Abstract
This study proposes a general model of persuasion based in social-psychology and cognitive information processing theory and is composed of an ideal listener/speaker/environment interaction. Drawing upon research conducted by Lowenthal and Guterman (1950), Erich Hoffer (1952), and Prakanis and Aranson (1992), the model is oriented towards post-911 presidential communications for testing. Presidential rhetoric is organized into seventeen themes, and these themes are analyzed so as to determine what effect, if any, said persuasive trends have on the individual listener. Insight into the characteristics and effects of persuasive communiqués is essential to the development of rational, critical psyches within persuasively-dense environments.
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