, shown in Fig 1.7. In this app, the users learn their selected language and test themselves on their understanding, their learning speed and overall performance. The app constantly gives them feedback on improving and progressing as they complete each section of a lesson.

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Fig 1.7 Duolingo Learning Progression

The above mentioned categories were determined in relation to persuasive technology. Harjumaa and Oinas-Kukkonen had given a classification of persuasion according to the approaches taken. They are interpersonal persuasion, computer-mediated persuasion and human-computer persuasion (Wiafe, 2012).

Interpersonal persuasion involves persuasion activities between people that do not use

any

technology.

In

computer-mediated

persuasion,

persuasive

communication between people is done through a technological medium. For human-computer persuasion, the communication exists only between the human and the computer. How this differs from computer-mediated persuasion is that, in computer-mediated persuasion, the computer only acts as a medium of communication between 2 or more people. For example, emails, social media posts etc. Whereas in human-computer persuasion, there is only the human and

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the computer, with the computer taking the role of the persuader. An example would be a fitness app on your phone, it gives you feedback, target and incentive to work towards a goal of being healthy.

All products have a persuasive element, we ourselves have observed products that don't possess any technological aspects having a persuasive nature. In Fogg’s classification, if one were to remove the technological aspect and then look at the functional triad, the classification would then come to apply to other products as well. For example, a Pill Box Organizer, a person can store the medicines they need to have during a set of days in a week, shown in Fig 1.8. It acts as a reminder on what medicine to have on what day and also shows your progress in taking them.

This makes it a tool.

Fig 1.8 Pill box organiser

As a social actor, if we remove technology from the equation, then it goes back to humans persuading other humans. This is interpersonal communication, found

by Harjumaa and Oinas-Kukkonen. As a media, technology enables one to bring

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real world experiences to everyone’s personal space. Some of these real world experiences are persuasive themselves without the aid of technology. An example would be, live cooking. There are restaurants that employ a strategy where one can see into the kitchen or an extension of the kitchen. The customers could see the food being processed and cooked. This takes the customers through a journey where they see the food being prepared and better understand what they ordered, finally building up to the excitement of tasting it. Looking at these relations, it can be summarised that the functional triad can be used to classify non technological products and also people as well.

1.3 Herd Mentality From the previous section on persuasive design, it could be seen that, not just products or services play a role in persuading people but also human to human interactions. These interactions can be verbal or textual or even symbolic. Consider a scenario where a person is going to a restaurant to eat out, they would go out looking for places to eat. Scanning through all the restaurants they pass, they are most likely to choose a place that has many customers seated inside over a place that has maybe 1 or 2 people. In this scenario, just seeing more people in one restaurant influenced the person to come to the understanding that this place would be better over the others.

The more people that are using a particular product or service, it is automatically decided by consumers that it is the right choice, rather than testing it out themselves. Social groups themselves have become reference points for individuals on the choices that they need to make in their daily lives. This is called herd mentality.

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1.3.1 Characteristics of a Herd The social group would be an information centre. The action that the majority of the people take as part of this group is called herd behaviour. Herd mentality or herd behavior is distinguished by a lack of individual decision-making or introspection.

Le Bon (1895) describes the mentality of crowds: An individual immersed for some length of time in a crowd soon finds themselves either in consequence of magnetic influence given out by the crowd or from some other cause of which we are ignorant in a special state, which much resembles the state of fascination in which the hypnotized individual finds themselves in the hands of the hypnotizer. (p.13) A herd does not require a leader, it just requires individuals coming together at the same time to act. Herd mentality can be influenced by social, economic, cultural, racial and political factors. There are multiple herds or groups that exist in our society and these groups often overlap with each other. A herd is not always formed just cause a certain group of people were to make the same decision regarding a topic. When the individuals come together and share their views on said topic is when the bonds of a herd come together. Though the herd does not share all the beliefs and values of every individual in the herd. People are not fully conscious when they form a group, but those who share a common view, beliefs, values or background of some nature tend to find each other and come together to form a group.

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1.3.2 Why do People Want to Belong in Groups?

Human beings have always had the tendency to form groups. Looking at their history, it could be seen that during different eras of civilization they formed groups as means of survival and to advance forward when facing challenges or obstacles.

Uncertainty in decision making leads one to believe that his/her own information is insufficient and thus he/she is likely to discount it (Sun, 2013). The information they have found themselves is not completely ignored, it still plays a part in the decision making along with the information of the group. Just that the importance given to one’s own information would be much less. This supports similar past arguments that people consider their own views and those of others in their decision making, according to Avery and Zemsky, Hey and Monroe (Sun, 2013).

Being in a group is safer, there is always the thought that ‘I am not alone’ which brings about a sense of safety in the individual. When facing new situations or having the need to make decisions on a daily basis, one would look for ways to reduce the load of pressure in having to make those choices. Although people cherish their individuality and would want to make decisions based on their own needs and wants, human beings have evolved in a way that it is instinctual for them to belong to a group. As such they would then end up following the mentality of the group. Although imitating others' decisions can increase the number of people that would adopt a certain product or service, the user does not necessarily gain a great experience-positive or negative when using the product (Sun, 2013). The increase in the number of people adopting a product will increase the overall success of a particular product, however from the user’s point of view the product would not always be the best solution for their needs and wants.

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1.4 Relevance of This Study Herding can cause trends or decisions to amplify well beyond fundamental predictions. Success and failures of business is proportionally affected by this amplification. For example, Sriracha marketed its hot sauce by word of mouth, rather than investing in advertisements and promotional media. It was first marketed to Asian chefs in restaurants and through them their friends and family got to know about it. Like this the word kept spreading, with Sriracha only focusing on the quality of their product. When people use their sauce in their food recipe, the product would get referenced further. From a designer’s perspective, harnessing herd mentality can open new doors to connect people and widen the network of influence. And a herd that persuades and influences other individuals or groups of individuals in making decisions, would further the goal of the success of the product. The applications of persuasive design approaches in the fields of consumer products, healthcare services, commerce, leisure, education and environment, are many.

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Chapter 2

Persuasion

2.1 What is Persuasion?

Recall the last time you’ve been to a supermarket or some other shop. Think about all the things you’ve seen there. All the items have been advertised to you, to make you buy them. People don’t just buy only to have their needs met, nowadays products have also become a symbol to show people’s identity. Barber has said, These are people who define themselves and their friends by what they wear and what music they listen to and what they watch on television (Simons et al, 2001).

What makes people consider buying all these products is the persuasive design approach to selling them. To understand persuasive design better, we first need to understand persuasion. What is persuasion? How are people being persuaded?

Why are people prone to persuasion?

When asked to think of persuasion, one of the first things that come to mind would be sales personnel, leaders in politics, orators, lawyers or just any advertisement.

Very effective things they are, being able to influence the masses and direct their actions. Trying to define what persuasion is, is not easy. According to Guerini et al, persuasion is defined as the means of communication with the intention of changing the mental state of an individual (Wiafe, 2012). Mental state refers to not just behavior and attitudes, but also emotions, desires, perception of pleasure and pain etc. According to Bettinghaus & Cody, it is a conscious attempt by an individual to change the attitude, beliefs or behavior of another individual or group of individuals through the transmission of some message (Perloff, 2010). Stiff and Mongeau had argued that persuasion may include deceptive and coercive 16

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methods, while Wiafe argues that persuasion is a form of communication that is designed to influence others by modifying their beliefs, values, behavior or attitudes without deception or coercion (Wiafe, 2012). O’Keefe says that persuasion is a successful intentional effort at influencing another’s mental state through communication in a circumstance in which the persuade has some measure of freedom (Perloff, 2010). One can see that the works of all the previous researchers conclude that persuasion is an approach to influence an individual or a group of individuals. What each of them differ in their opinions is how persuasion approaches this goal of changing mindsets. Persuasion depending on its effectiveness can persuade the persuadee to change their mindset as per the intention of the persuader. The persuadee is not entirely powerless to the change and retains some measure of freedom. Hence persuasion is not deceptive or coercive in any nature.

2.1.1 Persuasion vs Influence It is to be noted that the above authors have used both influence and persuasion to define persuasion. To define persuasion, one needs to understand how it is different from influence as well. In common speech, persuasion and influence have been used interchangeably. Yet these two terms are indeed different. Both of them do play a role in changing an individual’s beliefs, values or behavior, but the extent to which they do is what differs. Consider this scenario, we all have at some point in our lives have had a salesperson come over to our house to try and sell some products. These products could be kitchen utensils, toys, books etc. Each of them tries to persuade us to buy their products, emphasizing on their benefits and usefulness. Not all of them succeed in this endeavour though, some sell and some

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do not. Sometimes, another salesperson advertising the same product or a different product comes to your house, at a later period of time. How we react to this new person would depend on our experience with the past one. If at the first time we ended up buying something, then we would be more likely to accept or hear out the person. If at the first time we ended up not buying anything, then we would have built up a sort of resistance against such forms of persuasion. What can be concluded from this is that persuasion is something that guarantees the persuadee to change their mental state. Influence on the other hand is given to the persuadee regardless if the persuasion is successful or not. Influence builds up over time, being more accepting of advances of salespeople or building a resistance against them are effects of influence. The below Fig 2.1, shows the relation and difference between influence and persuasion.

Fig 2.1 Persuasion vs Influence, (Author, 2021)

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2.1.2 Persuasion vs Coercion Another thing that people sometimes relate persuasion to is coercion. Coercion involves use of force to make a target audience do something or behave in a certain way. Persuasion is a non-threatening way to convince another individual or a group of individuals. For example, take the scenario of how laptops that are made these days, these laptops on an average have a shelf life of 4 years. After 4 years, some major parts of the laptop - like battery, screen, keyboard - require repair or replacement. When looking at repair costs, most service centres inform the user that a replacement is either a bit expensive or the required part is no longer in production. This forces the user to consider buying a new laptop. This is a form of coercion by the companies, called planned obsolescence. Planned obsolescence is a design approach where companies purposefully design their products to have a limited shelf life, so that the consumers are forced to buy new products to replace the old ones. It should be noted that coercion also influences the people. In the long term, this coercive influence can build up to an attitude change as well. When looking at the previous example of laptops, with enough influence, people will have a change in attitude where they will opt to buy a new laptop instead of even considering repairing their old one.

2.1.3 Key Takeaways Persuasion is a form of communication that is designed to influence and persuade an individual or a group of individuals by changing their beliefs, values, behavior or attitude to that intended by the persuader, without using any forms of deception or coercion.

