Source entitativity and the elaboration of persuasive messages: The roles of perceived efficacy and message discrepancy.

Compared with nonentitative groups, entitative targets are considered to elicit more elaborative processing because of the singularity or unity they represent. However, when groups serve as sources of persuasive messages, other dynamics may operate. The current research suggests that entitativity is intrinsically linked to perceptions of a group’s efficacy related to the advocacy, and this efficacy combines with the position of the appeal to determine message elaboration. When messages are counterattitudinal, entitative (efficacious) sources should elicit greater processing than nonentitative groups because of concern that the entitative sources may be more likely to bring about the negative outcomes proposed. However, when appeals are proattitudinal, sources low in entitativity (nonefficacious) should initiate more elaboration due to concern that they may be unlikely to facilitate the positive outcomes proposed. These hypotheses were supported in a series of studies. Preliminary studies established the entitativity–efficacy relation (Studies 1A and 1B). Primary persuasion studies showed that manipulations of source entitativity (Studies 2 and 3) and source efficacy (Studies 4A and 4B) have opposite effects on processing as a function of message discrepancy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discrete Emotions and Persuasion: The Role of Emotion-Induced Expectancies.

The authors argue that specific emotions can alter the persuasive impact of messages as a function of the emotional framing of persuasive appeals. Because specific emotions inflate expectancies for events possessing matching emotional overtones (D. DeSteno, R. E. Petty, D. T. Wegener, & D. D. Rucker, 2000), the authors predicted that attempts at persuasion would be more successful when messages were framed with emotional overtones matching the emotional state of the receiver and that these changes would be mediated by emotion-induced biases involving expectancies attached to arguments contained in the messages. Two studies manipulating discrete negative emotional states and message frames (i.e., sadness and anger) confirmed these predictions. The functioning of this emotion-matching bias in parallel with emotion-induced processing differences and the limitations of a valence-based approach to the study of attitude change are also considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applying persuasion strategies to alter HIV-relevant thoughts and behavior.

Health communication strategies are at the core of both mass media campaigns and public health interventions conducted at the community level concerning the prevention of HIV/AIDS. They are often nested in complex contexts that prevent us from being able to identify the persuasive impact of a specific message. The authors attempt to account for an array of factors contributing to the persuasiveness of messages about HIV. The aim is to synthesize the psychological literature on persuasion and thus provide a conceptual framework for understanding message effects in HIV communications. This discussion concerns fear appeals, message framing, tailoring, cultural targeting, and additional factors pertaining to the message, source, and channel of the communication. Whenever possible, recommendations for further research are formulated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Regulatory Fit and Persuasion: Transfer From "Feeling Right."

The authors propose that when a message recipient "feels right" from regulatory fit (E. T. Higgins, 2000), this subjective experience transfers to the persuasion context and serves as information for relevant evaluations, including perceived message persuasiveness and opinions of the topic. Fit was induced either by strategic framing of message arguments in a way that fit/did not fit with the recipient's regulatory state or by a source unrelated to the message itself. Across 4 studies, regulatory fit enhanced perceived persuasiveness and opinion ratings. These effects were eliminated when the correct source of feeling right was made salient before message exposure, supporting the misattribution account. These effects reversed when message-related thoughts were negative, supporting the claim that fit provides information about the "rightness" of one's (positive or negative) evaluations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of majority versus minority source status on persuasion: A self-validation analysis.

The present research proposes that sources in the numerical majority (vs. minority) can affect persuasion by influencing the confidence with which people hold their thoughts in response to the persuasive message. Participants received a persuasive message composed of either strong or weak arguments that was presented by a majority or a minority source. Consistent with the self-validation hypothesis, we predicted and found that the majority (vs. minority) status of the source increased the confidence with which recipients held their thoughts. As a consequence, majority (vs. minority) sources increased argument quality effects in persuasion when source status information followed message processing (Experiment 1). In contrast, when the information regarding source status preceded (rather than followed) the persuasive message, it validated the perception of the position advocated, reducing message processing. As a consequence of having more confidence in the position advocated before receiving the message, majority (vs. minority) sources reduced argument quality effects in persuasion (Experiment 2). Finally, Experiment 3 isolated the timing of the source status manipulation, revealing that sources in the numerical majority (vs. minority) can increase or decrease persuasion to strong arguments depending on whether source status is introduced before or after processing the message. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive mood can increase or decrease message scrutiny: The hedonic contingency view of mood and message processing.

