Social Psychology Evangelism
February 9th, 2010
I came across an interesting pdf that gives some insite in to how social psychology can inform us about evangelism.
Here are the main points:
- Teens and early 20’s are formative years.
- Attitudes influence behaviour.
- Attitudes follow behaviour.
- Credible and attractive communicators have more impact.
- Personal persuasion is more effective than media persuasion.
- Ineffective appears can be worse than none at all
- Vivid concrete examples are more potent than abstract information.
- Messages that relate to what people know or have experienced are better remembered.
- Spaced repetition aids memory.
- Active processing boosts persuasion.
- Group discussion generally strengthens shared convictions.
- We join groups, in part, to enhance our self image.
Of course there is much more to be said about each point and I don’t think any of the points will be a surprise to those who study communication but they are still important for Christians to understand in any evangelism situation, not least the Internet.
I feel the first point is particularly relevant to the mainline churches in the UK who mostly don’t have people of that age in them. These people are on the Internet however.