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2.2 Theories of Persuasion There are many theories of persuasion that explain as to why people are persuaded to do what the persuader intends. This section will look into some of these persuasion theories. They are Fogg’s Behavior Model (FBM), Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, Cialdini’s Principles of Persuasion and Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM).

2.2.1 Fogg’s Behavior Model B. J. Fogg, is a social scientist, who founded the Behavior Design lab and has given the most clarity and structure to the field of persuasive design. His model provides a constructive method by which designers can design behavioral changes in users. Many researchers have used this model as their foundation in researching the effects that persuasive technologies have on people. Fogg’s Behavior Model explains that for a person to perform a target behavior, 3 conditions must be satisfied. First, he or she must be sufficiently motivated. Second, have the ability to perform the behavior. Third, be triggered to perform the behavior (Fogg, 2009).

As the figure 2.2 shows, the FBM has two axes. The vertical axis is for Motivation. A person with high motivation to perform a target behavior will be placed on the top of the axis and someone with low motivation will be placed at the bottom. The horizontal axis is for Ability. A person with low ability to perform a target behavior will be placed on the left side of the axis and someone with high ability will be placed on the right side. Both the axes have no units as they are for conceptual purposes to show the relationship between the two.

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Fig 2.2 Fogg’s Behavior Model Graph, (Fogg, 2009)

For the target behavior to be achieved, all 3 conditions must happen simultaneously else the target behavior is not achieved. From the graph in Fig 2.2 , it can be seen that as the motivation of the individual and the ability to perform the behavior increases, the likelihood to perform the target behavior increases as well. There are different factors that influence these 3 conditions as well. For motivation, what motivates someone could be fear or hope, pleasure or pain, social acceptance or rejection (Fogg, 2009).

Take an example where a user is signing up for a newsletter online. To sign up for the newsletter, the user needs to provide their Email ID, state of residence and fill out a captcha to prove that they are human. There are three cases in this example.

Case 1, suppose the newsletter is for best places to stay, as per season, at vacation destinations. The content of the newsletter would seem appealing enough for people to want to subscribe to it but if the captcha they need to fill is too hard to read or if they are required to do some math, then the users would end up not subscribing to it. In this case the motivation to subscribe for a user is high but the ability required to do so is not. Case 2, suppose the newsletter is about advice given 21

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by experts on what to eat and what not to. The captcha for this would be to type a random numerical code. On the ability scale this is very easy to do. Though for people who want to subscribe to someone telling them what to do and not regarding what they eat, not so much motivation to do something like that. In this case too the user would end up not subscribing. The third case would be the one where the newsletter would have an appealing content and also an easy to fill captcha. This would have the highest chance of success for the intended behaviour to be triggered. The 3 cases shown through the FBM graph are shown in Fig 2.3.

Fig 2.3 Fogg’s Behavior Model Graph - 3 Cases

2.2.2 Theory of Cognitive Dissonance According to Leon Festinger, who proposed this theory, people adjust their attitudes to fit new behaviors in order to reduce or eliminate the mental discomfort that comes from conflicting beliefs, values or attitudes. There is a motivational urge to minimise this discomfort by changing their attitudes, beliefs and behaviors or by justifying or rationalizing them (Wiafe, 2012). Cognitive refers to the mental

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processes that help in processing information and dissonance means a lack of agreement or harmony.

For example, consider a scenario where the owner of a football field decides to start a small fast food restaurant alongside his field. The food at the restaurant is not so great. Customers that come to play at the field would need to eat away their exhaustion. In their exhausted state, they could choose between the inbuilt restaurant the owner has set up versus the other restaurants that could be found quite a bit away from the field. In this scenario, they customers would wind up choosing the food at the field, rationalising that this is an easier and faster way to clear the exhaustion even if the other restaurants might be more worth the money.

2.2.3 Cialdini’s Principles of Persuasion Robert Cialdini, in his book ‘Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion’, has identified six core principles that affect an individual’s decision making. These were found when relating to purchasing and consumer decisions. They are Reciprocation, Commitment & Consistency, Social Proof, Liking, Authority and Scarcity, Fig 2.4 (Cialdini, 2009).

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Fig 2.4 Cialdini’s 6 principles of persuasion

2.2.4 Elaboration Likelihood Model The Elaboration Likelihood Model or ELM, by Petty and Cacioppo, relates to influence processes and their impacts on human perception and behavior. It explains the reason as to why influence may lead to different outcomes across different users in a given context. It argues that there are two main routes that can be used to persuade an individual. These are the central and peripheral routes (Wiafe, 2012). For the first one, the central route, the persuadee needs to examine the information that is given to them. They would analyse the information carefully before making a decision. For the second one, the peripheral route, the decision is made as a result of cues. For the central route, the persuadee must be motivated and must possess the required ability to process the information.

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2.2.5 Key Takeaways Going through each of the theories of persuasion, one can draw similarities and certain specifics between them. The FBM provides a very simple way of how to trigger behavioral responses in an individual through persuasive technology.

Cialdini’s six core principles of persuasion show what all motivates people to behave in a certain way. The six core principles are being used in the FBM as well for increasing the motivation level of an individual. Through the theory of cognitive dissonance, we see how individuals enter a state of behavioral change when faced with uncertainty. And how this brings forth a chance that the individual might be persuaded as per the persuader’s intentions. Utilising instances like these provides the persuader with more opportunities to persuade. The ELM shows how people are likely to respond to these persuasion attempts. Whether they would think through and make rational decisions or be swept along by persuasive cues, to make unconscious choices.

2.3 Discourse Understanding persuasion is important not just from the point of view of developing persuasive designs, but also as to how people communicate and function together, and how society functions. Human beings are both creators and products of their societies in a never-ending cycle (Simons et al, 2001). What one always comes across when trying to learn more about persuasion, they come across the term rhetoric. Rhetoric, in simple terms, is the art of effective persuasion through language – speech and writing. We will go further into rhetoric in this section. Though before that, what one needs to note is that rhetoric is said to be the most effective persuasion technique. So then there are other forms of

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persuasion through communication. When looking at people and communication, instead of people and persuasion, one comes across the term discourse.

Discourse, in everyday language, usually means conversation or discussion.

Though, looking further into it, one finds that it is so much more. It encompasses all forms of communication. Scholars have explained discourse in many ways.

Chilton explains it as “the use of language”. Fillingham says that it is “anything written or said or communicated using signs”. Jager explains it as “the flow of knowledge through time” (Schneider, 2013). Discourse theories are often associated with political communications. It is of great interest to know how the things that people say and the actions they perform impact the society, and how the people in turn are influenced by this society. There are many theories that have come up over the years that show how this discourse cycle between an individual and a group takes place.

One could say that discourse theories are concerned with how people communicate their knowledge through any form of language - be it written, vocal, signs – and how their messages impact the receiver. The receiver being an individual or a social group. This knowledge that is communicated is transferred or distributed with time to the masses. The knowledge that the group holds to be true could change over time, through the ideas of the individuals in the group exchange and the way through which that exchange happens.

2.3.1 Poststructuralism Michel Foucault, a French philosopher and sociologist, researched how knowledge changed or developed among social groups over time across many fields like mental health, law and order. He believed that the people live in a world that is 26

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structured by knowledge and controlled by power. That is, certain individuals or social groups create thoughts and actions on how the world should be and these thoughts and actions become the ideal model that everyone would come to follow and accept to be the norm. Power refers to the relationships and hierarchies that exist in a society, and not something that is used to dominate others. The ones that provide this knowledge model aren't always people but also social structures like educational institutions, prisons, health care institutions etc. Foucault’s work is known to be post structuralist, that is unlike structuralist views where everything can be explained by an all-encompassing analysis, differences in knowledge models exist across different social institutions. This

leads to different

interpretations among the people.

2.3.2 Poststructuralist Deconstruction One of the branches that came out of post structuralism is poststructuralist deconstruction by Jacques Derrida. In it, Derrida explains that the system that is constructed from knowledge and power is not perfect. The meanings that are conveyed through discourse are continuously constructed and reconstructed, that there are no absolutes. A speaker that conveys a message at a certain point in time holds a certain meaning in their mind and this is applied to social groups. This meaning can change over time or develop into something else. When messages are transferred from one person to another, the entire meaning isn’t always transferred. Sometimes the meaning changes through the transfer.

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2.3.3 Postmodernism Jean-Francois Lyotard defined the postmodernist outlook as opposing the grand narratives of modernism. Modernism is characterised by the power of one voice over many. This voice decides who enjoys the benefits of the knowledge. According to Lyotard, modernism is an authoritarian society where the voices of the many are suppressed by those with power. Postmodernism goes against the grand narrative and gives importance to the little narratives of individuals and social groups. It shows that in society power does not belong to those who are authoritative or influential but also to every other person.

2.3.4 Key Takeaways Looking at the above theories, one can conclude that discourse is not just about knowledge that is transferred through time. It is also about how that knowledge is transferred through those who hold a level of power, in transferring that knowledge. One can agree on Foucault’s argument that discourse takes place through not just people in a society, but also through the social institutions that society has constructed. Derrida’s argument that there are no absolutes in the communication through discourse and how meanings and interpretations keep changing, show how with each generation the knowledge that is passed down can keep changing. What is considered to be the norm in this present may not be the same in the future. As the knowledge model of the society changes, so does that of the people in it. Lyotard’s description of postmodernism can describe the 21st century that we currently live in. Where people are very individualistic in expressing themselves and there is a voice to each section of society.

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2.4 Discourse and Persuasion We now visit rhetoric that was mentioned earlier in this chapter, in section 2.3.

Rhetoric as explained before is known as the art of effective persuasion through language – speech and writing. The term rhetoric was coined by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. Plato believed that rhetoric should only be used to pass on knowledge from one person to another and should not be used to persuade someone. His argument was that people are too much like sheep, that they would easily be won over using rhetoric. And that this makes way for the persuader to direct people's thoughts and actions for personal gain. Aristotle, Plato’s student, was of a different opinion. He believed that instead of seeing rhetoric as something that would directly persuade someone to act in a certain way, rhetoric should be used as a way of showing the people what could be the best course of action.

