The Amplification Hypothesis

The amp­li­fic­a­tion hypo­thes­is tells us about atti­tude certainty.

You want to con­vince your audi­ence that you are right and the oth­er side is wrong.

You think that by using strong argu­ments, you will be able to sway people’s opin­ions. But it does­n’t work that way.

How can we counter extreme positions?

Here we go:

The Amplification Hypothesis

It’s com­mon to find that coun­ter­ar­gu­ments strengthen exist­ing beliefs instead of weak­en­ing them. 

The harder you attack someone verbally, the more you con­vince them of their belief, not yours.

The phe­nomen­on is known as the amp­li­fic­a­tion hypo­thes­is, where dis­play­ing cer­tainty about an atti­tude when talk­ing with anoth­er per­son increases and hardens that attitude.

“Across exper­i­ments, it is demon­strated that increas­ing atti­tude cer­tainty strengthens atti­tudes (e.g., increases their res­ist­ance to per­sua­sion) when atti­tudes are uni­valent but weak­ens atti­tudes (e.g., decreases their res­ist­ance to per­sua­sion) when atti­tudes are ambi­val­ent. These res­ults are con­sist­ent with the amp­li­fic­a­tion hypo­thes­is.“
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology ¹Clarkson, J. J., Tormala, Z. L., & Rucker, D. D. (2008). A new look at the con­sequences of atti­tude cer­tainty: The amp­li­fic­a­tion hypo­thes­is. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, … Continue read­ing

How does the amp­li­fic­a­tion hypo­thes­is work? 

In a threat­en­ing situ­ation or emer­gency, we resort to the prim­al (fast­est) part of the brain and sur­viv­al instincts (fight, flight and freeze). ²Surviving the Storm: Understanding the Nature of Attacks held at Animal Care Expo, 2011 in Orlando, FL.

Establishing com­mon ground and exhib­it­ing empathy demon­strates a genu­ine under­stand­ing of their per­spect­ive, fos­ter­ing trust and open­ness to your ideas. Conversely, a stra­tegic mis­match of atti­tudes can serve as a power­ful coun­ter­meas­ure if your object­ive is to deflect per­suas­ive attempts.

Persuade

To per­suade, align your atti­tude with the tar­get. Otherwise, you will only act to cre­ate resistance.

Provoke

To put off a per­suader, mis­match their atti­tudes. When they are logic­al, be emo­tion­al, and vice versa. 

Learn more: The Amplification Hypothesis: How To Counter Extreme Positions

Backfire Effect (or “Belief Perseverance” or “Conversion Theory” or “Amplification Hypothesis”)

The back­fire effect (see also belief per­sever­ance, con­ver­sion the­ory, and amp­li­fic­a­tion hypo­thes­is) occurs when indi­vidu­als con­fron­ted with evid­ence that con­tra­dicts their beliefs or opin­ions become even more entrenched in those beliefs. Instead of adjust­ing their views based on new inform­a­tion, they react defens­ively and reject the con­tra­dict­ory evid­ence, often intensi­fy­ing their ori­gin­al stance.

Backfire effect (example): “I presen­ted sol­id data show­ing that the cur­rent mar­ket­ing strategy isn’t work­ing, but the team doubled down, insist­ing it’s the right approach and dis­miss­ing the data as flawed.”

In a busi­ness con­text, the back­fire effect can be highly det­ri­ment­al, pre­vent­ing organ­isa­tions from evolving and adapt­ing to chan­ging cir­cum­stances. By refus­ing to accept val­id feed­back or data that chal­lenges their assump­tions, teams may con­tin­ue down inef­fect­ive paths, wast­ing resources or miss­ing out on oppor­tun­it­ies for improvement.

To coun­ter­act the back­fire effect, busi­ness lead­ers should foster a cul­ture of intel­lec­tu­al humil­ity and open­ness, where feed­back is wel­comed and crit­ic­ally examined rather than rejec­ted outright. 

Encouraging a growth mind­set, where learn­ing and adapt­a­tion are pri­or­it­ised over being “right,” helps cre­ate an envir­on­ment where new ideas can be tested, and decisions are informed by evid­ence and reas­on. By pro­mot­ing open dia­logue and ensur­ing that evid­ence is eval­u­ated object­ively, organ­iz­a­tions can avoid the pit­falls of the back­fire effect and make more ration­al, data-driv­en decisions.

When con­fron­ted with a mir­ror of truth, many will look away to safe­guard the integ­rity of their ima­gined reflections.

Learn more: The Conversion Theory
Learn more: The Amplification Hypothesis

The Power of Attitude Polarisation

The amp­li­fic­a­tion hypo­thes­is (some­times called atti­tude polar­isa­tion) is a well-known psy­cho­lo­gic­al effect. ⁶Related the­or­ies are rein­force­ment the­ory, select­ive expos­ure the­ory, and sub­ject­ive val­id­a­tion.

Attitude polar­iz­a­tion occurs when indi­vidu­als with strong atti­tudes on a par­tic­u­lar issue are con­fron­ted with evid­ence or argu­ments that con­tra­dict their beliefs. Rather than modi­fy­ing their atti­tudes, they become even more entrenched in their beliefs, lead­ing to increased atti­tude cer­tainty. ⁷D. K. Freedheim (Ed.) History of psy­cho­logy. Vol. 1 of I. Weiner (Ed.) Comprehensive Handbook of Psychology. New York: Wiley.

The effect is believed to be due to sev­er­al psy­cho­lo­gic­al pro­cesses, such as con­firm­a­tion bias, which is the tend­ency to seek out and inter­pret inform­a­tion in a way that sup­ports our pre-exist­ing beliefs, and the back­fire effect, which is the tend­ency for people to become more firmly attached to their beliefs when they are chal­lenged. ⁸Confirmation bias. (2023, December 6). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​C​o​n​f​i​r​m​a​t​i​o​n​_​b​ias

On the oth­er hand, dis­play­ing uncer­tainty about an atti­tude can lead to atti­tude change because it under­mines the indi­vidu­al’s con­fid­ence in their beliefs and makes them more open to con­sid­er­ing altern­at­ive perspectives.

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Psychology in Public Relations

• Logical Fallacies and Cognitive Biases
• Cognitive Dissonance
• Survivorship Bias 
• Theory of Mind: A PR Superpower
• The Amplification Hypothesis
• The Online Brain Hypothesis
• The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon: Heard About It Before?
• The Halo Effect
• The Paradox of Prominence
• Parkinson’s Law & The Law of Triviality (Bike Shed Effect)

Group Psychology

• Social Group Sizes (The Social Brain Hypothesis)
• The Pitfalls of Groupthink
• The Engagement Pyramid
• 150 — Dunbar’s Number
• Seriality (Context Matters)
• Diffusion of Innovations
• The Bystander Effect

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