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The Alpha and the Omega: Testing the Strength of Persuasion
| Title: | The Alpha and the Omega: Testing the Strength of Persuasion |
| Author: | Tharp, Valerie M. |
| Description: | The present study examined the relationship between Alpha strategies of persuasion, Omega strategies of persuasion, and different levels of threat to attitudinal freedom (reactance) on agreement with a communicator. Specifically, the Alpha strategy of similarity, the Omega strategy of depersonalization, and high/low threat levels were studied to test the hypothesis that agreement could be significantly higher in the similar, depersonalized, and high threat condition compared to the other conditions. Participants were randomly assigned to one of eight conditions: high threat/similar/depersonalized, high threat/similar/personalized, high threat/non-similar/depersonalized, high threat/non-similar/personalized, low threat/similar/depersonalized, low threat/similar/personalized, low threat/non-similar/depersonalized, and low threat/non-similar/personalized. Participants were told that they were either similar or non-similar to a paragraph author, read an opinionated paragraph containing differing levels of threats and personalization, and then answered a questionnaire to measure agreement. Although the expected 2 (Alpha strategy of similarity: high vs. low) _ 2 (Threat to attitudinal freedom: high vs. low) _ 2 (Omega strategy of depersonalization: personalized vs. depersonalized) three-way interaction was not found, results did demonstrate that both similarity and depersonalization were significant predictors of agreement with the communicator across all conditions. |
| Permanent Link: |
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=marietta1153763654
http://hdl.handle.net/2374.OX/4176 |
| Date: | 2006 |
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