When expertise backfires: Contrast and assimilation effects in persuasion

Gerd Bohner · Markus Ruder · Hans‐Peter Erb

133 citations0/0 files storedBritish Journal of Social Psychology

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Psychology of Social Influence Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics Social and Intergroup Psychology

Abstract

It was proposed that source cues bias message processing in a direction opposite to cue valence if message content violates cue-based expectancies (contrast hypothesis), but consistent with cue valence if message content is ambiguous (bias hypothesis). In line with these hypotheses, students (N = 123) reported less favourable thoughts and attitudes after reading weak arguments presented by a high (vs. low) expertise source (Expts 1 and 2), and reported more favourable thoughts after reading strong arguments presented by a low (vs. high) expertise source (Expt 2). Conversely, students' thoughts and attitudes were more (less) favourable when a high (low) expertise source presented ambiguous arguments (Expt 2). Results are discussed in relation to dual- vs. single-process accounts of persuasion and models of assimilation and contrast in social judgment.

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References

1997The Psychology of Attitudes 2015Communication and Persuasion: Central and Peripheral Routes to Attitude Change 1981Personal involvement as a determinant of argument-based persuasion.1994Heuristic processing can bias systematic processing: Effects of source credibility, argument ambiguity, and task importance on attitude judgment.1991Promoting systematic processing in low-motivation settings: Effect of incongruent information on processing and judgment.1980Toward A Theory of Conversion Behavior 1986Identification and inferential processes in dispositional attribution.2014Memory and Cognition in Its Social Context

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