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

Horcajo, Javier; Petty, Richard E.; Briñol, Pablo

doi:10.1037/a0018626

Cited by 46 publications

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“…One notable direction would be to examine how other variables may also be capable of producing contentdependent self-validation effects. First, along with high credibility, several other source characteristics have been shown to initiate self-validation in persuasion; including high efficacy (Clark, Evans, & Wegener, 2011), attractiveness , and representing a majority viewpoint (Horcajo, Petty, & Briñol, 2010). It stands to reason that differences in evaluative focus could influence self-validation with respect to these characteristics and produce effects that have not been documented in the literature.…”

Section: Implications and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the Message or the Messenger? Implications for Self-Validation in Persuasion

Clark

Wegener

Sawicki

et al. 2013

Pers Soc Psychol Bull

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Esta es la versión de autor del artículo publicado en: This is an author produced version of a paper published in: El acceso a la versión del editor puede requerir la suscripción del recurso Access to the published version may require subscription AUTHOR QUERY FORM ArticleWhen encountering persuasive messages, people can engage in many different strategies and rely on many different types of information as a basis for their opinions (for reviews, see Petty & Wegener, 1998;Wegener & Carlston, 2005). In the persuasion literature, a great deal of research has focused on the amount of processing motivation and ability as a key determinant of the different ways that influence can occur. However, even when motivation and ability are high (for example), different orientations at the time of message receipt could guide the way processing unfolds. With this in mind, the current research compares a focus on evaluating the merits of a persuasive message versus the merits of a persuasive source. For example, consider a citizen receiving a message about a highly relevant proposed policy at one of two different times: during the lead-up to an election or a year later. When receiving the appeal prior to voting, the citizen may likely process the advocacy as a way to evaluate the candidate. However, when receiving the message at a time when no decision about the politician is imminent (e.g., after the politician is ensconced in the position), the citizen may be more likely to scrutinize it as a way to evaluate the policy itself. Thus, across these situations, evaluation of the policy would be used for different purposes. When focused on assessing the policy, the citizen may carefully consider the logic or cogency of the arguments as a means to form an attitude toward the policy. Conversely, during the lead-up to an election, the citizen may use their reactions to the arguments more as a way to infer traits that this politician possesses. Do these different processing foci hold different implications for persuasion by the message? If so, by what mechanism and under which circumstances do such effects emerge? The current research examined these possibilities in light of the burgeoning literature on the role of metacognition in persuasion. Self-Validation in PersuasionOver the past decade, a considerable amount of research on attitude change has focused on metacognition (i.e., thoughts about thoughts) or more specifically, the role of metacognitive XXX10.1177/0146167213499238Personality and Social Psychology BulletinClark et al. AbstractCharacteristics of persuasive message sources have been extensively studied. However, little attention has been paid to situations when people are motivated to form an evaluation of the communicator rather than the communicated issue. We postulated that these different foci can affect how a source validates message-related cognitions. Participants focused on the source (Studies 1 and 2) or the issue (Study 2) while reading weak or strong message arguments. Later, the communicator was described as...

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Section: Implications and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating the Message or the Messenger? Implications for Self-Validation in Persuasion

Clark

Wegener

Sawicki

et al. 2013

Pers Soc Psychol Bull

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“…As noted, previous research on source status and self-validation 140 (Horcajo et al, 2010) showed that majority source status can increase the confidence with which recipients held their thoughts compared to minority source status. When the thoughts were positive (in response to strong arguments), majority source status was associated with more persuasion than minority source status because people relied more on their 145 positive thoughts generated in response to the convincing message.…”

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confidence: 84%

“…XML Template (2012) [9.11.2012-4:23pm] [1-17] //blrnas3/cenpro/ApplicationFiles/Journals/TandF/3B2/PSIF/Vol00000/120045/APPFile/TF-PSIF120045.3d (PSIF) [INVALID Specifically, Horcajo, Petty, and Brin˜ol (2010) demonstrated that the placement of source status information is an important moderating factor in 80 the domain of attitude change. Specifically, the timing of source status information (prior to vs after message processing) is relevant to understanding the different effects and multiple processes that can produce attitude change, as well as the potential consequences for attitude strength resulting from those multiple processes (for an illustration applied to source 85 credibility, see, Tormala, Brin˜ol, & Petty, 2007).…”

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Multiple roles for majority versus minority source status on persuasion when source status follows the message

