Social cognition and discourse processing goals in the analysis of `ex-gay' rhetoric

This article reports a critical discourse analysis of a series of newspaper advertisements advocating \u27ex-gay\u27 ministries and \u27reparative therapy\u27 for homosexuality - interventions designed to \u27treat\u27 homosexuality through prayer or psychoanalysis. These ads, part of an effort to make \u27ex-gay\u27 discourse more central to the public communication strategies of conservative, anti-gay political groups, feature both narrative and statistical arguments that gay men and lesbians can be converted to heterosexuality. This study draws on quantitative social psychological research on antigay attitudes and Slater\u27s extension of the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion to establish the cognitive context for this discourse and to link the argumentative features of the advertisements to potential persuasive effects on different audiences. The analysis shows how different rhetorical strategies employed in these ads might differentially influence readers who are either \u27value protective\u27 or \u27value affirmative\u27 in their processing goals. Copyright © 2008 SAGE Publications