Course Director: Dr. Alexandru Manafu alexman@yorku.ca

This is an interdisciplinary course in which we will look at persuasion along both its logical and psychological dimension. Along the logical dimension, you will learn about the standards of good reasoning in everyday life, as well as in science; you will develop a set of skills that will allow you to recognize and make good arguments, recognize and avoid bad arguments, as well as criticize arguments and ideas effectively. Along the psychological dimension, we will look at the underlying factors that influence people’s decisions. Using a range of examples from the world of marketing and advertising, politics, the media, etc., we will investigate the 6 principles that social psychologists have found to govern social influence and persuasion. As part of the coursework you will analyze the persuasion around us.

Technical requirements: The students will need steady internet access to access the course materials, lecture recordings, and assignments/exams.

Here are some useful links for student computing information, resources and help:

Student Guide to Moodle

Zoom@YorkU Best Practices 

Zoom@YorkU User Reference Guide

Computing for Students Website

Student Guide to eLearning at York University

• Influence: Science and Practice. by Robert Cialdini. Publisher: Allyn and Bacon; 5th edition (August 8, 2008). ISBN-10: 0205609996. Everyone must have a copy of this book (either printed or electronic version), as we will be using 100% of it. You can order it at the York U bookstore, or here:

https://www.pearson.com/store/p/influence-science-and-practice/P100000232537

• Critical Thinking: An Introduction to the Basic Skills – Canadian Seventh Edition. by: William Hughes; Jonathan Lavery; Broadview Press. ISBN: 9781554811991 / 1554811996. Available at the University Bookstore. We will be using approximately 40% of this book. An ebook version of this textbook (older edition, still useful though) is available online for free, via YorkU library: here.
• Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking by Van Cleave, available as an open textbook, from the Open Textbook Library:

https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/introduction-to-logic-and-critical-thinking

• A selection of materials which will be made available in PDF online or on Moodle

6 Wiki entries: 12%

4 Homework assignments: 32%

2 End of term Moodle exams: 36%

Quizzes: 20%

Time: asynchronous, online

Organization of the course:

The course will be online and asynchronous. There will be no in-person interactions or activities on campus. Students will be given access to video recorded lectures.  There will be the possibility of class meetings or individual student meetings via Zoom, to further clarify/explain the material, at the student’s request or as needed. Students will also be able to book office hours. Students will be expected to study the material individually, at their own pace, but following the detailed course schedule (the Roadmap), which will be made available on eClass/Moodle. The students are responsible for following the Roadmap, and for submitting the quizzes and the assignments by the deadlines indicated in the Roadmap.

This is a practical course which aims to help you build your critical thinking and persuasive argumentation skills. By the end of this course, you will:

• Be able to formulate and evaluate arguments, as well as to refute them.
• Be able to analyze persuasion productions around us using the principles that govern the psychological dimension of persuasion (reciprocation, social proof, commitment and consistency, liking, authority, scarcity).
• Recognize fallacies in reasoning.
• Be able to distinguish between good science and questionable science or pseudoscience.
• Become a better arguer and persuader.