Two experiments were conducted to examine whether attitudes based on affect or cognition were more susceptible to persuasive appeals that matched versus mismatched the basis of attitudes. Experiment 1 provided evidence for a relative affective/cognitive persuasion matching effect and suggested that this matching effect could not be accounted for by attribute matching rather than affective/cognitive matching. Regardless of whether the persuasive appeal matched or mismatched the attitude on the attribute dimension, an affective/cognitive persuasion matching effect occurred. Experiment 2 examined whether the affective/cognitive matching effect could be accounted for by direct/indirect experience persuasion matching. Holding the direct/indirect experience distinction constant, results again demonstrated a relative affective/cognitive persuasion matching effect. Analyses of both experiments using previously validated measures of affect and cognition confirmed that manipulations of the affective and cognitive bases of attitudes were successful.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Abelson, R. P. , Kinder, D. R., Peters, M. D., & Fiske, S. T. (1982). Affective and semantic components in political person perception. Journal of Personality of Social Psychology, 42, 619-630.
2.
Bagozzi, R. P. (1978). The construct validity of the affective, behavioral, and cognitive components of attitude by the analysis of covariance structures. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 13, 9-31.
3.
Batra, R. , & Ray, M. L. (1985). How advertising works at contact. In L. Alwitt & A. Mitchell (Eds.), Psychological processes and advertising effects: Theory, research, and applications. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
4.
Batra, R. , & Ray, M. L. (1986). Affective responses mediating acceptance of advertising. Journal of Consumer Research, 13, 234-249.
5.
Becker, S. L. (1963). Research on emotional and logical proofs. Southern Speech Journal, 28, 198-207.
6.
Breckler, S. J. (1984). Empirical validation of affect, behavior, and cognition as distinct components of attitude. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 47, 1191-1205.
7.
Breckler, S. J. , & Wiggins, E. C. (1989). Affect versus evaluation in the structure of attitudes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 253-271.
8.
Cacioppo, J. T. , Petty, R. E., & Geen, T. R. (1989). Attitude structure and function: From the tripartite to the homeostasis model of attitudes. In A. Pratkanis, S. Breckler, & A. Greenwald (Eds.), Attitude structure and function. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
9.
Cacioppo, J. T. , Petty, R. E., & Kao, C. F. (1984). The efficient assessment of need for cognition. Journal of Personality Assessment, 48, 306-307.
10.
Chaiken, S. (1980). Heuristic versus systematic information processing in the use of source versus message cues in persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 752-766.
11.
Chaiken, S. , & Baldwin, M. W. (1981). Affective-cognitive consistency and the effect of salient behavioral information on self-perception of attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 1-12.
12.
Chaiken, S. , Pomerantz, E. M., & Giner-Sorolla, R. (1995). Structural consistency and attitude strength. In R. E. Petty & J. A. Krosnick (Eds.), Attitude strength: Antecedents and consequences. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
13.
Chen, W. K. (1933). The influence of oral propaganda material upon students’ attitudes. Archives of Psychology, 150.
14.
Crites, S. L. , Fabrigar, L. R., & Petty, R. E. (1994). Measuring the affective and cognitive properties of attitudes: Conceptual and methodological issues. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 619-634.
15.
Cromwell, H. (1950). The relative effect on audience attitude of the first versus the second argumentative speech of a series. Speech Monographs, 17, 105-122.
16.
Eagly, A. H. , Mladinic, A., & Otto, S. (1994). Cognitive and affective bases of attitudes toward social groups and social policies. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 30, 113-137.
17.
Edell, J. A. , & Burke, M. C. (1987). The power of feelings in understanding advertising effects. Journal of Consumer Research, 14, 421-433.
18.
Edwards, K. (1990). The interplay of affect and cognition in attitude formation and change. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 59, 202-216.
19.
Edwards, K. , & von Hippel, W. (1995). Hearts and minds: The priority of affective versus cognitive factors in person perception. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 996-1011.
20.
Eldersveld, S. J. (1956). Experimental propaganda techniques and voting behavior. American Political Science Review, 50, 154-165.
21.
Fabrigar, L. R. (1995). The role of the affective and cognitive bases of attitudes in susceptibility to affectively and cognitively based persuasion. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The Ohio State University.
22.
Fazio, R. H. , & Zanna, M. P. (1978). Attitudinal qualities relating to the strength of the attitude-behavior relationship. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 14, 398-408.
23.
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. Evanston, IL: Row, Peterson, & Company.
24.
Granberg, D. & Brown, T. A. (1989). On affect and cognition in politics. Social Psychology Quarterly, 52, 171-182.
25.
Hartmann, G. W. (1936). A field experiment on the comparative effectiveness of “emotional” and “rational” political leaflets in determining election results. Journal of abnormal and social psychology, 31, 99-114.
26.
Haugtvedt, C. P. , & Wegener, D. T. (1994). Message order effects in persuasion: An attitude strength perspective. Journal of Consumer Research, 21, 205-218.
27.
Hovland, C. I. , & Mandell, W. (1957). Is there a “Law of primacy” in persuasion? In C. I. Hovland, A. S. Luchins, W. Mandell, E. H. Campbell, T. C. Brock, W. J. McGuire, R. L. Feierbend, & N. H. Anderson (Eds.), The order of presentation in persuasion. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
28.
Insko, C. A. , & Schopler, J. (1967). Triadic consistency: A statement of affective-cognitive conative consistency. Psychological Review, 74, 361-376.
29.
Katz, D. , & Stotland, E. (1959). A preliminary statement to a theory of attitude structure and change. In S. Koch (Ed.), Psychology: A study of a science: Vol. 3. Formulations of the person and the social context. New York: McGraw-Hill.
