Initial Beliefs and Attitudinal Latitudes as Factors in Persuasion

Abstract

This study examined how persuasion relates to structural characteristics of attitudes, including the number and supportiveness of initial beliefs as well as the widths of latitudes of rejection. As predicted, the tendency for strong arguments to persuade more than weak arguments was more pronounced for message recipients who retrieved more beliefs relative to those who retrieved fewer beliefs. Also, when initial beliefs supported the proposal, high belief-retrieval subjects were more persuaded than low-belief retrieval subjects, but this relation also held when initial beliefs opposed the proposal. Also as predicted, wide latitudes of rejection produced resistance to persuasion when the message position was counter attitudinal but not when it was proattitudinal, and this pattern was pronounced when subjects had many beliefs. Other analyses suggested that the persuasive effects of belief retrieval are due not to differential actual knowledge but rather to an issue-specific motivational advantage.