Currently dominant explanations of mood effects on persuasive message processing (i.e., cognitive capacity and feelings as information) predict that happy moods lead to less message scrutiny than neutral or sad moods. The hedonic contingency view (D. T. Wegener & R. E. Petty, see record 1994-32368-001) predicts that happy moods can sometimes be associated with greater message processing activity because people in a happy mood are more attentive than neutral or sad people to the hedonic consequences of their actions. Consistent with this view, Experiment 1 finds that a happy mood can lead to greater message scrutiny than a neutral mood when the message is not mood threatening. Experiment 2 finds that a happy mood leads to greater message scrutiny than a sad mood when an uplifting message is encountered, but to less message scrutiny when a depressing message is encountered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Safety issues in the pharmacologic management of chronic pain in the elderly

In two experiments, we found that readers are sensitive to manipulations of syntactically marked focus and that focus is an effective message level contextual priming mechanism. Changes in focus resulted in changes in sentence context effects on subsequent target word processing. This was demonstrated in latency to name the target word (Experiment 1) and in initial looking time on the target in silent reading (Experiment 2). Experiment 2 also revealed direct effects on the focused items, as readers made fewer regressions and spent less total time on a word that was focused than when it was not focused. However, no initial processing time effects were found on the focused word.     

Effects of rhetorical questions on persuasion: A cognitive response analysis.

Applied a cognitive response analysis to the use of rhetorical questions in persuasion. 160 college students heard a counterattitudinal message in which the major arguments were summarized in either statement or rhetorical forms. The personal relevance of the issue and the quality of the arguments employed in the message were also varied. The use of rhetorical questions was found to either increase or decrease the cognitive elaboration of a message depending on the personal relevance of the communication. When the message was of low personal relevance and recipients were not naturally processing the statement form of the message diligently, the use of rhetoricals enhanced thinking: A message with strong arguments became more persuasive, and a message with weak arguments became less persuasive with rhetoricals. However, when the message was of high personal relevance and recipients were already highly motivated to process the statement form of the message, the use of rhetoricals disrupted thinking: A message with strong arguments became less persuasive, and a message with weak arguments became more persuasive with rhetoricals. This 3-way interaction was expected from the cognitive response analysis, but not from competing formulations. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of repetition-induced familiarity on agreement with weak and strong arguments.

Repeated statements are perceived as more valid than novel ones, termed the illusion of truth effect, presumably because repetition imbues the statement with familiarity. In 3 studies, the authors examined the conditions under which and the processes by which familiarity signals from repetition and argument quality signals from processing of message content influenced agreement with persuasive arguments. Participants with low or high motivation to process information were presented persuasive arguments seen once or twice. In all 3 studies, repetition increased the persuasiveness of weak and strong arguments when little processing of message content occurred. Two of the studies used a process dissociation procedure to reveal that both greater controlled processing (which reflected argument content) and the greater automatic influence of familiarity (which reflected repetition) were associated with increased acceptance of strong arguments but that greater controlled processing dissipated the benefits of familiarity for agreement with weak arguments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear, anger, fruits, and veggies: Interactive effects of emotion and message framing on health behavior.

Objective: Message framing is a theoretically grounded health communication strategy designed to motivate action by emphasizing either the benefits of engaging in a particular behavior (gains) or the costs of failing to engage in the behavior (losses). This study investigated whether the effectiveness of a framed message depends on the emotional state of the message recipient. We examined effects of fear versus anger, emotions that frequently occur within the context of health decision-making. Methods: Undergraduate students (N = 133) were randomly assigned to complete a fear or anger induction task after which they read a gain- or loss-framed pamphlet promoting fruit and vegetable consumption. Fruit and vegetable intake (servings per day) subsequently was assessed over the following 2 weeks. Results: As predicted, a significant frame by emotion interaction was observed, such that participants in the fear condition reported eating more servings of fruits and vegetables after exposure to a loss-framed message than to a gain-framed message. In contrast, participants in the anger condition reported eating (marginally) more servings of fruits and vegetables after exposure to a gain-framed message than to a loss-framed message. Greater increases in fruit and vegetable intake from baseline to follow-up were observed when the message frame was matched to the participant's emotional state. Conclusion: The effectiveness of framed health communications depends on the message recipient's current emotional state. Affective factors that are incidental to the behavior recommended in a health communication can affect the relative success of gain- and loss-framed appeals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Communication modality as a determinant of persuasion: The role of communicator salience.

