Investigating the process of persuasion in the debates of the twelfth period of the Iranian presidential election

Using the process of persuasion, politicians seek to control their minds and try to impose their desires in the form of this process. When persuading the audience, two positive and negative poles and a set of actions related to them are imagined, and the politicians try to convince the audience to accept the positive pole and reject the negative pole. This study examines the process of persuasion in the debates of the candidates of the twelfth presidential election. The Hovland Persuasion Model, Van Dijk's ideological square, and the Elaboration Likelihood Model were the patterns used in this study. The results show that each of the candidates used different persuasive methods according to their scientific and social level and the audience; But overall, transforming and, consequently, highlighting one's own pole and marginalizing another pole has been an effective way of engaging the general public, especially the president-elect. The words used for the “self” had a positive semantic load and the words used about the “other” had a negative load.