{"id":89,"date":"2026-02-23T10:43:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T10:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/persuasion\/?post_type=content&p=89"},"modified":"2026-02-23T11:23:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T11:23:36","slug":"chapter-14-visual-persuasion","status":"publish","type":"content","link":"https:\/\/routledgelearning.com\/persuasion\/chapter-resources\/chapter-14-visual-persuasion\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 14: Visual Persuasion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Chapter 14: Visual Persuasion<\/h2><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Chapter Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This chapter examines important ways in which images shape beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Once overlooked by persuasion researchers, visual persuasion is now front and center. We are living in an increasingly visual society. Images are powerful. They are processed more quickly than words, recalled more easily, and have greater emotional impact. Images persuade in three important ways. By virtue of their iconicity, images can stand for or represent things. They summarize ideas and concepts. Through indexicality, images function as proof, or at least apparent proof, that some thing or event took place. The documentary aspect of images can be misleading, however. Images also persuade through their syntactic indeterminacy. Images lack the logical operators found in language, but this can be an advantage. The ambiguity of images can be used strategically. This chapter examines various forms of visual persuasion including deepfakes, art, movies, advertising, and photography. In so doing, it raises issues surrounding ethical uses of images and the need for improving visual literacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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