Aristotle described three main forms of rhetoric. They are ethos, pathos and logos (Naja, 2020). Ethos is appeal based on the character of the speaker. Character refers to the reputation, credibility and authority of the speaker. For example, an ethos driven article relies on the reputation of its author. Suppose you are listening to a speech about awareness about animal abuse. You would be paying attention to the speaker’s manner of speaking, their posture and hand gestures, in addition to the content of the topic. These too contribute to the ethos of the speaker. Pathos is appeal that is based on emotions. The speaker appeals to the emotions of the listener. Advertisements are most often pathos driven. Logos are appeals based on logic or reason. Logos driven persuasion is done through presenting logical facts and explanations. Though logically sound statements alone are not always enough to persuade someone. If the source of the information seems untrustworthy, that is it is lacking in ethos, then the target might not be persuaded.

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Although, when looking at rhetoric, one can see how effective it can be in persuading people, there is a character that human beings have that makes them resist persuasion attempts. People don’t want to be told what is right or wrong, what they should or should not do. They have their own values and beliefs already in place, and by using a tactic of persuasion where the persuader tells them that they are in the wrong would prove unsuccessful. People have a tendency to hold onto the truths or findings that they have found themselves. Therefore to persuade them into taking a different stance, rather than telling them they are incorrect, it is better to merely show them that what they originally knew is actually so much more. In other words, the persuader needs to show them that what they believe in is true but also show them the possibility of another side of this truth.

This art of persuasion is called eloquence (Popova, 2015). It is a way of communication in which the receiver may listen to the message without any discomfort and with comfort. This way of communication makes the listeners more interested in the conversation and would be more willing to reflect upon it. Hence the art of persuasion would be a combination of both rhetoric and eloquence.

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Chapter 3

Consumer World

3.1 Introduction When it comes to the persuasion equation, there’s two sides. Persuading others is just one side of this equation. The other is an individual's choice of response to those who are competing for their attention and money. The effect persuasion has on an individual or a group of consumers can go up-to massive scales.

A fitting example of this would be the advertising campaign of the American Tobacco Company. In 1929, a time when it was taboo for women to smoke in public and when smoking was seen as only that which they are entitled to, the American Tobacco Company wished to break this taboo to increase sales. Before the 20 th century, women smoking was seen as an inappropriate act. A woman who was seen smoking was regarded as immoral and of discreditable character during those times, although there were women that wanted to smoke. They tasked Edward Bernays with this endeavour. Bernays was an Austrian-American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda. He was able to develop techniques to manipulate people’s behavior, through the understanding of the social group’s mind. He did this through his beliefs in Sigmund Freud’s theories on psychoanalysis and from this he developed his techniques. Bernays was able to pull off this task by convincing the masses of women during an Annual Easter Parade.

At the time of the parade, he organized a pre-planned event where women of seemingly influential status were seen smoking in public. The women he chose were good looking and at the same time not of model figure. He did this so that the majority of women could relate to these individuals. He arranged his own 32

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photographers to take photographs of this phenomenon as well, to give it to the news agency so that it would spread. Through this one event, a campaign called the “Torches of Freedom” began, when previously cigarettes were equated to a male symbol. Once this campaign began to pick up pace, within a few years, the sales of cigarettes among the female population shot up (JustAdamcurtis, 2016).

Propaganda to influence masses has always been there. There is always a source of knowledge that is being transferred to others and from them to even more.

Research into human psychology has shown that it's not always rational thoughts that influence people, but the irrational thoughts of an individual to follow the group’s mind.

3.2 Consumers and Persuasion In present times, there is an abundance and growth of information technologies.

This has expanded the reach of any product market, reaching more and more people. With so much information being transmitted to every person all around, the marketplace has become a place where each brand is competing for an individual’s attention and money. Herb Simon was the first to identify this phenomenon, which is now called the attention economy (Vivrekar, 2018).

A

person has only a set amount of attention to spare. They would spend it only on something that really mattered to them, everything else would just be ignored or easily forgotten. Products and services are designed such that they would not just attract the consumer’s attention, but also to continue making them engage with the product. They would use persuasion techniques, like Cialdini’s core principles of persuasion and FBM to attract users and influence their attitude and behavior.

Few examples are – Using the principle of reciprocation of increasing a user’s

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retweets or sending birthday wishes on facebook. Promoting pages or increasing followers in social media sites using social proof, the more people that we are aware are doing something, the more likely we are to follow the same path. Using the principle of scarcity to increase the screen time of users. WhatsApp statuses have a time limit after which they disappear. Users will develop a habit to check the statuses of their contacts periodically to avoid missing out on these updates.

3.2.1 Persuasion Knowledge Those who are being attempted to be persuaded are not always completely oblivious to the attempts of the persuader. Most individuals possess a level of awareness that a person is trying to persuade them. The consumer’s beliefs of a marketer's motives and strategies is called persuasion knowledge. A consumer’s persuasion knowledge is developed through their experiences with purchasing and the product consumption. According to many scholars like Friestad and Wright, Campbell, Kirmani, a consumer is able to use the persuasion knowledge to identify an agent that is trying to influence him/her and to try to manage the persuasion episode to achieve their own goals (Campbell et al, 2000). As Friestad points out, persuasion knowledge is not a schema. It is a set of beliefs or intuitive theories about persuasion, which may or may not be accurate. Common beliefs or theories that constitute a consumer’s persuasion knowledge are hidden agendas, acquiring information, changing opinion, buying a product, buying more than needed, according to scholars Schank and Abelson(Campbell et al, 2000). Some scholars like Cody, McLaughlin and Jordan also share that bargaining, threatening, deception and appealing to emotions also constitute persuasion tactics (Campbell et al, 2000).

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Looking at a sales context, a customer would need to take a decision regarding the purchase of a product, from a walk-in store. One of the salespeople present would be attending to this customer. During their course of discussion, the salesperson would be trying to get to know the customer better. Like what all are they looking for in a product, how they wish to use it, the price range etc. Based on this information, the salesperson could then decide to show the individual exactly what they would need or show them something that is much more than what they require. Through the latter way, the salesperson would then be selling something that would increase their sales and also convince the customer that this was what they needed. The customer in return would have their belief changed and would hold this new belief for future scenarios. During the discussion with the salesperson, the customer on the other hand would be trying to figure out the actual intent of the salesperson, using his/her persuasion knowledge. The persuasion knowledge that each individual possesses would be different. Naturally the first variable that would decide how much the customer can learn of the salesperson’s intent would be their own awareness or understanding of persuasive knowledge. To explain the other variables that affect a customer’s decisions, let’s look at different examples.

Consider a scenario where a politician is making a speech, trying to convince potential voters to vote for them. They would be talking about how their opinions of some social matter align with the people of the society and how they would take steps and give promises to solve the issue. The actual case being where the politicians themselves don’t believe in whatever they are talking about. In such cases the speaker would have an ulterior motive that they are hiding beneath the persuasive motive. A study conducted on Brazil’s 2018 presidential election depicts this (Solis-Moreira, 2020). After the election result, a report was given, to the 35

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participants, detailing the positive parts of the president’s policy by an economist.

Another report explaining the background information on the economist’s interest in receiving a government job was also given. The study’s results showed that the participants didn’t care about the economist’s hidden motive of gaining the president’s favour, as long as the economist’s opinion matched their own. And if opinion did not align with that of participant’s they were less likely to trust the report. This aligns with the technique of rhetoric and eloquence which we have gone through in section 2.4, where persuaders frame their wordings in a way that they can relate to the listeners and are sharing their opinions on subject matters.

Coming back to the sales context, a customer who is wishing to buy a product would try to discern if the salesperson is having any ulterior or hidden motive other than their persuasive motive, to better respond to their persuasion attempt.

According to Gilbert, Jones and Pelham, although the customer would be trying to uncover these motives, during a discussion with the salesperson, it would not be easy for them to process this information at the same time they are conversing.

This is determined by their cognitive capacity. It would be much easier for a third person, who would be listening to the discussion between the customer and salesperson, to figure out the ulterior motives of the salesperson. This is because they’re attention is solely focussed on that single discussion and hence they could utilize their cognitive capacity better (Campbell et al, 2000).

3.2.2 Perception of Visual Ads Rhetoric isn’t used in just oral and written discourse. It’s used even in visual ads.

Ads about various products or services are designed in a way that these ads have persuasive elements or persuasive design principles applied to them to make

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them more engaging for the consumers. For example, while a person is watching a program on their television, they see many ads during the breaktime. There are different formats to the ads. Some you’d only see at a frequency of say 2-3 in an hour, some you might see multiple times in the span of just one break and others you might see in parts, like the first part you’d see during the first break and second part perhaps during another day. Each of these ads serve the purpose of advertising their product or service through persuasive principles and also serve as a way of engaging people to the current channel as well. Even something like the ads on television have persuasive and ulterior motives in them.

According to Olson, Finnegan and Hope, visual rhetoric includes many media forms including photographs, illustrations and moving images (Scott et al, 2003).

There is an abundance of these persuasive visuals all around us, both in real and the online space. From a young age to our old age, we come into contact with these visuals. As discussed in the above paragraph, all these visuals are made with the principles of persuasion like reciprocation, scarcity, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking and authority. These principles came about from an analysis of human behavior and attitudes. The advertisements that people see also reflect these human characteristics. According to Martin and Gentry, attractive models who are acting in advertisements, triggers a social comparison between the actual self of the viewer and the presented image (Scott et al, 2003). One could say that this comparison is what leads the viewer to desire what they see in the ads, to take the place of the model. If the model is someone who is credible or influential, or if they are involved in an activity that seems like a rare opportunity, then the viewer's motivation increases through authority and scarcity. This comparison is not so straightforward. According to Richins, these advertisements affect the different segments of the market differently. Some segments will have a 37

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very short term effect, while for others it could be a long term cumulative effect.

Other than the consumer’s self-concept and the visuals viewed, there are also factors like knowledge related to presented visuals, product being advertised and the basis for comparison (Scott et al, 2003).

When a consumer becomes aware of a product that could potentially help them, they would develop a desire for it, and advertisements have a way of triggering that want in them. Though advertisements that portray a product or service as an ideal version of it is not always accepted by all segments of the market. There are still those that want it to be on a much more personalised level. What is shown as ideal doesn’t always match the minority segments or even the majority in cases. It could just be what the marketers want everyone to be. The possibility to personalize an advertisement is not a new phenomenon. Personalized mails that people receive are an example of this. Another example is where instead of just a personalized message, the entire product viewing or selection process is personalized. Like being able to view clothing on custom made models on apparel websites.