Reports 2 studies, using a total of 304 university students, in which a likable or unlikable communicator delivered a persuasive message via writing, audiotape, or videotape. In both studies the likable communicator was more persuasive in video- and audiotape than in writing, but the unlikable communicator was more persuasive in writing. Thus, communicator likability was a significant determinant of persuasion only in the broadcast modalities. Other findings suggest that Ss process more communicator cues when exposed to video- and audiotape messages than when exposed to written ones and that communicator-based (rather than message-based) cognitions predicted opinion change primarily in video and audiotape conditions rather than in written ones. It is concluded that video- and audiotapes enhance communicator-related information, so that communicator characteristics exert a disproportionate effect on persuasion when messages are broadcast. Findings are also discussed in relation to "vividness" phenomena. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overt head movements and persuasion: A self-validation analysis.

The authors report 3 experiments that examine a new mechanism by which overt head movements can affect attitude change. In each experiment, participants were induced to either nod or to shake their heads while listening to a persuasive message. When the message arguments were strong, nodding produced more persuasion than shaking. When the arguments were weak, the reverse occurred. These effects were most pronounced when elaboration was high. These findings are consistent with the "self-validation" hypothesis that postulates that head movements either enhance (nodding) or undermine (shaking) confidence in one's thoughts about the message. In a 4th experiment, the authors extended this result to another overt behavior (writing with the dominant or nondominant hand) and a different attitude domain (self-esteem). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Information utility and the multiple source effect.

We report 3 experiments that are consistent with the view that multiple sources enhance message processing because of recipients' perceptions that information from multiple sources is more likely to be based on different perspectives and independent pools of knowledge and, thus, more worthy of diligent consideration. Specifically, in Experiment I we found that persuasive advantage of multiple sources presenting strong arguments was eliminated when the sources were said to have formed a committee rather than being independent. In Experiment 2, we found that the committee manipulation eliminated the persuasive advantage of multiple sources presenting strong arguments only when this information was available prior to argument exposure and not when it was provided after exposure. In Experiment 3, subjects were led to believe that the multiple sources who formed a committee were either very similar or dissimilar. When the committee was believed to include members with similar perspectives, the persuasive advantage of multiple sources presenting strong arguments was eliminated, but when the committee was believed to include members with dissimilar perspectives, the persuasive advantage of multiple sources was retained. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The time for doing is not the time for change: Effects of general action and inaction goals on attitude retrieval and attitude change.

Implicit in many informal and formal principles of psychological change is the understudied assumption that change requires either an active approach or an inactive approach. This issue was systematically investigated by comparing the effects of general action goals and general inaction goals on attitude change. As prior attitudes facilitate preparation for an upcoming persuasive message, general action goals were hypothesized to facilitate conscious retrieval of prior attitudes and therefore hinder attitude change to a greater extent than general inaction goals. Experiment 1 demonstrated that action primes (e.g., “go,” “energy”) yielded faster attitude report than inaction primes (e.g., “rest,” “still”) among participants who were forewarned of an upcoming persuasive message. Experiment 2 showed that the faster attitude report identified in Experiment 1 was localized on attitudes toward a message topic participants were prepared to receive. Experiments 3, 4, and 5 showed that, compared with inaction primes, action primes produced less attitude change and less argument scrutiny in response to a counterattitudinal message on a previously forewarned topic. Experiment 6 confirmed that the effects of the primes on attitude change were due to differential attitude retrieval. That is, when attitude expression was induced immediately after the primes, action and inaction goals produced similar amounts of attitude change. In contrast, when no attitude expression was induced after the prime, action goals produced less attitude change than inaction goals. Finally, Experiment 7 validated the assumption that these goal effects can be reduced or reversed when the goals have already been satisfied by an intervening task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining conflict between components of attitudes: Ambivalence and inconsistency are distinct constructs.

