The Amplification Hypothesis: Counter Extreme Arguments

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

The Amplification Hypothesis

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

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

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

Displaying uncer­tainty about an atti­tude, on the oth­er hand, 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

• 58 Logical Fallacies and Cognitive Biases
• Social Group Sizes (The Social Brain Hypothesis)
• The Pitfalls of Groupthink: Decision-Making in Organisations
• Cognitive Dissonance: Mental Harmony Above All Else
• Survivorship Bias — Abraham Wald and the WWII Airplanes
• The Engagement Pyramid (The 90−9−1 Principle)
• 150 — Dunbar’s Number
• Theory of Mind: A Superpower for PR Professionals
• The Amplification Hypothesis: Counter Extreme Arguments
• The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon: Heard About It Before?
• The Halo Effect: Why Attractiveness Matters in PR
• The Paradox of Prominence
• Parkinson’s Law & The Law of Triviality (Bike Shed Effect)
• Diffusion of Innovations

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