3.2.3 Perception of Products Although products themselves are persuasive, they are less evidently persuasive than the advertisements that are promoting them. They could be viewed as instances of rhetoric, but products are less articulate in communicating it (Crilly, 2011). The consumer cannot easily understand the intention of the designer through just seeing the product alone. Though if one were to ponder over this point, it could be inferred that a persuasive attempt that is directed through the product could not be easily detected by the consumer, when compared to

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persuasive visual media or persuasive individuals. The consumer’s would require knowledge about design as well.

3.3 Consumers and Herd Mentality Consumers as individuals and as members of a group react differently to persuasion attempts by others. When looking at social groups, the people in them become both persuaders and persuades, they would influence each other. The members of a group are not exposed to persuasive attempts external to the group, but also at the same time from those within the group as well. Persuading one individual in a group could become convincing to two or more individuals, or maybe even the entire group. And such a task might eventually require more persuaders. In the upcoming sections, we would see how these differing cases or social contexts have an effect on persuading an individual or group of individuals.

3.3.1 Social Context Before coming to social context, one first needs to understand a bit about context and how it affects choices during persuasion. In simple words, context is the circumstances that form the setting for an event. The circumstances that define an event include location, time, weather, and immediate surroundings. According to Huang et al, locations, activities and consumption environments can trigger habits and other automatic processes to impact choice (Thomadsen et al, 2018).

Context does not provide new choices to a person, rather it influences or persuades a person to make a specific choice among the available choices. For example, consider a scenario where a customer is out to buy a toaster. He/she visits the supermarket and finds the kitchen appliance section, with all the toasters on

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display. Each toaster has their price and features displayed on a small card. In this scenario, the customer does a comparison in his/her mind to select the best option.

Now consider the same scenario with a small change, as the customer walks to the appliance section, he/she sees a big board that shows one of the toasters available as a limited edition seasonal offer. When the customer now reaches the toaster section, the customer would now be nudged to look for the toaster that they saw before. In this way the context was formed that affected the customer’s available choice.

According to scholars Ben-Akiva, Durlauf, the social network within which a choice is made can affect decision context (Thamdsen et al, 2018). The individual’s decision would be shaped by the decision of others and the default choices of the group.

The composition of the social group that the individual belongs to also affects their decision making. The social presence that surrounds the individual or group that makes decisions is called social context. Latane’s study goes deep into how social contexts impact decision making for individuals. Latane’s theory of social impact proposes that people are affected by others through two social force fields – multiplicative and divisive (Harkins et al, 1983). The theory states that, social impact increases with the number, status and immediacy of the sources attempting to influence and decreases when the number of targets increase. Multiplicative force field is when the target of influence is a single individual and divisive force field is when the target of influence is a group of individuals. Status refers to the credibility and influence of a person. Immediacy refers to the closeness of relation between the target and their group members. The importance that this theory states can be seen in today’s consumer world.

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We will look at different examples of how persuasion attempts affect consumers as a group. When one persuasive source tries to persuade a target with a strong argument using rhetoric and eloquence it has a high chance to succeed. In section 3.2.1, we saw how a third person who is not in the persuasive discourse is more resistant to the persuader. This applies when a one source is trying to persuade a group of targets. Suppose a salesperson is trying to sell a couple a kitchen appliance. The persuader here is trying to convince two targets. The cognitive processing is shared between the couple with both analysing the product and the salesperson. The persuader would have a harder time persuading more than one target.

Although studies have shown that, to persuade a group of targets the number of persuaders should be increased, if the persuaders seem like they have a single mind and not individualities of their own, then persuasion would not be successful (Social Impact Theory in Social Psychology - IReseachNet, 2016). For example, consider a scenario where a person is considering which movie to watch. They would find many reviews about different movies. Though there are cases where they’d find that many of the reviews seem similar, like each person is just parroting the comments of another and not really having any opinion of their own. In such a case, they would find that even if the number of persuading sources are high in number, the overall effect they have in persuading is minimal. When it seems like each individual in the group gives their own opinion, then chances of persuasion are better, as shown in Fig 3.1.

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Fig 3.1 Group to Group Persuasion, (Author, 2021)

Another thing to note is that increasing the number of persuaders past a certain number will not have no visible difference in effectiveness of persuasion (Social Impact Theory in Social Psychology - IReseachNet, 2016). For example, take a look at the larger and well established brands like Adidas and Nike. Both have so many loyal customers and promoters all over the world. If a report were to come out that Adidas gained another 1000 more customers this year compared to Nike, that doesn’t give any visible difference in persuasive effectiveness, illustrated in Fig 3.2.

Increasing the number of persuading sources is not the only way to increase chances of successful persuasion.

Fig 3.2 Mass Persuasive Groups, (Author, 2021)

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If the persuader is someone who is influential, credible and has a good reputation, then they are that much more persuasive, Fig 3.3. Another factor is how close the persuader is to the persuadee. For example, if the relationship between the persuader and persuadee is that of a father and child respectively, or if they are from the same peer group or perhaps a close relative, the level of influence is higher, Fig 3.4. Immediacy is not just the distance of relationship, but also the physical distance between the targets of a group.

Fig 3.3 Reputed Source to Group Persuasion, (Author, 2021)

Fig 3.4 Individual Source to Group Persuasion, (Author, 2021)

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3.4 Key Takeaways With all the information that is available about and the information that is targeted towards the people, the attention that people can give is spread thin. People’s perception of what’s around them differs with respect to how the information is provided to them. How much they could gather from the product itself, from the ads that market the product, the data that seek to explain the use of the product, the people that seek to promote the product etc. The persuasion that occurs through visual ads and through the product itself rely on principles that combine the fields of science, psychology and art to bring about designs that can nudge or influence people to follow a set path. The people themselves possess a level of resistance to persuasion attempts. They have persuasion knowledge based on their own experiences, which is largely common for most people. As per their cognitive capability, they would seek to understand the motives of the persuader and bring forth an outcome that is favorable to them. The likelihood of success of persuasion attempts between people depends on the persuader and persuadee.

The number of sources and target of persuasion, the strength of the source, the immediacy between source and target.

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Chapter 4

Data Collection & Analysis

4.1 Introduction This chapter will discuss the methodology used to collect and analyse data, from the primary research as per the aim of this dissertation.

4.2 Methodology The aim of this study is to see why influencing people by developing herd mentality is the most productive persuasive design technique in the 21st century. It aims to do so by examining the factors that decide or influence a person’s buying behavior.

Most

purchasing

considerations

like

decisions product

include value,

a

combination

lifestyle),

of

emotional

mental (personal

(rational beliefs,

relationships) and behavioral (usage of products of a particular brand) factors.

Research would be conducted to see how much of these factors are part of a person’s preference or the research done by themselves and how much of it is due to being influenced or persuaded by others.

The research will be carried out by conducting personal interviews with the user group, by means of telephonic or video conversations. A comparative study would be done between the data collected through primary research and that obtained through past research and case studies done in the field. To look at the theoretical understanding of human behavior towards social influence and persuasion techniques.

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4.2.1 Primary Research Plan The user group, for primary research, consists of product consumers of different ages and geographical locations. As the background culture of an individual contributes to their mental, emotional and behavioral factors, this study would be looking at users who were born and brought up in India. This is done so that the study does not become complex by comparing different cultural groups.

The interview questions for the user group seeks to find out basic details of the consumer and study their buying behavior. To gather information like, how well do they know the product?, for what purpose did they want the product?, how does it affect their daily usage?, how did they come to know about the product?, what factors influenced their buying decisions?

The research checks to see if the user group’s decision making instances align with those explored by scholars, doing persuasion studies, in earlier chapters. Such as decision making during moments of cognitive dissonance, when an individual’s personal knowledge and their peer’s don’t match, what do they eventually decide to trust. Or Bernays’s persuasive techniques of having individuals follow the mindset of the masses, where people would just end up following what everyone else does, since it acts as social proof and hence can be the most trusted choice. To see if a user’s purchasing decisions are governed by what they need or what they want, to see if they’re decisions are solely based on what is necessary for them or if they are pulled along to imitate others.

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4.2.2 Product Selection It has been established in earlier chapters that persuasive design exists in all products or services. Though, for the purpose of this study, a product will be selected. This is so that the interviewees would have a tangible product, that they know of, which they can relate the interview questions to. This would make it easier for them to answer. It would also make it easier for one to compare their responses and identify trends or patterns during the analysis stage.

The product selection was done on the basis of how widely the product was being used by people across different age groups, geographies and socio-economic backgrounds. How the product could be used to display or project their individuality. Products that were considered that passed these filters were earphones, headsets, mobile phones, laptops, perfumes, watches, shoes. All these products have many varieties or models in the market, and by different brands.

Each brand caters to a view of how they’re product is better than the other, how it makes lives easier or assists their users in their daily activities and experiences.All these products have different visual themes in which they are made, further appealing to the preference of their users. By this the users are able to express themselves through these products. As these products can be closely associated with their user’s lives, one can use one of these products as a purchasing choice when interviewing people.

Among the products listed above, more factors were looked at, how often were they bought or changed? How many would they end up using in a year? Is it something that a large population uses or just a selected age group or section of society? Is it affordable for the larger population? When looking at affordability, convenience and how it assists people, a product like mobile phone would be

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something that everyone would use. And India’s consumption of mobile phones is indeed high. There are many players in the market, well known and not, that readily contribute to the consumer’s buying demands. Some are Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Apple, 1+, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic, HTC, Blackberry, LG, Philips etc. It is a state where every member of a household owns a mobile phone. Unlike products like perfumes, headphones, watches, a mobile phone has the capability to cater to all the age groups, with every phone being jam packed with so many different functions. The below Fig 4.1 shows the smartphone penetration in India in the for the financial year 2020, with a projection to 2025. In 2020 the smartphone shipments across India was around 149.7 million.

Fig 4.1 Smartphone Penetration in India, (Statista Research Department, 2021)

The below Fig 4.2 shows the usage share for smartphones grouped by age, across India, in the year 2019.

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Fig 4.2 Smartphone Usage by Age, (Statista Research Department, 2021)

4.3 Data Collection The data was collected for a sample size of 25 people. The ages range from around 20 to 65 years of age. The ages of the samples were made to be as spread out as possible, so there are not too many people with the same age. All responses were recorded with consent for analysis and future reference.

4.4 Data Analysis The data analysis was done both quantitatively and qualitatively. The inferences for the below analysis will be discussed in section 5.1.

4.4.1 Quantitative Analysis Based on the answers given by interviewees, patterns in thought process and decision making of users during the process in selecting a phone were observed.

These have been plotted as given below.

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Fig 4.3

From those interviewed, around 68% had taken the help of either their friends or family members at some point in their process to purchase a phone. Among this, the females sought more help compared to the males by around 10%.

