Assignment task:
1. Identify the different types and aspects of credibility
2. Explain the link between credibility and peripheral cues
3. Describe the strategies for enhancing credibility
Scenario/Context
You are the property manager of a retirement center for senior citizens. Most of the seniors who live there are between 65-85 years of age. While the residents are not poor, most of them live on fixed incomes and have to watch their money carefully.
Your job is to convince the residents that they should pay $70 each to have a new state-of-the-art smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector installed in their living quarters. In order to get the best price, all the units in the complex must be upgraded at the same time by the same company. Thus, you need to convince all the residents to pay for the upgrade at once, not just a few.
Directions: You are addressing the group in a large meeting room with most of the residents in attendance. 1. How would you go about convincing them to pay for the needed upgrades and 2. what persuasive strategies would you use to enhance your credibility before this group? (e.g., Adapting one's language style to seniors (not calling them "old," or implying they are feeble, senile; Demonstrating one has the residents' interests at heart ("All costs go toward the improvements; the property management company isn't profiting from the upgrades.").