Persuasion Wars: Practicing social influence

This article describes a series of learning activities called ‘‘Persuasion Wars.’’ These in-class exercises use an active, collaborative learning approach in which student teams fight persuasion battles, using the ‘‘weaponry’ ’ provided by the lecture and readings. Each battle is waged in a different task domain to provide practice in the wide range of situations in which students might use or encounter social influence. Student feedback via course evaluations and an Internet survey indicate that this learning tool is both enjoyable and enhances understanding of the material. Because elements of persuasion and social influence are present in myriad situations that people encounter each day, these topics readily lend themselves to participative learning in an educational setting. Many educators and researchers have touted the benefits of active, rather tha