Persistence of induced opinion change and retention of the inducing message contents.

Abstract

Induced opinion change shows a strong positive relationship to recall of the contents of the persuasive message 1 week after receipt of the communication but tends, over time, to become functionally autonomous of recall of at least some aspects of the contents of the inducing message. Induced opinion change was found to decay rectilinearly over a 6-week period, while recall of contents showed a negatively accelerated decay trend. Opinion change and recall of the message topic were positively related 1 week after the communication, but negatively related 6 weeks later. Recall of the side taken and of the specific arguments used were positively related to opinion change both 1 week and 6 weeks after the communication. Recall of source was complexly related to opinion change. (23 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)