A hypothesis derived from current two-route models of persuasion was examined-that a communicator's perceived honesty is a determinant of the extent to which attitude change is based on scrutiny of the substance of the persuasive message. Specifically, cognitive misers are expected to forgo effortful message scrutiny when a communicator can be assumed to be truthful. In a preliminary study, honesty was found to be the source characteristic most highly associated with providing an accurate message. Then, in three experiments, source honesty was manipulated either directly (by presenting information about past honesty of the source) or indirectly (using an expectancy confirmation! disconfirmation procedure). In all three studies, post message attitudes of individuals low in the need for cognition (NC) cognitive misers-were less dependent on message scrutiny when the source was assumed to be relatively honest. For high-NC individuals, message scrutiny did not differ depending on the source.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Axsom, D. , Yates, S., & Chaiken, S. (1987). Audience response as a heuristic cue in persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 30-40.
2.
Baker, S. M. , & Petty, R. E. (1994). Majority and minority influence: Source-position imbalance as a determinant of message scrutiny. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 5-19.
3.
Bless, H. , Bohner, G., Schwarz, N., & Strack, F. (1990). Mood and persuasion: A cognitive response analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 16, 331-345.
4.
Burnkrant, R. E. , & Unnava, H. R. (1989). Self-referencing: A strategy for increasing processing of message content. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 15, 628-638.
5.
Cacioppo, J. T. , & Petty, R. E. (1981). Social psychological procedures for cognitive response assessment: The thought listing technique. In T. Merluzzi, C. Glass, & M. Genest (Eds.), Cognitive assessment (pp. 309-342). New York: Guilford.
6.
Cacioppo, J. T. , & Petty, R. E. (1982). The need for cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42, 116-131.
7.
Cacioppo, J. T. , Petty, R. E., & Kao, C. (1984). The efficient assessment of need for cognition. Journal of Personality Assessment, 48, 306-307.
8.
Cacioppo, J. T. , Petty, R. E., & Morris, K. J. (1983). Effects of need for cognition on message evaluation, recall, and persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 805-818.
9.
Chaiken, S. (1980). Heuristic versus systematic information processing and the use of source versus message cues in persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 752-766.
10.
Chaiken, S. , Liberman, A., & Eagly, A. H. (1989). Heuristic and systematic information processing within and beyond the persuasion context. In J. S. Uleman & J. A. Bargh (Eds.), Unintended thought (pp. 212-252). New York: Guilford.
11.
DeBono, K. G. , & Harnish, R. J. (1988). Source expertise, source attractiveness, and the processing of persuasive information: A functional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 541-546.
12.
Eagly, A. H. , & Chaiken, S. (1975). An attribution analysis of the effect of communicator characteristics on opinion change: The case of communicator attractiveness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 136-144.
13.
Eagly, A. H. , & Chaiken, S. (1993). The psychology of attitudes. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
14.
Eagly, A. H. , Chaiken, S., & Wood, W. (1981). An attribution analysis of persuasion. In J. H. Harvey, W. J. Ickes, & R. F. Kidd (Eds.), New directions in attribution research (Vol. 3). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
15.
Eagly, A. H. , Wood, W., & Chaiken, S. (1978). Causal inferences about communicators and their effects on opinion change. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 424-435.
16.
Enzle, M. E. , & Schopflocher, D. (1978). Instigation of attributional processes by attributional questions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 4, 595-599.
17.
Greenwald, A. G. (1968). Cognitive learning, cognitive response to persuasion and attitude change. In A. G. Greenwald, T. C. Brock, & T. M. Ostrom (Eds.), Psychological foundations of attitudes (pp. 147-170). New York: Academic Press.
18.
Haugtvedt, C. P. , & Petty, R. E. (1992). Personality and persuasion: Need for cognition moderates the persistence and resistance of attitude changes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 308-319.
19.
Haugtvedt, C. P. , Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1992). Need for cognition and advertising: Understanding the role of personality variables in consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 1, 239-260.
20.
Heesacker, M. H. , Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1983). Field dependence and attitude change: Source credibility can alter persuasion by affecting message-relevant thinking. Journal of Personality, 51, 653-666.
21.
Hovland, C. I. , Janis, I. L., & Kelley, H. H. (1953). Communication and persuasion: Psychological studies of opinion change. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
22.
Kelman, H. (1958). Compliance, identification, and internalization: Three processes of attitude change. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2, 51-60.
23.
Leippe, M. R. , & Elkin, R. A. (1987). When motives clash: Issue involvement and response involvement as determinants of persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 269-278.
24.
Mackie, D. M. (1987). Systematic and nonsystematic processing of majority and minority persuasive communications. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 41-52.
25.
Mackie, D. M. , & Asuncion, A. G. (1990). On-line and memory-based modification of attitudes: Determinants of message recall-attitude change correspondence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 5-16.
26.
Mackie, D. M. , & Worth, L. T. (1989). Processing deficits and the mediation of positive affect in persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 27-40.
27.
Maheswaran, D. , & Chaiken, S. (1991). Promoting systematic processing in low-motivation settings: Effects of incongruent information on processing and judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 13-33.
28.
McGuire, W. J. (1969). The nature of attitudes and attitude change. In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology. (2nd ed. Vol. 3, pp. 136-314). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
29.
Miller, N. , & Colman, D. E. (1981). Methodological issues in analyzing the cognitive mediation of persuasion. In R. E. Petty, T. M. Ostrom, & T. C. Brock (Eds.), Cognitive responses in persuasion (pp. 105-133). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
30.
Petty, R. E. , & Cacioppo, J. T. (1979). Issue involvement can increase or decrease persuasion by enhancing message-relevant cognitive responses. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1915-1926.
31.
Petty, R. E. , & Cacioppo, J. T. (1981). Attitudes and persuasion: Classic and contemporary approaches. Dubuque, IA: William C. Brown.
32.
Petty, R. E. , & Cacioppo, J. T. (1984). The effects of involvement on responses to argument quantity and quality: Central and peripheral routes to persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 69-81.
33.
Petty, R. E. , & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). Communication and persuasion: Central and perpheral routes to attitude change. New York: Springer-Verlag.
34.
Petty, R. E. , Cacioppo, J. T., & Heesacker, M. (1981). Effects of rhetorical questions on persuasion: A cognitive response analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 432-440.
35.
Petty, R. E. , Wells, G. L., & Brock, T. C. (1976). Distraction can enhance or reduce yielding to propaganda: Thought disruption versus effort justification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 874-884.
36.
Pyszczynski, T. A. , & Greenberg, J. (1981). Role of disconfirmed expectancies in the instigation of attributional processing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 31-38.
37.
Taylor, S. E. (1981). The interface of cognitive and social psychology. In J. H. Harvey (Ed.), Cognition, social behavior, and the environment. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
38.
Wong, P. T. P. , & Weiner, B. (1981). When people ask "why" questions, and the heuristics of attributional search. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 650-663.
39.
Wood, W. , & Eagly, A. H. (1981). Stages in the analysis of persuasive messages: The role of causal attributions and message comprehension. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 246-259.
40.
Wood, W. , Kallgren, C. A., & Preisler, R. M. (1985). Access to attitude-relevant information in memory as a determinant of persuasion: The role of message attributes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 21, 73-85.
