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)     

The effects of message recipients' power before and after persuasion: A self-validation analysis.

In the present research, the authors examined the effect of a message recipient's power on attitude change and introduced a new mechanism by which power can affect social judgment. In line with prior research that suggested a link between power and approach tendencies, the authors hypothesized that having power increases confidence relative to being powerless. After demonstrating this link in Experiment 1, in 4 additional studies, they examined the role of power in persuasion as a function of when power is infused into the persuasion process. On the basis of the idea that power validates whatever mental content is accessible, they hypothesized that power would have different effects on persuasion depending on when power was induced. Specifically, the authors predicted that making people feel powerful prior to a message would validate their existing views and thus reduce the perceived need to attend to subsequent information. However, it was hypothesized that inducing power after a message has been processed would validate one's recently generated thoughts and thus influence the extent to which people rely upon their thoughts in determining their attitudes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Resisting persuasion by the skin of one's teeth: The hidden success of resisted persuasive messages.

Recent research has suggested that when people resist persuasion they can perceive this resistance and, under specifiable conditions, become more certain of their initial attitudes (e.g., Z. L. Tormala & R. E. Petty, 2002). Within the same metacognitive framework, the present research provides evidence for the opposite phenomenon--that is, when people resist persuasion, they sometimes become less certain of their initial attitudes. Four experiments demonstrate that when people perceive that they have done a poor job resisting persuasion (e.g., they believe they generated weak arguments against a persuasive message), they lose attitude certainty, show reduced attitude-behavioral intention correspondence, and become more vulnerable to subsequent persuasive attacks. These findings suggest that resisted persuasive attacks can sometimes have a hidden yet important success by reducing the strength of the target attitude. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What doesn't kill me makes me stronger: The effects of resisting persuasion on attitude certainty.

The present research proposes a metacognitive framework for understanding resistance to persuasion. It is suggested that when people resist persuasion, they can become more certain of their initial attitudes. Several experiments demonstrated that when participants resisted persuasion, attitude certainty increased, but only when the attack was believed to be strong. For attacks believed to be weak, certainty was unchanged. It was also demonstrated that attitude certainty only increased when people actually perceived that persuasion had been resisted. This increased certainty was shown to have implications for resistance to subsequent attacks and the correspondence between attitudes and behavioral intentions, These findings suggest that when people perceive their own resistance, they form inferences about their attitudes that adjust for situational factors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of information on the assessment of attitudes by authoritarians and nonauthoritarians.

"This study was concerned with the effects of differentially relevant information on social judgments of authoritarians and nonauthoritarians. After listening to standard recorded interviews, the content of which was derived from the theoretical clusters of the F scale, Ss made judgments about the respondent's F scale attitudes and his values. It was hypothesized that Ss low in F are better able to use information for making accurate judgments. On the whole, results confirmed the hypothesis, although there was some evidence that Ss low in F, as well as those high in F, tended toward stereotyped thinking." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affect as information in persuasion: A model of affect identification and discounting.

Three studies examined the implications of a model of affect as information in persuasion. According to this model, extraneous affect may have an influence when message recipients exert moderate amounts of thought, because they identify their affective reactions as potential criteria but fail to discount them as irrelevant. However, message recipients may not use affect as information when they deem affect irrelevant or when they do not identify their affective reactions at all. Consistent with this curvilinear prediction, recipients of a message that either favored or opposed comprehensive exams used affect as a basis for attitudes in situations that elicited moderate thought. Affect, however, had no influence on attitudes in conditions that elicited either large or small amounts of thought. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived choice and resistance to persuasion.

An experiment was conducted to test the prediction that the greater the perceived choice in taking a position, the more resistant to influence the position would be. The Ss were shown summaries of an application for admittance to graduate school in psychology, and were asked to rate the candidate. The ratings were made under conditions of either high or low choice. All Ss were then presented with a strong countercommunication and final ratings were made. The results indicate that high choice in the initial decision increased resistance to influence by the countercommunication. It further appears that, at least in this case, this resistance is manifested primarily by an increased tendency to reject the communication and the communicator rather than in any distortions in memory or ratings of the relevant information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Happiness versus sadness as a determinant of thought confidence in persuasion: A self-validation analysis.

