The effects of involvement, argument strength, and topic knowledge on persuasion

Blair Todd Johnson, Purdue University

Abstract

Outcome-relevant involvement is the motivational state produced by an association between an activated attitude and a particular aspect of the self concept, one's ability to attain desirable outcomes. Although theorists generally agree that this form of involvement should induce relatively unbiased processing of persuasive messages, the studies testing this view have produced somewhat unstable results. This dissertation took the view that outcome-relevant involvement should produce unbiased processing only under conditions of minimal topic-pertinent cognitive structure. Two experiments manipulated outcome-relevant involvement and found some support for the unbiased processing view. Specifically, in both experiments, the tendency for strong arguments to produce more agreement than weak arguments was more pronounced for high than low outcome-relevant subjects. However, consistent with the view of this dissertation, Experiment 1 found that this pattern was only present for subjects with a self-professed low level of knowledge, and Experiment 2 reproduced this result using an experimental variation of knowledgeability. It was concluded that the persuasive effects of outcome-relevant involvement may be limited to situations in which attitudes are particularly vulnerable to persuasive influence; thus, this form of involvement may not affect more firmly established attitudes.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Eagly, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Social psychology|Communication

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