Persuasion Theories - Reinforcement Theory 

Attitude changes result from an opinion change produced
through reinforcement in areas such as attention, comprehension, and acceptance.
Attention, comprehension, and acceptance are considered by the audience before a
new opinion is adopted. The message must be drawing attention and easily
understood. More importantly, it must be presented in a way that reinforces the idea’s
validity.
Here is an example of how reinforcement theory operates. A public relations practitioner
is conducting a week-long campaign for “Organ Donation Awareness Week”. S/he
conducts a pre-campaign phone survey providing positive reinforcement for pro-organ
donation answers for two groups and no reinforcement for the other two groups. All
groups have an opposing position to organ donation.
One group from each, reinforcement and no reinforcement, are in the target area of
the campaign. According to Reinforcement Theory, the people in the areas that received
the reinforcement and the campaign will have the greatest change in attitude toward
organ donation. The next should be the group that received the reinforcement without
the campaign closely followed by those who received the campaign but not the
reinforcement. The group with the least amount of attitudinal change would be those
who reached no reinforcement and did not receive the campaign.