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Argument Quality (argument + quality)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Psychology	40%

Selected Abstracts

When is a minority a minority?

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2002
Active versus passive minority advocacy, social influence
Some conceptions of minority influence have stressed the impact of the mere existence of an unpopular, deviant position. Others (e.g. Moscovici, 1980) have emphasized the active opposition of a committed minority to a powerful majority. An active advocate is defined as one that is aware of the level of support for his/her position, expresses his/her position openly, and whose outcomes may depend on others' agreement/disagreement. In the present study, the potential moderating role of an advocates' active/passive status on opinion change was examined. When the issue was highly relevant to the target of influence, all that mattered was the quality of the source's arguments (i.e. majority, minority, active source,=,passive source). When the issue was not highly relevant to the target, though, active and passive sources had different impact: (1) active sources prompted attention to argument quality (for minorities) and heuristic compliance (for majorities); (2) passive sources prompted insensitivity to both the popularity of the position and to the quality of the source's arguments. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Style Versus Substance: Multiple Roles of Language Power in Persuasion

JOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2008
John R. Sparks
This research explores how message style influences persuasion in conjunction with message substance. Using the elaboration likelihood model, the study operationalizes message style as language power and message substance as argument quality, then considers the multiple roles language power can assume in persuasion. The authors investigate whether language power acts as a (a) central argument, (b) peripheral cue, (c) biasing influence on assessment of arguments, or (d) distraction that inhibits argument processing. Additionally, they manipulate exposure time to examine how processing ability influences which persuasive roles language power assumes. The authors find empirical support for the multiple-roles perspective and conclude that the role of message style depends partially on the ability to process message details. [source]

Values-based Political Messages and Persuasion: Relationships among Speaker, Recipient, and Evoked Values

POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2005
Thomas E. Nelson
The persuasive power of values-based political messages may depend on recipients having (1) shared values with the speaker (a type of personal identity match); (2) shared political party identifications with the speaker (a type of social identity match); and/or (3) expectations about values traditionally associated with different political parties (an expectancy violation/confirmation). The independent and joint effects of these factors on the success of a persuasive message were examined, using the theoretical framework of dual-process models of persuasion. Participants (N = 301), classified according to their party identifications and primary value orientations, read a political speech that varied by argument quality, speaker party, and values evoked. Results indicated that value matching promotes close attention to the message, while party mismatching increases message rejection. These effects depend to some extent, however, on expectancies about values traditionally associated with different parties. Participants especially rejected messages from rival party members when the speaker evoked unexpected values. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the efficacy of values-based political communication. [source]

Understanding two-sided persuasion: An empirical assessment of theoretical approaches

PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 7 2007
Martin EisendArticle first published online: 24 MAY 200
This study tries to evaluate empirically the validity and generality of causal models based on alternative theories and the integrative frame-work provided by Crowley and Hoyer (1994) to explain the underlying persuasive mechanisms of two-sided messages in marketing. In addition to an empirical test of the models, the study theoretically discusses and empirically explores suggestions for model modifications. Applying meta-analytic-based causal estimation, the results show that the parsimonious model based on attribution theory provides high generality and affirms the prevalent use of the theory in previous studies. All other models could be meaningfully improved by integrating alternative processes of less-effortful message elaboration as suggested by dual-process theories. The results suggest that the impact of argument quality in two-sided messages is in line with previous models assuming effortful message elaboration, while less-effortful elaboration processes seem to rely on the number of arguments used in two-sided messages. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

The effects of structural and grammatical variables on persuasion: An elaboration likelihood model perspective

PSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 4 2003
Charles S. Areni
In research examining the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), argument quality has generally been treated as an expedient methodological tool rather than a conceptually meaningful construct. Differences between strong and weak arguments have typically been cast in terms of pretest results and/or the ad hoc interpretations of researchers. Given the importance of creating effective verbal arguments in marketing communications, a stronger theoretical rationale is needed to establish why, exactly, some verbal arguments are more persuasive than others. Drawing on the literature in logic, social psychology, jurisprudence, and sociolinguistics, this research examines various structural and grammatical elements of verbal arguments in order to develop conceptually meaningful definitions of argument quality and more rigorous theoretical accounts of argument-driven persuasion within the ELM. Several research propositions are derived in order to suggest directions for future research on argument-driven persuasion. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]