Fig 4.4

48% of the interviewees made their choice relying on online reviewers like geeky renjith and NDTV Gadget 360. Of this 70% was by the males.

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Fig 4.5

56% of the interviewees had said that they would choose to wait for their selected phone, if it were not available at the time of purchase. This includes those who would choose to get a phone of the same brand but a different model. The males and female percentage for this is almost the same.

Fig 4.6

Only 40% of the interviewees recall seeing an advertisement related to the phone brand or model they have bought. The rest have not either seen any or cannot recall them. In this only around 20% females have seen these ads.

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Fig 4.7

20% showed that they kept on using the same brand two or more times consecutively. The percentage of females - 60% being more than the males - 40%.

Fig 4.8

64% had their current or immediate previous phone the same brand as that of a close one.

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Fig 4.9

52% had their current phone brand the same as that of a close one.

Fig 4.10

When the interviewees were asked to name a few brands, for 80%, most phones that first came to their mind were those owned by some friend or family circle.

4.4.2 Quantitative Analysis Grouped By Age The above trends were analysed deeper to see for a different pattern. One could find a noticeable difference in how much the trend applies to an individual, based on the age group they belong to. Two groups were identified. Group A is of the age group 20 to 39 years of age. Group B is the age group 40 years of age and above.

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Fig 4.11

Group B is more likely to depend on others to select a phone than Group A. In both groups, females are more likely to be dependent than males.

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Fig 4.12

Around 71% in group A made their choice relying on online reviews while for group B it was around 18%. In group B, only males rely on online reviews.

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Fig 4.13

Only 27% of Group B pay attention to advertisements, Group A with 50% is more likely to notice. In both groups, males are more likely to have seen advertisements.

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Fig 4.14

Around 21% of Group A kept on using the same brand consecutively while for Group B it was around 9%. In Group B,only females kept to using the same brand while in Group A they did so more than the males.

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Fig 4.15

In both groups, more than half have their current or immediate previous phone the same as that of a close one. Group B has a slightly higher percentage by 15% for this. For Group B the male and female are at a 50:50 ratio whereas in Group A, the females are slightly more.

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Fig 4.16

Around 42% of Groups A have their current phone the same as that of a close one, and for Group B it is 63%

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Fig 4.17

Phones that immediately come to mind for both groups are those that mostly belong to their friends or family members.

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Fig 4.18

Around 36% of Group B would wait as long as they can for a selected phone, whereas for Group A it is around 71%.

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Fig 4.19

Around 42% of Group A is more likely to receive suggestions from circle members than Group B. For both groups, the females received more suggestions than the males.

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4.4.3 Qualitative Analysis Observations made in the qualitative analysis are as follows ●

Everyone sought the help of a friend or family member or were partly influenced by them when making purchasing decisions for their phone.

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They were influenced on where they bought it from, the price range, the brand, quality of phone, any available info on features.

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Working professionals like engineers and doctors chose phones that had functions which would help with their work and also last long, they were ready to adjust their budget to meet their needs.

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Most of the people who consult online reviews, for new purchases, believe in it since everyone follows it or because they are experts as per word of mouth.

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One person said that they trusted online reviews only because of having a satisfying product following a past consultation.

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Among the working professionals, everyone except 3 bought their phones online due to convenience and better prices.

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2 out of those 3 bought from the walk in store as they knew the store owner and that trust in them outweighed all the pros and cons.

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The remaining one just never bought any electronics online.

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Reviewers like geeky renjith are liked cause of his extensive and down to earth reviews

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2 people mentioned that during discussion on what phones to buy, they played an active role in trying to convince others to buy phones that matched their views.

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1 person who insisted on buying a phone as per minimum need and not to simply spend a lot of money, still tries to switch to a new phone even when the current phone is still usable.

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Chapter 5

Insights & Conclusion

5.1 Discussion The aim of this study was to look into why influencing people by developing herd mentality is the most productive persuasive design technique in the 21st century.

Through both primary and secondary research methods, one is able to find parallels between the results of the primary research and that of past studies conducted in the field of persuasive design. What stands out most is that a major portion of the people who have bought their phones, did not rely on advertisements of the product. The smartphone market is huge with both wellknown and lesser known brands competing for users. They try to gain the attention of the population with as many ads in many mediums, ranging from television, social media sites, video streaming sites, billboards, posters, news-papers, magazines etc. For all the money that is spent on promotion, to occupy the thoughts of the potential consumers, the study showed that people relied less on ads, with most not even recalling ever seen an ad. Each of these consumers through their journey in the selection process, Fig 5.1, they relied on their social group’s knowledge in choosing the product.

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Fig 5.1 Journey Map of User for Product Selection, (Author, 2021)

As mentioned before in section 4.2, a person’s purchasing decisions include a combination of mental, emotional and behavioral factors. Looking at the data and trends seen in the analysis in section 4.4, one can see how people are being influenced in these 3 factors. Also, how one factor can sometimes play a larger role in influencing the decision making than others. Emotional factor was seen to contribute more to the buying behavior compared to the other two factors, Fig 5.2.

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Fig 5.2 Buying Behavior Factors, (Author, 2021)

According to festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance, discussed in section 2.2.2, changes in belief, behavior and attitude occurred during moments of cognitive dissonance. Yet, from the data collected, it could be seen that these changes not just occured during times of uncertainty but also when the people had the resources and mindset to find the information themselves. People found that the information of the herd is something that is important as a point of reference or even a rule at times when making decisions. Based on the social group they rely on, their level of trust and dependence varies. Those that took the opinion of friends and family members readily accepted the information without the need for cross confirmation.

Those who relied on online reviews when making purchasing decisions were comparing many reviews to see which opinion is most widely accepted by people.

There was the understanding among people that word of mouth views could be

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found online. It is the belief of the people that E-commerce sites show the reviews and product feedback by those who have bought the specific item. Even when searching for information regarding a product online, what people look for is what others have said about it. Is it something that everyone bought? How many have viewed this page or product? People compare across sites to see the opinion of others. This further instills in them the belief that the product is widely known and accepted. What they seek is social proof, one of the principles of persuasion detailed by Cialdini, refer section 2.2.3.

Reviewers that give reviews that seem more down to earth or maybe even amateurish are trusted above those that could seem more technical as people relate to others that are closer to those that they may associate with.

What many have said is that purchasing something through an online portal is convenient and offers them better prices. Even so there were still those who would buy from a walk in store even though there may be less selections, the price may be greater compared to online ones, having to travel to the physical store. Their reasoning was that the person they bought it from was a trusted one who works for or owns the store. The thought that a salesperson would persuade them to make choices that were not needed for them is not there in their minds. Even knowing that the main reason people prefer online shopping portals is because there are no third parties involved influencing their decisions.

From the past research done in this field of persuasive design, what contributes to the hows and whys have always been looked into. From this study conducted, we could see how there is always a point of agreement with past studies. Though there has been an observation that was made in this study that did not come up during the literature review. There has been a difference in the effects of persuasion from 69

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developing herd mentality depending on the age group a person belongs to, refer section 4.4.2. From the analysis, it could be seen that those who are in the age group 40 years and above were less likely to receive suggestions from their friends or family circles. An observation was that some felt that they are not involved or have less chances to be involved in discussions of product suggestions. Even so, they depend a lot on their circle members for purchasing decisions.

5.2 Implications of the Study The implications that are arrived at in this study are based on the inferences drawn from the literature review and research conducted. This study is not just limited to below given implications. ●

As discussed in the first chapter, persuasive design is something that exists in every product or service. The findings in this study could also be applicable to all the other products in the world as well.

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From this study, different trends were observed for how herd mentality affects people in two age groups - 20 to 39 years & 40 years and above.

Further research could reveal more trends across other age groups, which could provide insight on how to use persuasive design for these age groups.

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As information becomes more easily available to people and more spread out among the different social groups, marketing products through herd mentality would seem like a better persuasive design technique.

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Following the herd becomes more than following the majority of people. It could also mean following an ideal or a school of thought.

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If people could be persuaded to discard their own personal knowledge or beliefs to conform to a herd and if this were to be used in marketing

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strategies, then this form of persuasive design would become so persuasive that the people might not always be able to maintain a degree of free will.

5.3 Future Possibilities Based on the Study Based on the findings of this study, a possible future research could be done on developing a form of central repository that could act as an information center that can guide people.

5.4 Limitations of Current Study The limitations of this research study are as follows ●

This study does not knowingly exclude any gender. The genders recorded in the study are what the interviewees have identified themselves as.

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When looking at the factors that persuade people, it does not go into depth of a product’s performance in the role of persuasion.

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The study does not go deep into the different kinds of ads that are there at present times and how their level of effectiveness of persuasion varies on the people.

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This study does not look into the ethics of persuasive design.

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This study has a small sample size that was used for primary research, which is insufficient to draw out the data that could lead to a clear conclusion.

5.5 Conclusion The aim of this study was to look into why influencing people by developing herd mentality is the most productive persuasive design technique in the 21st century.

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It was done with the goal that the insights from this study could be used by designers in developing effective marketing strategies for their designs, to reach the masses. The research was done by doing a comparative study between data collected from people regarding their buying behavior and that obtained from past research and case studies, regarding subjects like persuasion, herd mentality and understanding of human behavior towards social influence and persuasion.

When it comes to persuasive design, it could be seen that it exists in all spheres of life. In all the products and services we use. It constantly influences us, solving our needs and also even giving us new desires. From what we’ve seen of the work done by scholars in this field, people are persuaded by persuasive design because it goes deep into how they think and act, what makes them comfortable, what causes them confusions, what moves them to make a choice. It then nudges them in a direction, to think and act in an intended way. We are persuaded by products, services and people.

The choices that people make are dependent on a combination of mental, emotional and behavioral factors. From this study, one could gather that sometimes the emotional factor plays a much larger role than the other two factors. The relationships people have with others define themselves as well. The views of the social groups, the mentality of the herd plays an important role here.

Often at times, people are persuaded to do things as the majority in the herd would regardless of their own needs and preferences. Though not all people are affected the same way by herd mentality. An insight gained from this study is that, among different age groups the degree of influence of social groups differs.