2012

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Statement: "This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in [JOURNAL TITLE] on [date of publication], available online at:http://www.tandfonline.com/[Article DOI]."This research shows that numerical majority (vs minority) status of the source can affect persuasion by different processes when induced after message processing. Specifically, we argue that source status affects persuasion by serving as a simple peripheral validity cue under low-elaboration conditions, and by validating thoughts-a metacognitive process-under high-elaboration conditions. In the present study the extent of elaboration was manipulated (high vs low), and then participants received a persuasive message composed of either strong or weak arguments that were presented by a source in the numerical majority or minority. This source status information was introduced following the message. We predicted and found that, under high-elaboration conditions the majority source increased the argument quality effect on attitudes in response to the message compared to the minority source. In contrast, under low-elaboration conditions the information regarding source status served as a simple cue, with the majority source leading to more persuasion compared to the minority source regardless of argument quality. Thus the present results provide the first evidence for moderation of different effects for majority/minority influence when the numerical status of the source follows message processing

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“…En este caso, una variable persuasiva ya no afectará las actitudes a través de un proceso relacionado a la generación de pensamientos, sino a uno vinculado a la metacognición, como, por ejemplo, la validez que se le otorgan a los propios pensamientos (Petty, Briñol & Tormala, 2002). Ejemplos de variables que pueden actuar a través de uno u otro proceso, dependiendo del momento de presentación, son el rol que posee el poder del receptor (de entregar recompensas y castigos; Briñol, Petty, Valle, Rucker & Becerra, 2007), el rol de la afirmación de la identidad del receptor (Briñol, Petty, Gallardo & DeMarree, 2007), el rol de la credibilidad que posee la fuente de información (Tormala, Briñol & Petty, 2006), el rol de la mayoría o minoría numérica (Horcajo, Petty & Briñol, 2010), entre otros. En el contexto del estudio de PRs, solo Howard (1990) ha controlado experimentalmente el momento en que se presentaba una PR, mostrando que estas afectaban a las actitudes, sobre todo cuando se entregaban después de un mensaje.…”

Section: Algunas Limitaciones En El Estudio De Las Prs En Psicología unclassified

El Estudio de las Preguntas Retóricas en el Cambio de Actitudes

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La investigación actual en psicología social ha mostrado que las preguntas retóricas (PRs) en contextos comunicativos afectan las actitudes que las personas tienen sobre un objeto, llevando a evaluaciones más positivas o negativas de él. La principal explicación de este efecto es que las PRs aumentan la elaboración cognitiva, lo que permite al receptor de la información distinguir la fuerza de los argumentos presentados en una propuesta. Como consecuencia, las personas pueden guiar sus pensamientos favorables o desfavorables en respuesta a ellas. El presente trabajo revisa la literatura sobre cambio de actitud y PRs e identifica en ella una serie de limitaciones procedimentales y de contenido. Se discute que controlando dichas limitaciones se pueden obtener nuevos resultados y, tal vez más importante, proponer nuevas explicaciones para ellos. Finalmente, se plantean nuevas áreas de investigación y potenciales aplicaciones de los resultados.Palabras clave: actitudes, cambio, preguntas retóricas, revisión Current research in social psychology has shown that rhetorical questions (RQs) in communicative contexts affect the attitudes that people have about an object, leading either to positive or negative attitudes towards it. The main explanation for this effect is that RQs increase cognitive elaboration, which allows the receiver of the information to distinguish the strength of the arguments presented. As a consequence, people can guide their judgments based on the positive or negative thoughts generated as a response to RQs. This paper reviews the literature on attitude change and RQs and identifies procedural and content limitations not previously under control. It is discussed that controlling these limitations would make it possible to obtain new effects and potentially new explanations to them. In the final section new avenues for research and professional applications are proposed. Keywords: attitudes, change, rhetorical questions, revisionLas preguntas retóricas (PRs) corresponden a aquellas que sugieren una cierta respuesta de manera implícita en su conformación lingüística (Howard, 1990;Petty, Cacioppo & Heesacker, 1981;Zillmann, 1972) o, dicho de otro modo, corresponden a una afirmación con formato interrogativo (Domitrescu, 1992;Escandell, 1984;Gutiérrez, 1998;Igualada, 1994). Por ejemplo, la pregunta ¿A quién no le gustaría ganar la lotería? es retórica, dado que la afirmación implícita es "A todo el mundo le gustaría ganar la lotería". Dado que preguntar es una herramienta lingüística común en la interacción humana, el uso de este tipo de preguntas puede realizarse en todo contexto en el que sea necesario transmitir información a una persona o grupo. Su uso es bastante frecuente en diferentes campos profesionales, como la publicidad (Howard, 1991) o la terapia (Barraca, 2009;Ellis, 1962), lo que sugiere que es útil para cambiar opiniones y actitudes en las personas que las reciben. Sin embargo, la psicología social ha descubierto que la presencia de PRs puede tanto aumentar como reducir el cambio de ac...

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

Cited by 46 publications

References 80 publications

Evaluating the Message or the Messenger? Implications for Self-Validation in Persuasion

Evaluating the Message or the Messenger? Implications for Self-Validation in Persuasion

Multiple roles for majority versus minority source status on persuasion when source status follows the message

El Estudio de las Preguntas Retóricas en el Cambio de Actitudes

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