Page 102 - The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

Persuasion in the Political Context 95

interpretative perspective) with the motivational factors that trigger ac-
tions undertaken in accordance with the adopted interpretation frame.

The Importance of the Prospect

Systematic development of effective persuasive strategies is only possible if
they are grounded in reputable research that explains people’s behavior
from the perspective of their interests. The entire range of such interests
can be divided into two possible results of human behavior: what can be
gained and what can be lost. The knowledge of psychological mechanisms
explaining the specific attributes of human evaluation in the context of the
perception of potential gains and losses cannot be overestimated in politi-
cal—especially electoral—behavior. It is the preferences of the voters that
influence the shaping of the social and political reality of the state.
A theory that is particularly instrumental in pinpointing the fundamen-
tal psychological mechanisms of human evaluation is prospect theory, de-
veloped by Kahneman and Tversky (1979). Their theory assumes that our
evaluation of something as being beneficial for us rests on our choice of a
reference point, and the proposals made to us are assessed as juxtaposed
against that reference point as far as the potential gains or losses are con-
cerned. This cognitive procedure has serious consequences because peo-
ple evaluate their gains and losses differently. The fundamental principles
of valuing according to prospect theory show that people experience loss
in a more intense fashion than they experience a comparable gain. In other
words, the negative experience of the loss of $100 will be affectively more
intense than the joy of gaining $100. These principles have a direct bear-
ing on the formulation of persuasive messages based on various reference
frames. Tversky and Kahneman (1986) present highly illustrative exam-
ples of how people create diverse reference frames to handle the same
problem. They created identical scenarios in which the subjects were ex-
pected to make choices between two possible behaviors in each situation.
The same situations were presented in different ways: either in positive
terms, which—in accordance with prospect theory—evokes aversion to
undertaking risks, or in negative terms, which evokes a tendency to un-
dertake risks.
An important element of prospect theory is that it bridges the cognitive
process of evaluating one’s experiences with the motivational aspects of
doing so. The evaluation of the experienced events in the context of gain
or loss leads to opposing behavioral tendencies, which in psychological
terms is defined as approach or avoidance. For the gain perspective, the
subjective distance between $0 and $50 is larger than the gain between