Course Description: Advocacy
Instructor: John Daly

In the course we address the question of how it is that people become more or less persuasive. We review major strands of research on social influence and place that work within applied settings such as business and politics. The course highlights major theories of attitude change, conceptualizations drawn from marketing, practical advice from the "self-help" industry, and empirical studies of persuasion. Topics will include message design, influence strategies at meetings, network, use of narrative in persuasion, theories of attitude change (e.g., balance, dissonance, social judgement, elaboration likelihood), marketing theory and research as it relates to personal skills as influence, heuristics, methods associated with compliance and commitment, and the measurement of attitude change.

Planned readings include historical readings such as Machiavelli's The Prince, popular readings such as Carnegie's How to win friends and influence people, Kurtz's Spin Cycle, and Matthew's Hardball, as well as academic texts such as Cialdini's Influence

Course assignments include two tests and two papers. The first paper is a summary piece on a particular aspect of persuasion, the second is a case study of an individual who is in the process of "selling an idea" in an applied setting. There will be a midterm and a final based upon the readings and the course discussions. Each of the tests will count for 25% of your grade. The review paper will count for 20% of your grade; the case study will account for 25% of your grade. Classroom preparation will count for the remainder.

Because of my schedule class meetings will not always be as scheduled. We will discuss the schedule on a weekly basis.

Assigned reading not in the texts will be available a week before the assigned class period. There will be some additional case material distributed in class.