The present research introduces a new mechanism by which emotion can affect evaluation. On the basis of the self-validation hypothesis (R. E. Petty, P. Bri?ol, & Z. L. Tormala, see record 2002-12575-003), the authors predicted and found that emotion can influence evaluative judgments by affecting the confidence people have in their thoughts to a persuasive message. In each study, participants first read a strong or weak persuasive communication. After listing their thoughts about the message, participants were induced to feel happy or sad. Relative to sad participants, those put in a happy state reported more thought confidence. As a consequence, the effect of argument quality on attitudes was greater for happy than for sad participants. These self-validation effects generalized across different emotion inductions, different persuasion topics, and different measures of thought confidence. In one study, happy and sad conditions each differed from a neutral affect control. Most important, these metacognitive effects of emotion only occurred under high elaboration conditions. In contrast, individuals with relatively low motivation to think showed a main effect of emotion on attitudes, regardless of argument quality. (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)     

Influence of different positive emotions on persuasion processing: A functional evolutionary approach.

Much research has found that positive affect facilitates increased reliance on heuristics in cognition. However, theories proposing distinct evolutionary fitness-enhancing functions for specific positive emotions also predict important differences among the consequences of different positive emotion states. Two experiments investigated how six positive emotions influenced the processing of persuasive messages. Using different methods to induce emotions and assess processing, we showed that the positive emotions of anticipatory enthusiasm, amusement, and attachment love tended to facilitate greater acceptance of weak persuasive messages (consistent with previous research), whereas the positive emotions of awe and nurturant love reduced persuasion by weak messages. In addition, a series of mediation analyses suggested that the effects distinguishing different positive emotions from a neutral control condition were best accounted for by different mediators rather than by one common mediator. These findings build upon approaches that link affective valence to certain types of processing, documenting emotion-specific effects on cognition that are consistent with functional evolutionary accounts of discrete positive emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of mild frustration on the expression of prejudiced attitudes.

"The present study was designed to test the proposition that frustration may increase the expression of prejudice. Sixty-four S's were given a series of attitude scales, following which all were exposed to a relatively mild, experimentally induced frustration. Immediately thereafter, alternate forms of the attitude scale were administered. Significant increases were found… [and] the results were interpreted as an instance of 'targeting' of a minority group within the general framework of the scapegoat phenomenon." 23 refs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of 'directive" and 'non-directive" communication procedures on attitudes.

In a study of the effects of conclusion drawing vs. no conclusion drawing by the speaker and clearly defined vs. poorly defined organization of content upon the informative and persuasive adequacy of communication, it was found that conclusion drawing and well-defined organization both lead to greater comprehension than no conclusion drawing and poorly defined organizations of content. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relative efficacy of various types of prior belief-defense in producing immunity against persuasion.

"It was postulated that people characteristically defend their beliefs… by avoiding exposure to contradictory information… . Since the person is unmotivated to develop a defense of his belief to the extent that he considers it invulnerable, it was hypothesized that such beliefs are more effectively immunized against persuasion by preexposure to counterarguments… . Second, since the person is unpracticed in the defense of such beliefs, it was predicted that immunizing pretreatments would lose effectiveness to the extent that they required the person to participate actively… in the defense. Finally, an interaction effect was predicted such that the detrimental effect of requiring active participation is greater with the defense involving pre-exposure to the counterarguments than with the supportive defense." The hypotheses were supported. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4GD27M. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A new look at the consequences of attitude certainty: The amplification hypothesis.

It is well established that increasing attitude certainty makes attitudes more resistant to attack and more predictive of behavior. This finding has been interpreted as indicating that attitude certainty crystallizes attitudes, making them more durable and impactful. The current research challenges this crystallization hypothesis and proposes an amplification hypothesis, which suggests that instead of invariably strengthening an attitude, attitude certainty amplifies the dominant effect of the attitude on thought, judgment, and behavior. In 3 experiments, the authors test these competing hypotheses by comparing the effects of attitude certainty manipulations on univalent versus ambivalent attitudes. Across experiments, it is demonstrated that increasing attitude certainty strengthens attitudes (e.g., increases their resistance to persuasion) when attitudes are univalent but weakens attitudes (e.g., decreases their resistance to persuasion) when attitudes are ambivalent. These results are consistent with the amplification hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temporal framing and persuasion to adopt preventive health behavior: Moderating effects of individual differences in consideration of future consequences on sunscreen use.

