Communication-Induced Persuasion or Resistance: Processes and Effects of Who Says What to Whom

This chapter provides an overview of the many facets of the relations between persuasive communication and attitude change, exploring the processes and effects of who says what to whom. It begins with a brief summary of some of the major theoretical perspectives on how communications affect attitude change and continues with a review of various causes of communication-induced attitude change, including source reinforcers and source numeracy. The nature and structure of persuasive messages are discussed in terms of more cognitive influences, such as anticipated communication and argument quality and quantity, and more affective influences such as mere exposure and evaluative conditioning. Also discussed are individual differences in recipients’ attitude strength, structure, and function, and their motivation and ability to process persuasive messages, as well as interactions between communicator, message, and recipient variables. Finally, we consider the effects of communication-induced attitude change in terms of persistence of attitude change, behavioral effects, and the relation between persuasive messages and implicit attitude change.