Past research has shown that attitudes can be based on different types of psychological information or components. It has also been suggested that the amount of ambivalence and inconsistency between and within these components are important aspects of attitude structure. In this paper, the authors discuss the relation between ambivalence and inconsistency, and the effects on message processing. To test predictions about the independence of ambivalence and inconsistency, the authors reanalyzed the data from their previous experiment (G. R. Maio et al, 1996; see record 1996-06722-001). The new analyses focused on intercomponent ambivalence and attiduinal inconsistency, in addition to intracomponent ambivalence. Using open-ended measures, the authors calculated indices of ambivalence and inconsistency within Canadian college students' attitudes toward Oriental people. The relations between these constructs were then examined, as were their effects on the processing of strong and weak persuasive messages advocating immigration from Hong Kong. Based on past theorizing and research, and on reanalyses of data, the authors conclude that ambivalence and inconsistency are distinct constructs, which are empirically unrelated and produce different effects on message processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Increasing individual and team performance in an organizational setting through the situational adaptation of regulatory focus.

Regulatory focus theory proposes that people engage in goal striving using different behaviors associated with specific motivational states. Although regulatory focus can be influenced by individual predispositions, it is state-like in that it is subject to the influence of needs, values, and situational framing (Higgins, 1997). We suggest that this malleability by environmental influence gives leaders, managers, and other practitioners a useful motivational tool to adjust follower goal striving as demanded by dynamic environmental conditions to optimize performance. Suggestions for a practical implementation of dynamic goal striving are included. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributions of Fluency in Fame Judgments by Younger and Older Adults.

Judgments about stimulus characteristics are affected by enhanced processing fluency that results from an earlier presentation of the stimulus. By monitoring for an episodic source of processing fluency, younger adults can more easily avoid this influence than can older adults. In Experiment 1, older adults discounted the effects of fluency when task demands encouraged the use of analytic judgments based on general knowledge, rather than an appeal to episodic source monitoring. Younger subjects were not reliably affected by these same task demands and their judgments continued to be affected by processing fluency. In Experiment 2, introduction of more stringent demands led younger adults also to discount the effects of fluency. We conclude that the influence of processing fluency on younger and older adults varies, depending on whether memory for source or general knowledge is put forward in place of fluency as a basis for judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Making a good decision: Value from fit.

The classic answer to what makes a decision good concerns outcomes. A good decision has high outcome benefits (it is worthwhile) and low outcome costs (it is worth it). I propose that, independent of outcomes or value from worth, people experience a regulatory fit when they use goal pursuit means that fit their regulatory orientation, and this regulatory fit increases the value of what they are doing. The following postulates of this value from fit proposal are examined: (a) People will be more inclined toward goal means that have higher regulatory fit, (b) people's motivation during goal pursuit will be stronger when regulatory fit is higher, (c) people's (prospective) feelings about a choice they might make will be more positive for a desirable choice and more negative for an undesirable choice when regulatory fit is higher, (d) people's (retrospective) evaluations of past decisions or goal pursuits will be more positive when regulatory fit was higher, and (e) people will assign higher value to an object that was chosen with higher regulatory fit. Studies testing each of these postulates support the value-from fit proposal. How value from fit can enhance or diminish the value of goal pursuits and the quality of life itself is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting One's Own Forgetting: The Role of Experience-Based and Theory-Based Processes.

The authors examined the hypothesis that judgments of learning (JOL), if governed by processing fluency during encoding, should be insensitive to the anticipated retention interval. Indeed, neither item-by-item nor aggregate JOLs exhibited "forgetting" unless participants were asked to estimate recall rates for several different retention intervals, in which case their estimates mimicked closely actual recall rates. These results and others reported suggest that participants can access their knowledge about forgetting but only when theory-based predictions are made, and then only when the notion of forgetting is accentuated either by manipulating retention interval within individuals or by framing recall predictions in terms of forgetting rather than remembering. The authors interpret their findings in terms of the distinction between experience-based and theory-based JOLs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Converting the unconverted: The effect of inclination and opportunity to discount health-related fear appeals.

Two experiments indicated that the conventional wisdom for designing fear appeals, higher fear arousal, and a consequences–recommendations ordering, was more persuasive for adherents, or those who were already following the advocated recommendations. Instead, lowering the level of fear arousal and reversing the order of the consequences and recommendations were more effective for persuading the unconverted. The unconverted were more persuaded by the latter message format because it reduced the level of message discounting. Specifically, unconverted participants who received either a low fear appeal or recommendations preceding consequences perceived themselves to be more susceptible, perceived the consequences as more severe, regarded the recommendations as more efficacious, believed they were more able to follow the recommendations, and were less likely to refute the message claims. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)