Objective: Previous work on temporal framing of health communications has focused upon detection behaviors that possess an inherent immediate risk of negative consequences. The present studies evaluate the role of temporal frame for a preventive behavior, using sunscreen. Design: Two experimental field studies manipulated the temporal frame in which positive and negative consequences of using sunscreen were presented. Main Outcome Measures: Cognitive responses, intention, and behavior (experiment 2). Results: Consistent with hypotheses, Experiment 1 showed that individual differences in consideration of future consequences (CFC; A. Strathman, F. Gleicher, D. S. Boninger, & C. S. Edwards, 1994) moderated (a) the processing of long- versus short-term consequences and (b) the persuasive impact of the different temporal frames on behavioral intentions. In Experiment 2, the balance of positive versus negative thoughts generated by reading the persuasive communications was shown to mediate the effects of the Temporal Frame × CFC interaction on a behavioral measure. Conclusion: Findings extend previous work by demonstrating the importance of individual differences in CFC to the processing of health communication about a preventive health behavior and to a behavioral outcome. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The pursuit of self-interest: Self-interest bias in attitude judgment and persuasion.

Self-interest affected the direction of attitudes in 4 studies exploring attitude judgment and persuasion. Experiment 1 showed that both self-interest and symbolic concerns predicted attitudes. The biasing role of self-interest in producing the well-known persuasion effects of personal relevance and argument strength was examined by disentangling the competing effects of personal costs and benefits. Experiment 2 used a standard personal relevance manipulation in the absence of supportive arguments and showed that perceptions of personal costs associated with the advocated policy partially mediated its negative effects on attitudes. Experiments 3 and 4 independently manipulated the onset of personal costs associated with an issue and the onset of issue-related benefits conveyed by supportive arguments. Postmessage attitudes were an additive function of personal costs and argument-specified benefits, and perceived costs and benefits biased information processing in a self-interested manner. A revised conception of personal relevance and argument strength is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group persuasion by the most knowledgeable member under conditions of incubation and varying group size.

How do group size and recesses affect ability of the most knowledgeable member to influence the group? 199 Ss in groups of 2-5 persons performed with each group having an informed accomplice. 2- and 5-person groups were most accurate, satisfied, and influenced. Recesses decreased the effectiveness of the E's accomplice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Negotiation as a form of persuasion: Arguments in first offers.

In this article we examined aspects of negotiation within a persuasion framework. Specifically, we investigated how the provision of arguments that justified the first offer in a negotiation affected the behavior of the parties, namely, how it influenced counteroffers and settlement prices. In a series of 4 experiments and 2 pilot studies, we demonstrated that when the generation of counterarguments was easy, negotiators who did not add arguments to their first offers achieved superior results compared with negotiators who used arguments to justify their first offer. We hypothesized and provided evidence that adding arguments to a first offer was likely to cause the responding party to search for counterarguments, and this, in turn, led him or her to present counteroffers that were further away from the first offer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The generality of immunity to persuasion produced by pre-exposure to weakened counterarguments.

"A previous study… [see 36: 4GD27M] showed that strong initial beliefs are more effectively immunized against persuasion by preexposing them to counterarguments… . The present study tested the hypothesis that preexposure to refutations of some counterarguments against the belief would have a generalized immunization effect, making the beliefs more resistant to strong doses not only of the specific counterarguments… but also of alternative arguments against the given belief… . As expected, the beliefs proved highly vulnerable to the strong counterarguments when there was no prior immunization. Immunization had a direct strengthening effect on the beliefs and also substantially reduced the effect of the subsequent strong counterarguments." From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4GD75P. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Retraining attitudes and stereotypes to affect motivation and cognitive capacity under stereotype threat.

In a series of experiments, a retraining paradigm was used to test the effects of attitudes and stereotypes on individuals' motivation and cognitive capacity in stereotype-threatening contexts. Women trained to have a more positive math attitude exhibited increased math motivation (Study 1). This effect was not observed for men but was magnified among women when negative stereotypes were either primed subtly (Study 2) or indirectly reinforced (Study 3). Although attitudes had no effect on working memory capacity, women retrained to associate their gender with being good at math exhibited increased working memory capacity (Studies 3 and 4), which in turn mediated increased math performance (Study 4) in a stereotype-threatening context. Results suggest that although positive attitudes can motivate stigmatized individuals to engage with threatening domains, stereotypes need to be retrained to give them the cognitive capacity critical for success. Implications for interventions to reduce stereotype threat are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)