Compliance‐gaining message strategies: A typology and some findings concerning effects of situational differences

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible control strategies a persuader may use and to determine how situational differences affect a persuader's strategic choices. By modifying an earlier study of Marwell and Schmitt, dimensions of control strategies were sought in four situations: interpersonal, long‐term consequences; interpersonal, short‐term consequences; nonin‐terpersonal, long‐term consequences; and noninterpersonal, short‐term consequences. Respondents were obtained from students at a Midwestern state university and a community college, and from army recruiters enrolled in a college extension course. Results indicated that situational differences affected the cluster structures and led to the conclusion that a general typology of control strategies is improbable.