5 is bigger than 2....right?

I have never really though of myself as a gullible or naïve individual. I have trusted that I make rational decisions that are independent of my emotion or other factors and solely rely on the facts of the argument. However, after learning about the two routs to persuasion I learned, that in a way, my previously held notion might not be as true as I would like to think. After honestly thinking about myself I have come to learn that I tend to take the peripheral route to the persuasion (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). That is, when it comes to listening and making judgments or decisions based upon communication and or interactions, I tent to rely on superficial cues (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986).  I do not take the peripheral route with reference to persuasion all of the time, but I especially did when I was younger. I thought that if you sounded like you knew what you were talking about then I should believe you. However, I sadly found out this may not be the case. For example, when I was younger I always listened to my older sister’s friends. I thought, “hey, these girls are older, they are in high school, they have to know what they are talking about.” I was completely WRONG. FALSE. I was persuaded to exchange or give my older sister and her friends my twenty dollars for their five dollars because, as they explained, “a five is bigger than a two.” Despite the notion that I knew twenty was bigger than five, I had to believe my sister and he friends because they were older and knew more than I did. They even held out their hands to reiterate that five was in fact larger than two. I could not dispute facts like that.

My acquiescence did not end with my sister or sadly to admit with me being a young child. I was even persuaded to buy certain items from an infomercial once (I will decline to say at what age), because I was so convinced by the commercial. I sadly, only relied on superficial cues and saw that it worked on television and thought that it would without a doubt work for me as well. Which was not the case. 

After coming to terms with this notion, that I take a peripheral route to persuasion, I have thus started to think more critically about what information convinces me in hopes of soon becoming an individual that takes the central route to persuasion (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). In other words, I hope to become an individual that makes decisions based on facts and the strength of an argument while thinking critically (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). I hope to make decisions based on the fact and not just based on superficial attributes in the future.

(n = 471)

I refuse to get tricked out of my money again like these children were tricked out of their candy. 

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Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). Communication and persuasion: Central and peripheral routes to attitude change. New York: Springer-Verlag