Comparing the data obtained from both primary and secondary research, one can draw a conclusion that in almost all of the persuasive design techniques that are 72

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employed, in the products or services, in our world, all of them have elements in them that give them the characteristics of a human. Even persuasive technologies that are developed to reach a much wider audience are made to be in the image of a human. For example, the case of duolingo being supportive of its user as they progress, as discussed in section 1.2.2. How reminders or notifications that people receive can be customized so that they are alerted only for things that matter to them most. This is because people are more reciprocating towards the actions of another person. It makes it more life-like. Thinking on this, an inference could be made that above everything, people would be influenced or persuaded by other people, more than any other discoveries they themselves might have made.

Harnessing herd mentality could indeed be used to guide people to make decisions, as the persuader intends to, for better or for worse.

This study can be explored more in future, to look into the effects of the persuasive nature of brand value and advertising on the people.

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Millichronicle. (2020, June 19). The rise of ‘Herd Mentality’ and the loss of reasoning. https://millichronicle.com/2020/06/the-rise-of-herd-mentalityand-the-loss-of-reasoning-v1/ Mma_kimrb_featurephone_report_overview_for_pr_c5.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved July 17, 2021, from https://www.mmaglobal.com/files/documents/mma_kimrb_featurephone_re port_overview_for_pr_c5.pdf Mobile Phones in India | Market Research Report | Euromonitor. (n.d.). Retrieved June 14, 2021, from https://www.euromonitor.com/mobile-phones-inindia/report Murphy, P. (2015). Design Capitalism: Design, Economics and Innovation in the Auto-Industrial Age. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, 1(2), 140–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sheji.2015.11.003 Naja. (2020, May 31). A discourse on rhetoric & UX design. Medium. https://uxdesign.cc/a-discourse-on-rhetoric-ux-design-b047a2b322e1 nlwhite. (2014, August 27). Classical Rhetoric and Eloquence. Upperclass Monroe Scholars Summer Research Projects. http://upperclassmonroe.blogs.wm.edu/2014/08/27/classical-rhetoric-andeloquence/ OpenStax. (2018). Business Ethics over Time. In Business Ethics. OpenStax. https://opentextbc.ca/businessethicsopenstax/chapter/business-ethics-overtime/

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Stangor, D. C. (2014). Understanding Social Groups. In Principles of Social Psychology—1st International Edition. BCcampus. https://opentextbc.ca/socialpsychology/chapter/understanding-socialgroups/ Stanovsek, S. (2018, August 8). The Ethics of Persuasive Design: A Blow to Instrumentalism’s Neutrality? Medium. https://medium.com/@stanovsk/theethics-of-persuasive-design-a-blow-to-instrumentalisms-neutrality80990ba475a4 Sullivan, D. (2018, April 20). How Google autocomplete works in Search. Google. https://blog.google/products/search/how-google-autocomplete-workssearch/ Sun, H. (2013). A Longitudinal Study of Herd Behavior in the Adoption and Continued Use of Technology. MIS Quarterly, 37(4), 1013–1041.

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Image Sources:Fig 1.1 Piano Stairs. (2010, November 14). Design of the World. https://www.designoftheworld.com/piano-stairs/ Fig 1.2 Crilly, N. (2011). Do Users Know What Designers Are Up To? Product Experience and the Inference of Persuasive Intentions. (n.d.). International Journal of Design. Retrieved June 14, 2021, from http://www.ijdesign.org/index.php/IJDesign/article/view/716/362

Fig 1.3 Author Fig 1.4 Wiafe, I. (2012). A Framework for Analysing, Designing and Evaluating Persuasive Technologies. Retrieved June 14, 2021, from https://www.academia.edu/10613331/A_Framework_for_Analysing_Designing_and _Evaluating_Persuasive_Technologies Fig 1.5 Sullivan, D. (2018, April 20). How Google autocomplete works in Search.

Google. https://blog.google/products/search/how-google-autocomplete-workssearch/ Fig 1.6 Author, A. S. (n.d.). Lenskart-Eyeglasses,Sunglasses by Lenskart Solutions Pvt. Ltd. AppAdvice. Retrieved July 25, 2021, from https://appadvice.com/app/lenskart-eyeglasses-sunglasses/1499981708

Fig 1.7Blanco, C. & Pajak, B. (2018, November 20). What’s the best way to learn with Duolingo?. Duolingo Blog. https://blog.duolingo.com/whats-the-best-wayto-learn-with-duolingo/ Fig 1.8 SOWESO 7 days 14 Compartments Pill Organizer Box , Medicine Holder/Container Pill Box Price in India—Buy SOWESO 7 days 14 Compartments

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Pill Organizer Box , Medicine Holder/Container Pill Box online at Flipkart.com. (n.d.). Flipkart.Com. Retrieved July 23, 2021, from https://www.flipkart.com/soweso7-days-14-compartments-pill-organizer-box-medicine-holdercontainer/p/itmfg7zqfmhxh8q5

Fig 2.1 Author Fig 2.2 Fogg, B. (2009). A behavior model for persuasive design. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Persuasive Technology - Persuasive ’09, 1. https://doi.org/10.1145/1541948.1541999 Fig 2.3 Author Fig 2.4 Cialdini, R. B. (2009). Influence: the psychology of persuasion. HarperCollins e-books.

Fig 3.1 to 3.4 Author

Fig 4.1 India: Smartphone penetration rate 2025 | Statista. (n.d.). Retrieved June 14, 2021, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1229799/india-smartphonepenetration-rate/ Fig 4.2 India: Time spent on smartphones by age group 2019. (n.d.-c). Statista.

Retrieved June 14, 2021, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1116572/indiatime-spent-on-smartphones-by-age-group/ Fig 4.3 to 4.19 Author

Fig 5.1 Author Fig 5.2 Author

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Annotated Bibliography 1. Cialdini, R. B. (2009). Influence: the psychology of persuasion. HarperCollins ebooks.

The author, in this book, Dr. Robert Cialdini explains the psychology of why people are persuaded to say yes or follow. He introduces 6 psychological principles that drive people to comply with others and how to use this understanding to either become a skilled persuader or defend oneself from it.

It repeatedly shows the many ways by which each type of persuasion prevails in our society and how we are oblivious to it most of the time. It showed how social proof can be a powerful compass for those who feel unsure or unfamiliar in any situation. To have shortcuts to information or expert opinion.

2. Sim, S. & Loon, B.V. (2009, April 2). Introducing Critical Theory: A Graphic Guide.

Icon books Ltd. In this book, the authors give an overview of how critical theory evolved throughout different time periods by looking at different schools of thought like Marxism, Structuralism, Feminism, etc.

When it comes to critical theory, no school of thought is absolute over another.

There will always be another side to any theory. Looking at how knowledge or information is passed among people through discourse, critical theory gives insight on who holds the power on how knowledge is transmitted during different time periods.

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3. Perloff, R. M. (2010). The dynamics of persuasion: Communication and attitudes in the 21st century (4th ed). Routledge.

In this book, the author, Richard M. Perloff explores the relationship between attitude and behaviour to persuasion. He uses many real life examples to arrive at his findings and also looks at some of the theories of persuasion.

This book has shown how persuasive communication influences changes in attitudes and behaviour. How the mediums of persuasion have evolved and become more complex and subtle. It has provided insights to how persuasion functions in the current century.

4. Popova, M. (2015, May 20). How to Change Minds: Blaise Pascal on the Art of Persuasion.

Brain

Pickings.

https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/05/20/blaise-

pascal-pensees-persuasion/

Maria Popova is a Bulgarian reader and writer, who writes about the search for meaning across literature, science, art, philosophy to name a few. Her work has gained numerous recognition. In this article, the author writes about the views of the French physicist, philosopher, inventor and mathematician Blaise Pascal on the Art of Persuasion.

The surest way to persuade someone to do something or to win over their beliefs, is by not convincing them that they are wrong, but by telling them that they are

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right and giving them another perspective to their own truth. By listening to things that are appealing to the receiver, there is a greater chance the listener will be swayed to the side of the speaker.

5. Popova, M. (2014c, May 13). The Backfire Effect: The Psychology of Why We Have a

Hard

Time

Changing

Our

Minds.

Brain

Pickings.

https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/05/13/backfire-effect-mcraney/ Maria Popova is a Bulgarian reader and writer, who writes about the search for meaning across literature, science, art, philosophy to name a few. Her work has gained numerous recognition. In this article, the author writes about the psychological phenomenon explained by David McRaney on how we have a hard time changing our minds.

When people discover something, they protect those findings with great strength in their mind. Anything that supports that finding or belief further adds to the strength and anything against it is rejected. This act stops people from going beyond the truths that they may know to a

more universal truth in certain

scenarios. The effect works in both in favour of and against the individual.

6. Thomadsen, R., Rooderkerk, R. P., Amir, O., Arora, N., Bollinger, B., Hansen, K., John, L., Liu, W., Sela, A., Singh, V., Sudhir, K., & Wood, W. (2018). How Context Affects Choice. Customer Needs and Solutions, 5(1–2), 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40547-017-0084-9

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This paper looks at how context effects can influence the choices or judgements of individuals in consumerism. It aims to define context and then look at how it affects consumer behaviour and information processing.

This paper shows how context is defined by giving real life consumer market scenarios. It shows the effects each of these factors, that define a context, have on consumer behaviour and decision making.

7. Harkins, S. G., & Petty, R. E. (1983). Social Context Effects in Persuasion: The Effects of Multiple Sources and Multiple Targets. In P. B. Paulus (Ed.), Basic Group Processes (pp. 149–175). Springer New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-55789_7 The authors, in this paper, look into the effects of social context in persuasion of a person or a group of people. It shows what all things contribute to a social context and how the effectiveness of persuasion varies according to the number of sources and number of targets.

This paper introduced the concept of social context and social impact theory Bibb Latané. It shows how people respond to persuasion in different social situations and how the characteristics of these social situations influence their decision making.

8. JustAdamCurtis. (2016, June 20). The Century of the Self - Part 1: “Happiness Machines.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnPmg0R1M04

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The video tells the story of Edward Bernays and how he was able to develop effective techniques for persuading the masses for purposes of consumerism and marketing, using psychoanalysis.

It shows how people with power can control the thoughts and desires of the masses by appealing to their irrational side of decision making. By making use of Freud’s psychoanalytic theories to understand how the unconscious mind of people work, those in power can tap into their desires and change their outlook and behavior. It played a huge role in emphasizing the power of the herd to persuade individuals to change their behavior and attitude.

9. Iseminger, G. (Ed.). (1992). Intention and interpretation. Temple University Press.

This book looks into how the intents and interpretations of literary works by authors can align and misalign. How much of the meaning can be lost in interpretation. How the acceptability and credibility of an author can affect the intention and interpretation of the author.

This book gives an insight of the factors that determine how the audience interprets the intention of the author through text. No matter the language a message is conveyed in, it must conform to the views of the receiver to a certain extent for them to accept. As such, the level of conformity of this message can change with time as the audience's outlook or views are always changing. An interesting point to note is, when we read a literary work by a well-known author, we unconsciously come to expect there to be a deeper or stronger message that is being conveyed through their work. How well we know those who convey the message affects our acceptance of it.

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10. Scott, L. M., & Batra, R. (Eds.). (2003). Persuasive imagery: A consumer response perspective. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

This book shows its readers how consumers perceive and respond to visual advertisements. It does so by looking into the existing research and practical applications of persuasive imagery across different disciplines like communication, psychology, product and marketing.

This book has different studies that show the different perspectives by which consumers respond to visual advertisements. These include textual, imagery, logos and the product itself. It shows the role of psychology, relation between art and science in visuals, marketing strategies and visual properties a product would have in persuading its audience. It gives insights on why some advertisements are more effective than others, how changes and advancements in a product can be successfully communicated to the audience for acceptance. On an overall, it provides one with a consumer perspective to different mediums of persuasion attempts.

11. Campbell, M. C., & Kirmani, A. (2000). Consumers’ Use of Persuasion Knowledge: The Effects of Accessibility and Cognitive Capacity on Perceptions of an Influence Agent. Journal of Consumer Research, 27(1), 69–83. https://doi.org/10.1086/314309 The authors, in this article, look into the conditions that influence a consumer’s understanding of persuasion knowledge when dealing with influencing or persuading agents in real life. It shows how the cognitive capacity of a consumer

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in different contexts can help them be wary or resist to the intentions and ulterior motives of an influencing or persuading agent.

Everyone possesses some level of understanding of persuasion and can recognize persuasion attempts by others. When being at the receiving end of a persuasive attempt by an agent, people cannot fully employ their understanding of persuasion to analyse the agent’s motives and intentions. Though, when people are observing others that are being persuaded, the cognitive capacity of the individual then can more easily analyse the agent, thereby making the persuasion less effective on this person. This paper explains to one, why it is easier to persuade a single person rather than a person in a group. It also provides information of how consumers have a level of resistance to persuasion.

12. Wiafe, I. (2012, September). A Framework for Analysing, Designing and Evaluating Persuasive Technologies. Retrieved June 14, 2021, from https://www.academia.edu/10613331/A_Framework_for_Analysing_Designing_and _Evaluating_Persuasive_Technologies In this paper, the author seeks to develop a framework for analysing, designing and evaluating persuasive technologies. According to the author, even with all the benefits to behavioral and attitude changes brought about by persuasive technologies, there is no systematic process followed during the design phases of the technology.

This paper has contributed to one’s understanding of the different persuasion theories and models that are being used to create persuasive products. Through

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it one was able to understand the real life applications of these theories and models, and how they have paved the way for further explorations and studies.

13. Sun, H. (2013). A Longitudinal Study of Herd Behavior in the Adoption and Continued Use of Technology. MIS Quarterly, 37(4), 1013–1041.

In this paper, the author studies the herd behavior and attitude in the adoption of technology and also its continued use. The paper looks at existing literature on herding behavior and how the behavior of individuals in the herd is affected when adopting and using new or improved technology. It looks at the buying behavior of individuals and what factors contribute to this. The author verifies their findings with primary research surveys.

This paper looks at the thoughts that could go through the mind of an individual as they make purchasing decisions. It shows how much of their decisions are based upon their own information and preferences, and how much of it is influenced by others. It provides one with information on how social groups have an influence on an individual’s decision making when selecting adopting products and also their satisfaction levels post consumption of product.

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Appendix

Questionnaire used for primary research data collection:●

What can you tell me about yourself?

●

Do you use Mobile Phones? Which brand or model is it?

●

Can you name 3 brands that come to your mind right now?

●

Do you get suggestions to switch your phone brand or model? Can you recall the last time anyone asked you to switch? If yes, who was it?

●

Can you recall an advertisement about this brand? Could you describe it to me?

●

What do you use Mobile Phones for? How has your life changed from using them?

●

What made you buy this phone? What convinced you that it was a good decision?

●

Have you always used this brand? Which brand did you use before?

●

Did you have any concerns before buying? What were they?

●

How did you come to know about the phone?

●

Did you consider alternatives?

●

How many websites did you visit/consult? Which ones?

●

Which phone have you seen your friends or family using?

●

How did you feel immediately after purchasing the phone?

●

What factors determine your budget for a phone?

●

Do you buy phones online or other-means? Which others?

●

Which website/shop do you frequent? Why do you prefer this website/shop?

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Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality

●

Could you describe how you feel when you can’t find the phone you want in stock? Do you look for alternate brands at this point? Why?

●

Why do you trust the opinion of your tech reviewers so much?

●

For what clarifications regarding your choice or purchase do you consult these reviewers?

●

What according to you is the reason why this reviewer is being followed by people so much?

●

What type of online reviews do you like the most?

●

Do you think the company’s trustworthiness increases if it gets promoted by the reviewer of Your choice?

●

Do you follow these reviewers on any of the social media platforms?

Interview responses:-

Basic details

Current Phone Phones heard of

Came to know Sources trust Main Recall about of phone brand by usage of Advertise the suggesti reviewer phone ments? phone on ? through?

Tech Savvy or not?

Name

Feeling after Previousl purchase y owned phones Wait for the phone or select an alternate ?

Phones used by friends and family

Alternati Reason ve for phones choosing consider phone ed

110

Follow reviewers on social media?

Bought online or in a walkin store?

Observat ions during interview

Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality

Teacher

Doctor & Engineer

Student

Others

Through internet

Through social media reviewers

Through friends and family

Features worth price, budget phones

Price adjusted for needs

Price adjusted for wants

Has Moto g5

Abraha m

43 yr old engineer Heard of from Apple, Kerala Asus, Male Samsun g Not tech savvy good feeling need based

Housewife

Came to know of phone through friends

Did not Uses for consult banking external s, emails, reviews comm for choice

Circles Previousl uses Budget y had Samsun Phone nokia, g, Asus, features Asus 1+

Has Realme 24 yr old X2 student Akshitha from Heard of kerala Samsun Female g, Nokia, Tata

Came to know through internet research

Uses for social media, comm, googling

111

Cannot Goes recall with any choice of advertise friends ments

did not consider alternati ves

External reviews and cousins opinion

Reserve d about reviews on new brands

Admits that he isn't knowledge able when it comes to phones, so would rather rely purchas on his e online friends for comfort choosing

Willingness to research Cannot by oneself recall and not be any influenced advertise by others ments but still ended up

Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality

Not tech savvy but willing to do research Previousl y had looking Samsun forward g to feeling

Anand

Circles uses needs Oppo, durable Redmi, phone Samsun g, Apple

Has Iphone 6s

came to know through Heard of mkvht, Samsun geeky g, renjith Motorola

cousins suggest ed higher priced phones

can recall advertise ment

did not consider alternati ves

External Uses for reviews comm, only and youtube, suggests work iphone to others

tech savvy

better circles shelf life Previousl use support content y had motorola investm feeling android samsun ent phones g based will stick budget to choice

Anusha

trusts brand by reviewer s

Compari son of reviews

need based

34 yr old IT engineer from Kerala, working in US Male

-

relying on others viewpoints in decision making.

Like believing that higher purchas the price, e online better is the variety, phone. Said trust did plenty of research but could not remember own phone when asked.

Has Samsun 35 yr old g A50 came to Housewi know fe from Heard of through Kerala Oppo, family Female Apple, Mi

did not consider alternati ves

Uses for No comm, external shoppin reviews g

112

Follows tech reviewers a lot and was influenced in the decision making. purchas Also tries e online and but not convinces ecomm others to choose an site Iphone trust

Have only ever used Advertis Samsung ement phones. on Does not magazin consider es switching phones

Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality

Not tech savvy not much Have different only ever feeling used Samsun need g based but still samsun g

25 yr old Graphic designer from Kerala Female Anusha Babu

Has Samsun g A21s Came to know Heard of through Apple, mother Oppo, Redmi

did not consider alternati ves

Uses for social No media, external pinterest reviews , comm

Not tech savvy good feeling same brand if alternati ve

Arpit

Circles camera use quality, Samsun storage g

Previousl y had Samsun g, Nokia

Circles use Samsun g, Oppo, Apple, Redmi

good spec with min cost mother uses it

Has Samsun Through 25 yr old g Galaxy Uses for Amazon student m30s comm, filtering from Social system, Delhi Heard of media, based on Male Asus, Music price Samsun g, Apple

113

did not consider alternati ves

Geeky Renjith Gadget 360

since she is quite used Purchas to samsung e offline and she inspect doesn't phone require any and major interact functional with needs from salesma the phone. n

Not too Cannot interested in which recall phone she any advertise uses. So relies on ment the phones that she has had experience using and meets her Purchas needs. e online Hence easier relies on using mother's phone.

Trusts Recalls brand by very old reviewer ads s

Switched over from an Iphone to android phones, due to issues with durability and cost.

Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality

Reviewer s had large followin g good feeling need based

Previousl Circles y had use iphone 6 Apple

Cost efficienc y, battery life

consider alternati ves with same brand value Amazon reviews

Beena

Binu

Found that switching between android phones is better, as Purchas more e online brands with time required saver brand value could be found. A cost efficient approach.

Has Samsun 43 yr old g Nursery teacher Heard of from Blackber Mysore ry, Female Redmi, Samsun g

Got as a gift from daughte r

Uses for comm, online classes

no external reviewer s

-

Not Tech savvy Previousl y had good Redmi feeling

all circles phones use were samsun given by g, redmi family

requires help from family or friends

-

59 yr old retired teacher from Kerala Female

Has Oppo S9 Pro

Uses for Through comm, advertise Heard of microsof ments Nokia, t office Samsun g, Apple

114

Gets suggesti on from family n frnds Help from cousins friend who worked in

trusts recalls brand by ads reviewer slightly s

Is not in any discussion loop regarding phone discussions.

Gets all phone recommen dations from her daughter.

Trust the opinion of friends.

Even if a friend or acquaintan ce works for a particular brand, trust does not waver.

Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality

samsun g

good feeling need based

26 yr old Spanish teacher from Mumbai Female

Friends were using Oppo

Has Samsun Had g used Samsun Heard of g in the 1+, Apple, past Huawei

Cheryl Satisfact ory Previousl Circles feeling y had use 1+, Huawei Apple need based

24 yr old student Dhanush from Hyderab ad

Alternati ves consider ed samsun g

purchas e offline inspect unit and warranty

Uses for comm, Social media, google apps

Youtube trusts reviews brand by reviewer Experts s in field

Does Not come across much ads

Uses for comm

Gets suggesti ons for android vs ios

Seen advertise ments relating phone

Previousl circles y had use samsun Apple, 1+ g user friendly, storage

Has Iphone 11 Always wanted Heard of Apple Motorola

Depends mostly on online reviews for Emerge phone ncy selection. purchas Purchas Has a belief e e online that no follows compari phone reviewer Budget Alternati son would last s friendly ves easier long and through specs consider no only trusts youtube ed - 1+ persuasi each brand subscrip expectat on by accordingly. tion ion that salesma phone n doesn't last

115

Always wanted an Iphone. Has experience using both

Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality

Male

, 1+, Oppo

and environ ment friendly

Exciting feeling Previousl Circles willing to y had use wait no Samsun Apple matter g how long

Family uses

No alternati ves consider ed

android and apple phones, and still chooses apple phones as they are Purchas much e offline better trusted interface. and warranty

Gets suggesti ons Would have consulte Has d 39 yr old Samsun Had someon teacher g used Uses for e if not from Samsun everythi in a Kerala Heard of g in the ng hurry, Female Redmi, past external 1+ or circles Elizabet h

Trusts brands by reviewer s

Word of mouth reviews are found online Samsun g most reliable

comforta Circles ble uses Previousl feeling Samsun Bought y had g, in a Oppo need Redmi, hurry based Oppo, 1+ Storage, Battery,

116

Alternati ve consider ed Redmi

Phone was Haven't bought in seen any an advertise emergency, hence ments choosing a brand that was previously owned. Else would have consulted friends or family in the Purchas selection e offline process.

Never tried online for electroni cs

Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality

Camera

Maria

38 yr old Housewi fe from Kerala, living in abd Female

Receives suggesti ons when somethi ng new comes out

Has Huawei

Promoti on Uses for Heard of leaflet in everythi Apple, superma ng Lenovo, rket Samsun g

Trusts Depends brand by on reviewer opinion s of sales staff in digital superma rkets Unbiase d reviews

good feeling

Previousl y had Lenovo, can wait Samsun 1-2 g, Nokia months

Circles use Samsun g, Apple, Oppo, Lenovo

worth Did Not buying consider for price any alternati storage ves space

117

Purchas e offline

Although aware that sales staff are skilled to attract customers, still believes without any doubt that they are giving unbiased reviews of each phone

Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality

Got suggesti ons for apple and vivo 21 yr old student from Kerala Male

Has 1+ 5t Through Uses for Heard of brother everythi Apple, who was ng Samsun using it g, Oppo

Nithin

Nivetha

Quora, amazon reviews, flipkart reviews, amateur reviews of people who used the phones

Trust brands by Seen ads reviewer s

Alternati ves Really consider good ed feeling Iphone Circles Budget Previousl by willing to use based on y had father, wait 1-2 Apple, what parent's Samsun months Samsun parents Lenovo g by stick to g allowed friends, brand as no much as chinese possible by friends

not on any social media

27 year old student from Chennai, living in Bahrain Female

trusts brand by reviewer s

Finally a phone that works

gadget 360

Has 1+

Uses for reading, experts photos as per word of mouth

Heard of HTC, Apple, Oppo Previousl y had HTC Non smartph

Circles use Apple, Samsun g,

user friendly, camera quality

118

Alternati ves consider ed Apple,

Purchas e online

Learned about and experience d using the phone through his brother's.

Has seen the ads of phones he wants to purchase and also cross checks with online reviewers.

Seen ad, Depends don't rememb mainly on online er reviews, as they are experts per purchas word of e online mouth. user discount s

Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality

willing to one wait 1-2 nokia months

Redmi, Realme

features Vivo, worth Oppo, price Nokia

Has 1+ 7 52 yr old Doctor Uses for Heard of Through from comm, Apple, son Kerala camera Samsun Male g, LG

Rajesh good feeling need based

Sunisha

Fits the specifica tions no Circles and Previousl alternati use needs y had 1+, ves Samsun Nokia consider g, Apple camera ed quality, durabilit y

Has Samsun 44 yr old g edge 7 knew it Housewi Uses for as the Asks fe from everythi Heard of trending cousins Kerala ng Redmi, model Female Apple, Motorola

Happy feeling

Varkey

Asks son when trusts needed brand by no ads reviewer geeky s renjith

-

Circles No Previousl use alternati trending y had Samsun ves model Sony g, Apple, consider Redmi ed

Has Vivo 63 yr old Friends CA from Heard of or family Kerala Samsun had it Male g, Apple, Redmi

Uses for comm, youtube, amazon prime, browsin

119

Receives suggesti ons rarely

Only buys a phone when needed.

Use a phone for as many years as possible.

Purchas When e online needed, cheaper mostly asks for suggestions from son.

Selects phones that are popular and trending among friends and Purchas family. e online Kind of seen

Seen advertise ment regardin g camera

Rarely receives suggestions regarding phones.

Buys

Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality

g

Not all special feeling need based

Previousl y had Samsun g

capabilit phones that y are owned by friends or family members.

Emerge ncy

Circles use Vivo, knew Apple, people Redmi who used it

Alternati ves consider ed models with features in price range selected by salesma n

Tech burner Tech bar Geeky renjith -watch fairly regularly

Vipul

21 yr old student from Punjab Male

Purchas e online

Is tech savvy and follows a lot of online reviewers.

Has Consider likes Xaomi alternatives Experien content Pro work trusts before ced and In app and brand by selecting a through style, no notificati Heard of personal reviewer phone. family's contradi ons only Samsun use little bit Phone phones cting g, Apple, selected stateme Nokia happened nts, no to be one off used by the pronunci majority of ations family members. not much suggesti ons

120

Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality

Alternati Tech ves savvy consider Circles ed use good Samsun Apple, after feeling g - bit Previousl Huawei, buying more y had Samsun doubts uncertai costly Microsof g, on n to buy Realme t Lumia Realme, compati equivale and one bility nt one Oppo Blackber incase not seen ry not any available friends using

64 yr old Coir business man from Kerala Male

Has Friend Samsun who is g Note + mobile Work phone and Heard of supplier comm Samsun recomm g, Apple, ended it HTC

Roby

Not Tech Savvy

after buying, issues with camera quality

Circles Previousl use y had Apple, Apple, Samsun Will stick HTC g to same gets brand or suggesti model ons to good feeling

121

Friend who is a mobile phone supplier always gives suggesti ons as trusts per need brand by reviewer son in law provides youtube reviews after purchas e is made

No alternati ves consider ed

Purchas e online easier higher chance of required specs

Not so knowledge Not able about focused phones. on ads if Depends on ever the reviews seen of a friend who is a mobile phone supplier.

Depending on this person for the entire selection and purchasing Purchas of the e offline phone. since friend is supplier

Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality

switch to Apple doesn't use apple since interface isn't comforta ble

George

in discussio ns, gives suggesti 50 yr old ons to Marine Has others to Engg Samsun comm, buy from g A31 whatsap phones publicity Product Kerala p, accordin trusts videos compari and Heard of internet g the brand by when son works in Asus, utilities, minimu reviewer browsin websites japanese Redmi, docume m things g merchan Apple(no ntation they t ship t fond of) require Male gadget 360, youtube reviews

Is of the belief that phones should be bought as per minimal need and not buy overpriced phones.

Does suggest this viewpoint to others during discussions.

Circle Although, Not Tech use required `walk in he does Savvy family - utility store choose to samsun function follows knows switch good g, 1+, s reviewer salesma phones feeling huawei battery s for n even when Previousl bit life consider other personall the current can wait y had brand samsun ed 1+ products y phone is in since Asus consciou g like feels he a working existing s products flashligh isn't condition. phone have ts biased will still friends - good beyond be senseles service a limit usable sly life expensiv

122

Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality

e phones

Has 1+ 7 50 yr old Teacher through Heard of classes n from daughte Apple, comm Kerala r Nokia, Female Redmi

suggesti ons by daughte rs

only recalls first phone nokia ad

daughte r recomm ended good quality camera

not alternati ve consider ed

family bought online

Deepa good feeling stick to brand

Bindu

circles Previousl use y had Apple, motorola can't , nokia recall rest

chose Has samsun Samsun g at first 49 yr old g m30s since Teacher they from Hasn't used Kerala heard of other Female other samsun brands g products good feeling only samsun g

Previous phones Samsun g

will only whatsap read up p, phone comm, after online daughte classes r selects phone

no Circles good alternati use features ve Samsun for price consider g ed

123

All suggestions regarding phones come from family members.

Selection is dependant on them as well

Suggestion s mainly tvs and come from newspap family er members.

Try out a brand if they own other products made by the same online brand.

Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality

33 yr old Photogr apher from Delhi Male

Has Iphone 12

plugged into apple ecosyste Heard of m, Samsun seamless g, 1+, transfer Redmi of data

Ashok good feeling

Iphone for past will look 10 years everywh ere

40 yr old Housewi fe from Hyderab ad Female Anna

Relies on online social reviews for trust networki seen in new past brand by ng n airports phones. experien reviewer work Although ce built he had tried trust alternatives, stuck to apple alternati phones online Circles ve follow convenie since he use cost consider was reviewer nce, Samsun concerns ed plugged in insta better g Samsun into an prices g apple ecosystem. youtube channels

Has 1+

social through media Heard of friend and Samsun comm g, 1+

camera Circles quality Samsun use 1+, suggest g only Samsun ed alternate g greatly brand by friend good feeling

Akshay

22 yr old Student studying in Mangalo re Male

website Has 1+ consulta tion insta, Heard of whatsap Samsun no prior p, online g, Apple, experien classes Redmi ce using phone

124

no

-

no alternati ve consider ed

gadget 360 youtube reviews majority said the same

-

only maybe after buying phone online, not ecomm non tampere d products

Depends on suggestions received from friends

Depends mainly on online Instagra reviews, as m they are experts per word of mouth.

Persuasive Design & Herd Mentality

Tech savvy best phone feeling wait for model, price issues

Circles use Family Previousl Samsun y had g Huawei Friends every brand is there

best phone for budget camera, battery charge time, software

125

Alternati ve consider ed Apple second hand, Redmi

online genuinit y