Page 106 - The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

Persuasion in the Political Context 99

turned out to be a valid strategy for increasing politicians’ popularity dur-
ing the term of their political leadership or government.
the persuasive message appeal in the context of mental account-
ing. Thaler (1985) used prospect theory to infer a number of principles of
mental accounting stemming from various modes of evaluating gains and
losses. Two of these principles seem extremely important to the persuasive
effect of political messages: the rules of segregate gains and integrate losses.
In realizing their political programs, parties and leaders must face the co-
nundrum of a continuously changing panorama of social and economic
situations in their countries and in the world. These situations evoke posi-
tive and negative affect among voters, depending on the anticipated gains
or losses from these situations. The use of the principles of mental ac-
counting in the management of political, social, and economic events sub-
stantially contributes to enhanced control of the party’s image with regard
to relevant political events.
The principles of mental accounting have already been effectively em-
ployed to control economic behaviors. The rule of segregate gains posits
that we receive greater satisfaction from a few smaller gains than from one
greater gain that is the sum of those smaller gains. For instance, if a cus-
tomer receives another product while buying something, the customer gets
the satisfaction of buying two products. Insurance companies offer separate
discounts for accident-free driving and for renewing the contract. In this
way, the customer feels satisfaction from two separate gains. In contrast, the
rule of integrate losses states that we feel less disappointed with one big loss
than with a series of smaller losses. For instance, buying insurance in a
package that includes various bank products (such as life insurance, mis-
hap insurance, etcetera) for one price provides greater satisfaction to the
customer than buying those products separately. Also, payments made with
credit cards are accumulated and paid once per month because one larger
payment or loss seems smaller than a number of individual payments.
These rules have been successfully used in developing marketing meth-
ods to control not only the market events important for consumers, but
also the political, economic, and social events important for voters.
Gibson (1999) presented several hypotheses resulting from the psycho-
logical principles of managing event presentation time that find practical
application in political activity. Two of these hypotheses clearly arise from
prospect theory:

• integrating events (packaging): Politicians, if they can, try to integrate nega-
tive information using the media, presenting all the negative information at the
same time.