Pitch as a recipient, channel, and context factor affecting thought reliance and persuasion

Three experiments tested how low versus high pitch generated from sources beyond a message communicator can affect reliance on thoughts and influence recipients' attitudes. First, participants wrote positive or negative thoughts about an exam proposal (Experiments 1, 2) or their academic abilities (Experiment 3). Then, pitch from the message recipient (Experiment 1), channel (Experiment 2), or context (Experiment 3) was manipulated to be high or low. Experiment 1 showed that when participants vocally expressed their thoughts using low (vs. high) pitch, thoughts had a greater effect on attitudes toward exams. Experiment 2 revealed low (vs. high) pitch sounds from the keyboard participants used to write their thoughts produced the same effect on thought usage. Experiment 3 demonstrated that thoughts influenced attitudes more when listed while background music was low (vs. high) Pitch can influence attitudes through a meta-cognitive thought reliance process whether emerging from the recipient, channel, or context

Metacognition and Emotion: the Dynamics of Emotions and Confidence

The present talk offers a metacognitive perspective on emotions by examining how confidence, a secondary or metacognition, can both affect emotions and be influenced by emotions. We present two sets of findings bearing on this notion. The first set of findings examines how emotions are affected by the confidence with which emotional thoughts (i.e., the thoughts leading to the emotion) were generated. The second set of findings examines how emotions can influence persuasion by affecting confidence in one's thoughts. Taken together, we offer a theoretical framework based on metacognition to gain better insight into understanding how emotions affect consumer persuasion and behavior