How Audiences Decide

A Cognitive Approach to Business Communication

How Audiences Decide

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How Audiences Decide: A Cognitive Approach to Business Communication is a comprehensive introduction to persuasive communication in the context of business. It summarizes relevant theories and findings from the fields of cognitive science, social cognition, leadership, team cognition, psycholinguistics, and behavioral economics. By illuminating the thought processes of many different audiences, from consumers to Wall Street analysts to CEOs, it helps communicators better understand why audiences make the decisions they make and how to influence them. The book covers a broad range of communication techniques—including those concerning persuasive speaking and writing, interviews and group meetings, content and style, typography and nonverbal behaviors, charts and images, rational arguments and emotional appeals—and examines the empirical evidence supporting each of them.

Table of Contents

Introduction Part 1: Understanding Rational Decision Making 1. Audience Decision-Making Expertise 2. Types of Audience Decisions 3. Cognitive Processes in Audience Decision Making 4. Aids to Audience Decision Making Part 2: Understanding Intuitive Decision Making 5. Heuristics and Biases in Audience Decision Making 6. Person Perception in Audience Decision Making Part 3: Understanding Emotional Decision Making 7. Emotions in Audience Decision Making. Conclusion. References

Author/Editor Biography

Dr. Richard Young is Associate Teaching Professor of Management Communication at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. A regular presenter at the Management Communication Association’s annual conferences, he received his Ph.D. in Rhetoric from Carnegie Mellon in 1989.