30.
Knepprath, E. , & Clevenger, T. Jr. (1965). Reasoned discourse and motive appeals in selected political speeches. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 51, 152-156.
31.
Knower, F. H. (1935). Experimental studies of change in attitude: I. A study of the effect of oral arguments on changes of attitudes. Journal of Social Psychology, 6, 315-347.
32.
Kothandapani, V. (1971). Validation of feeling, belief, and intention to act as three components of attitude and their contribution to prediction of contraceptive behavior. Journal of Experiment Social Psychology, 19, 321-333.
33.
Lana, R. E. (1961). Familiarity and the order of presentation of persuasive communications. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 62, 573-577.
34.
Lana, R. E. (1963). Controversy of the topic and the order of presentation of persuasive communications. Psychological Reports, 12, 163-170.
35.
Matthews, J. (1947). The effect of loaded language on audience comprehension of speeches. Speech Monographs, 14, 176-187.
36.
Menefee, S. C. , & Granneberg, A. G. (1940). Propaganda and opinions on foreign policy. Journal of Social Psychology, 11, 393-404.
37.
Messe, L. A. , Bodenhausen, G. V., & Nelson, T. D. (1995). Affectcognition congruence and attitude change: A re-examination. Paper presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Society, New York.
38.
Millar, M. G. (1992). Effects of experience on matched and mismatched arguments and attitudes. Social Behavior and Personality, 20, 47-56.
39.
Millar, M. G. , & Millar, K. U. (1990). Attitude change as a function of attitude type and argument type. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59, 217-228.
40.
Millar, M. G. , & Millar, K. U. (1993). Changing breast self-examination attitudes: Influences of repression-sensitization and attitudemessage match. Journal of Research in Personality, 27, 301-314.
41.
Millar, M. G. , & Tesser, A. (1986). Effects of affective and cognitive focus on the attitude-behavior relation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 270-276.
42.
Millar, M. G. , & Tesser, A. (1989). The effects of affective-cognitive consistency and thought on the attitude-behavior relation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 189-202.
43.
Millar, M. G. , & Tesser, A. (1992). The role of beliefs and feelings in guiding behavior: The mismatch model. In L. Martin & A. Tesser (Eds.), The construction of social judgments. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
44.
Norman, R. (1975). Affective-cognitive consistency, attitudes, conformity, and behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 83-91.
45.
Ostrom, T. M. (1969). The relationship between the affective, behavioral, and cognitive components of attitude. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 5, 12-30.
46.
Ostrom, T. M. , Skowronski, J. J., & Nowak, A. (1994). The cognitive foundations of attitudes: It’s a wonderful construct. In P. G. Devine, D. L. Hamilton, & T. M. Ostrom (Eds.), Social cognition: Impact on social psychology. San Diego: Academic Press.
47.
Pallak, S. R. , Murroni, E., & Koch, J. (1983). Communicator attractiveness and expertise, emotional versus rational appeals, and persuasion: A heuristic versus systematic processing interpretation. Social Cognition, 2, 122-141.
48.
Pavio, A. (1986). Mental representations: A dual coding approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
49.
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.
50.
Petty, R. E. , & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). Communication and persuasion: Central and peripheral routes to attitude change. New York: Springer-Verlag.
51.
Petty, R. E. , Gleicher, F., & Baker, S. M. (1991). Multiple roles for affect in persuasion. In J. Forgas (Ed.), Emotion and social judgments. New York: Pergamon.
52.
Rosenberg, M. J. , & Hovland, C. I. (1960). Cognitive, affective, and behavioral components of attitude. In M. Rosenberg, C. Hovland, W. McGuire, R. Abelson, & J. Brehm (Eds.), Attitude organization and change. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
53.
Rosenberg, M. J. (1960). An analysis of affective-cognitive consistency. In M. Rosenberg, C. Hovland, W. McGuire, R. Abelson, & J. Brehm (Eds.), Attitude organization and change. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
54.
Rosenberg, M. J. (1968). Hedonism, inauthenticity, and other goals toward expansion of consistency theory. In R. P. Abelson, E. Aronson, W. J. McGuire, T. M. Newcomb, M. J. Rosenberg, & P. H. Tannenbaum (Eds.), Theories of cognitive consistency: A sourcebook. Chicago: Rand McNally.
55.
Rosselli, F. , Skelly, J. J., & Mackie, D. M. (1995). Processing rational and emotional messages: The cognitive and affective mediation of persuasion. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 31, 163-190.
56.
Ruechelle, R. C. (1958). An experimental study of audience recognition of emotional and intellectual appeals in persuasion. Speech Monographs, 25, 49-58.
57.
Stangor, C. , Sullivan, L. A., & Ford, T. E. (1991). Affective and cognitive determinants of prejudice. Social Cognition, 9, 359-380.
58.
Tulving, E. (1972). Episodic and semantic memory. In E. Tulving & E. Donaldson (Eds.), Organization and memory. New York: Academic Press.
59.
Weiss, W. (1960). Emotional arousal and attitude change. Psychological Reports, 6, 267-280.
60.
Zajonc, R. B. (1980). Feeling and thinking: Preferences need no inferences. American Psychologist, 35, 151-175.
61.
Zajonc, R. B. , & Markus, H. (1982). Affective and cognitive factors in preferences. Journal of Consumer Research, 9, 123-131.
62.
Zanna, M. P. , & Rempel, J. K. (1988). Attitudes: A new look at an old concept. In D. Bar-Tal & A. Kruglanski (Ed.), The social psychology of knowledge. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
