Processing of Behavior-Related Communications as a Function of Cognitive Elaboration: A Multiple-Stage Model

Abstract

157 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1997.A series of experiments provided support for a sequential-stage model of persuasion in which the type of cognitive processing that occurs at each stage depends on the ability to think about the information available. Both elaborative and nonelaborative processes are taken into account. Participants received a persuasive message advocating support of a referendum to institute comprehensive examinations at their university. When participants were able and motivated to concentrate on the message content, they computed their beliefs in the arguments presented and evaluated their implications, and used these beliefs and evaluations as bases for their attitude toward the behavior. This attitude, in turn, influenced their behavioral intentions. When participants were distracted from thinking carefully about the message content, however, they were more likely to use the message-irrelevant affect they happened to be experiencing as a basis for their attitudes toward the behavior, and these attitudes then affected their beliefs in and evaluations of the message content, as well as the behavior they manifested. The implications of these results for persuasion and attitude formation are discussed.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD