The Cognitive-discursive models and mechanisms of persuasion

Persuasion, in general, is a process in which an agent by presenting a message or using some goal-oriented cognitive processes and strategies tries to change the behaviors or attitudes of others on a specific issue. The current article, with a qualitative approach, made the clarification of these cognitive processes the basis of its study. For this purpose, first, a brief background of the oldest theory of persuasion from Aristotle's point of view as well as Max Weber's classifications of social actions in modern social sciences was presented. Then, to describe the mechanisms of persuasion, four well-known models were presented with a brief explanation of their similarities and differences. These four models are respectively Cialdini's constructivist model, elaboration likelihood and heuristic systematic model which are of dual-process type, and finally the holistic persuasion knowledge model. In addition, a description of persuasive discourse devices such as textual schemas and genres along with the specific socio-cognitive goals they pursue in discourse communities was provided. In the end, the lack of local models of persuasion compatible with the emotional and cognitive components of the cultural groups of Iranian society and the necessity of field research, in this case, was pointed out to future researchers.