The Role of Different Markers of Linguistic Powerlessness in Persuasion

Kevin L. Blankenship · Thomas Holtgraves

172 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Language and Social Psychology

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Psychology of Social Influence Linguistics and Discourse Analysis Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies

Abstract

This research examined the unique effects of different markers of linguistic powerlessness (hedges, hesitations, and tag questions) on persuasion. Participants read (Experiment 1) or listened to (Experiment 2) a communication advocating comprehensive exams. Under high message relevance, messages containing powerless markers resulted in less favorable attitudes and more negative perceptions of the message and source than did the control message. This effect occurred in both experiments and was a result of these markers lessening the impact of strong arguments; in Experiment 2, strong arguments were no more persuasive than weak arguments when the message contained any of these markers. Under low message relevance, tag questions improved the persuasiveness of message arguments relative to the control condition. These results demonstrate that the effects of linguistic markers of powerlessness are complex and depend on marker type and processing depth.

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References

1999Dual-process theories in social psychology 1986Communication and Persuasion 2015Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change 1976Language and Woman's Place 1999The elaboration likelihood model: Current status and controversies.1990Gender, language, and influence.1982Linguistic Evidence: Language, Power, and Strategy in the Courtroom 1999Persuasion by a Single Route: A View From the Unimodel

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