Social Judgement Theory of Muzafer Sherif

Social Judgement Theory

 of Muzafer Sherif

I knew you'd fall for that :)

Wow! :') This sounds interesting. Let's read on <3

Social Judgement Theory (SJT) is the perception and evaluation of an idea by comparing it with current attitudes. According to this theory, an individual weighs every new idea, comparing it with the individual's present point of view to determine where it should be placed on the attitude scale in an individual's mind. SJT is the subconscious sorting out of ideas that occurs at the instant of perception.

This theory suggests that upon hearing a message, individuals place the message on an attitude scale. The attitude scale is preset in our minds, and is based on personal judgments. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQLavnyzq9E

        We must remember that having a certain anchor point or preferred stance does not mean we are not willing to accommodate it. From the anchor point, their attitude can then be placed in three areas.

The latitude of acceptance

• The range of ideas that a person finds acceptable. Anything that a person would "let slide".

The latitude of rejection

• The range of ideas that a person sees as unreasonable or objectionable. The ideas which you are against, or you disagree with.

The latitude of non-commitment

• The range of ideas for which you have no opinion on. (neutral) The ideas that you don't care for are in the latitude of non-commitment.

Here's an illustration...

got it? :)

    Ego-Involvement 

There are different factors underneath a person's attitudes. One must look at how ego-involved the person is about the topic. When ego-involved, the issue is really important due to some personal significance, having a personal experience related to or in connection with the topic.

• It refers to how crucial an issue is in our lives, central to our well-being, a preoccupation in our thoughts, defining who we are.

• The more ego-involved one is: the more narrow latitude of acceptance is held and the wider latitude of  rejection is held.

The contrast effect and the assimilation effect.

We must be careful when making a persuasive approach. If our message falls in the latitude of acceptance, it will obviously be a good thing, if it falls into rejection, it may not be such a great thing. The way a person responds may have two (2) different effects.

          The contrast effect (also known as the boomerang effect) happens when we hit the message into the latitude of rejection. Since it may the opposite of where the person’s anchor point is, the message will be perceived as even farther away from the latitude of acceptance than it really is.

The assimilation effect is the opposite, if we make a message fall into the person’s latitude of acceptance then they may perceive it as closer to their anchor point that it really is. Therefore they are easier to persuade.

The same goes for everyday persuasion. The closer the argument is to the belief of one being persuaded, the easier it will be to persuade them. Different persuasion techniques are effective with different people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMHzXNtocEQ

In a persuading situation, SJT says that a person basically hears the argument and involuntarily makes an immediate decision based on how the individual already feels about the topic.

Other influences on the success of persuasion are:

1. Majority misconceptions
2. Past experiences with the situation
3. Ego-Involvement 
4. Group Formation

• With the latitudes of acceptance and rejection being different for everyone, it is questioned as to how precise the reliance on these latitudes is when trying to persuade.

• It is hard to know whether appealing to these latitudes are truly making a majority of the  success in persuasion due to not being able to totally confirm whether the width of the latitudes are due to the individual person or to the topic the persuasion is dealing with.

Prepared by:

Jhalon Niño II M. Prado

AB-Mass Communication 2A

Ateneo de Davao University

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