Chapter 2 Quiz: The Psychology of Persuasion
1. In dual-process theory, "System 1" processing is best characterized as:
- A) Slow, deliberate, and conscious
- B) Fast, automatic, and emotionally responsive
- C) Available only to highly educated individuals
- D) Resistant to propaganda because it relies on pattern recognition
2. Which of the following best explains why propaganda is primarily a "System 1 operation"?
- A) Propaganda contains information too complex for System 2 to process
- B) System 1 can be reached through emotional and associative cues before System 2 engages
- C) System 2 is not capable of evaluating political arguments
- D) System 1 is more common in collectivist cultures
3. According to the Elaboration Likelihood Model, attitude change through the peripheral route is characterized by:
- A) Careful evaluation of argument quality and evidence
- B) Responses to surface cues such as speaker attractiveness, tone, and apparent consensus
- C) High levels of audience engagement and motivation
- D) Greater stability and resistance to subsequent counter-persuasion
4. Robert Cialdini's principle of "social proof" refers to:
- A) The tendency to defer to scientific evidence in decision-making
- B) The tendency to look to others' behavior to determine correct action
- C) The psychological need to prove one's social group membership
- D) The effectiveness of peer-reviewed research as a persuasion tool
5. A tobacco company funds a small number of scientists to contest the mainstream scientific consensus on smoking and health, then cites these scientists in advertising. Which Cialdini principle is being exploited?
- A) Reciprocity
- B) Commitment and consistency
- C) Authority
- D) Scarcity
6. "Identity-protective cognition" refers to:
- A) The use of identity markers to protect personal information online
- B) The tendency to evaluate factual claims in terms of whether accepting them would threaten group identity
- C) A propaganda technique that exploits personal identity fears
- D) The psychological mechanism by which people build stable self-concepts
7. Which of the following findings about motivated reasoning is most counterintuitive?
- A) People with strong prior beliefs are more likely to dismiss contradictory evidence
- B) Higher analytical ability does not reliably reduce motivated reasoning about politically charged topics
- C) Emotional investment in a topic increases susceptibility to biased processing
- D) Group membership influences individual judgment
8. The "Daisy Ad" analysis in this chapter identifies the advertisement's primary technique as:
- A) Explicit argument and evidence linking the opponent to nuclear risk
- B) Social proof — showing many Americans feared the opponent
- C) Emotional association between the opponent and a feared outcome, without evidentiary support
- D) Authority appeal — relying on military expert testimony
9. Antonio Damasio's research on patients with emotional processing damage found that these patients:
- A) Made better decisions because they relied purely on analytical reasoning
- B) Were specifically resistant to propaganda because they could not be triggered emotionally
- C) Were actually worse at making decisions, contradicting the idea that emotion impairs judgment
- D) Showed no differences in decision quality from normal subjects
10. When the Action Checklist identifies that you are likely in "peripheral route processing," the recommended response is:
- A) Immediately distrust the message and share a counter-message
- B) Slow down, identify the actual evidence for the claim, and ask who is communicating and why
- C) Avoid the message entirely until you are less emotional
- D) Seek out expert opinion on the topic before forming a view