The Role of the Affective and Cognitive Bases of Attitudes in Susceptibility to Affectively and Cognitively Based Persuasion

Abstract

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.