Acceptance yielding and impact: cognitive processes in persuasion.

Abstract

Communication and persuasion research has been hindered by a lack of attention to the decisive role played by the content of a persuasive communication. To be effective the statements contained in a message must directly or indirectly influence the primary beliefs that determine the behavior targeted for intervention. These primary beliefs include beliefs about the consequences of a given behavior or normative beliefs about that behavior beliefs that link the target to various positive or negative attributes and beliefs that are inferentially related to a certain conclusion. The first step in the construction of a persuasive communication is selection of a set of arguments that attack beliefs about the performance of the targeted behavior. For these arguments to be effective the receiver must accept and yield to the evidence contained in the argument consider the evidence to be relevant and ideally undergo a change in primary beliefs not explicitly mentioned in the argument. The content of the message employed is far more significant than factors such as the power and credibility of the message source the type of appeal (i.e. rational or emotional) and receiver factors such as self-esteem.