PERSUASION AND SOCIAL INFLUENCE
Study social influence and persuasion. Learn how to improve your persuasive and social influence skills, lower an audience's resistance to a persuasive message, and be a savvier consumer of persuasive messages and techniques. Explore nonconscious and emotional social influence processes in social media and other settings, especially in the context of influencers, marketing, advertising, and communication campaigns. Create a persuasion campaign, with both online and interpersonal components.
Prerequisites & course information
Requisites: Sophomore standing Course Designation: Core GenEd - Social & Behavioral Science Breadth - Social Science Level - Intermediate L&S Credit - L&S Liberal Arts and Science Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Fall 2026 Learning Outcomes: 1. Develop an understanding of social influence and persuasion in online contexts, such as social media influencers, persuasive AI, and persuasive technologies. Audience: Undergraduate 2. Describe the fundamental assumptions and the causal mechanisms of selected theories of persuasion, social influence, and compliance gaining. Audience: Undergraduate 3. Analyze multiple persuasive messages from the perspective of course theories. Audience: Undergraduate 4. Create persuasive messages utilizing theories from the course. Audience: Undergraduate 5. Create and use compliance-gaining techniques discussed in the course. Audience: Undergraduate 6. Become a more critical and savvy consumer of social influence and persuasive messages. Audience: Undergraduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Develop an understanding of social influence and persuasion in online contexts, such as social media influencers, persuasive AI, and persuasive technologies. Audience: Undergraduate 2. Describe the fundamental assumptions and the causal mechanisms of selected theories of persuasion, social influence, and compliance gaining. Audience: Undergraduate 3. Analyze multiple persuasive messages from the perspective of course theories. Audience: Undergraduate 4. Create persuasive messages utilizing theories from the course. Audience: Undergraduate 5. Create and use compliance-gaining techniques discussed in the course. Audience: Undergraduate 6. Become a more critical and savvy consumer of social influence and persuasive messages. Audience: Undergraduate
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027