Heterosexual participants who were very low, moderately low, moderately high and very high in prejudice toward gay men reported their personal standards for responding to gay men (i.e., how they believed they should feel or think in an imagined scenario involving a gay man) via computer. As expected, the standards of very low-prejudice individuals were the least prejudiced, the most internalized (i.e., most important and central to the self), and the most accessible (i.e., reported most quickly). Regression analyses revealed the predicted relation between accessibility and internalization, such that the more internalized the standard the greater its accessibility. A significant quadratic trend for prejudice revealed that accessibility decreases with increasing prejudice, except that at very high levels of prejudice accessibility begins to increase. Implications for prejudice reduction for both low- and high-prejudice individuals are discussed.
This study examined two experimental variables, delivery style and message framing, that have yet to be examined together in the regulatory fit literature. College students (mean age = 30) watched a video message encouraging regular exercise delivered in an eager or vigilant nonverbal style and framed in terms of gain or loss. Results revealed significant fit effects involving gender, delivery style, and message framing. The eager message was perceived as more effective by men whereas the vigilant message was perceived as more effective by women. A message framing by delivery style fit effect also emerged for perceived message effectiveness. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.
Warning participants ofthe topic and position ofan upcoming message often results in increased resistance to persuasion. The cognitive mediation explanation of this effect is that the warning motivates people to engage in anticipatory counterarguing prior to receiving the message. This research suggests that this explanation provides only a partial understanding of forewarning effects. We extended the literature by examining attitude importance and both cognitive and affective resistance processes (cf. Zuwerink & Devine, 1996). Results showed that high-importance individuals were very resistant to the message, regardless of the warning (wamed vs. unwarned) and delay (0 min vs. 2 min) manipulations. Their resistance was evident in heightened levels of negative thoughts and negative affect (i.e., irritation) compared to low-importance individuals. Low-importance individuals were most resistant when wamed and given time before hearing the message. Path analysis suggests that this effect was mediated primarily by heightened irritation in this condition, although negative thoughts also contributed to resistance.
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