Persuasive one- and two-sided communications were placed in two competing mock proposals and evaluated by 27 experienced government evaluators as subjects. The experimental conditions closely simulated real proposals and the mechanics of a government evaluation process. Evaluation scores, although in the predicted direction, did not differ significantly and failed to substantiate the advantage of two-sided communications as reported by Hovland, Janis, and Kelley (1953).
HovlandC. I.JanisI. L.KelleyH. H.Communication and persuasion. New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univer. Press, 1933.
3.
McGuireW. J.The effectiveness of supportive and refutational defenses in immunizing and restoring beliefs against persuasion. Sociometry, 1961, 24, 184–197.
4.
McGuireW. J.Inducing resistance to persuasion, some contemporary approaches. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 1964, 1, 191–229.