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Comprehension's Role in Persuasion: The Case of Its Moderating Effect on the Persuasive Impact of Source Cues (1991)
| Content Provider | CiteSeerX |
|---|---|
| Author | Ratneshwar, S. Chaiken, Shelly |
| Abstract | A study of reactions to a novel product attributed the invention to either an expert or a novice. Comprehension of the product description was manipulated by varying information exposure time (Study 1) and contextual prior knowledge (Study 2). As predicted by the heuristic-systematic model, comprehensibility moderated the per-suasive impact of source expertise. When comprehension was low, subjects relied on the inventor's expertise in forming their attitudes toward the product, but when comprehension and, hence, systematic processing were higher, source expertise had no impact on subjects ' attitudes. In a pilot study, however, subjects attributed comprehensibility to the source and derogated incomprehensible communications. W hat role does message comprehension play in persuasion? Past theorizing and research have generally focused on the proposition that good com-prehension increases persuasion. Perhaps because of this narrow focus and the equivocal nature of relevant em-pirical findings, the role of comprehension has received relatively little attention by contemporary researchers. In this article, we attempt to redress this neglect by pre-senting evidence for a more multifaceted view of this variable's role in persuasion. The proposition that comprehension mediates per-suasion stemmed initially from Hovland, Janis, and Kelley's (1953) assumption that persuasion variables (e.g., source expertise) can influence persuasion by their impact on the causally prior processes of attention to and comprehension of message content (see also McGuire 1972). Most data relevant to the comprehen-sion-as-mediator hypothesis come from studies that typically were designed for other purposes and that re-port correlations between memory for message content and postmessage attitudes. Although some researchers report a significant positive association between these |
| File Format | |
| Journal | Journal of Consumer Research |
| Language | English |
| Publisher Date | 1991-01-01 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
