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- Title
EFFECTIVENESS OF FOREWARNING IN DEVELOPING RESISTANCE TO PERSUASION.
- Authors
Mcguire, William J.; Papageorgis, Demetrios
- Abstract
This article studies the effectiveness of forewarning in developing resistance to persuasion. Attempts have been made to test hypotheses derived from the "selective exposure" postulate, which implies that people characteristically defend their beliefs by avoiding exposure to dissonant information. Such a defense would leave the person's belief in a state analogous to the health of a person brought up in a germ-free environment-appearing very vigorous but highly vulnerable when suddenly exposed to hostile material. Psychologist Carl Hovland has suggested that this state of affairs helps explain a striking discrepancy between laboratory and field studies of persuasion. Laboratory studies, which tend to produce massive opinion change, are usually designed so that the person is compelled to expose himself to the persuasive messages, while in field studies, which tend to produce relatively trivial opinion changes, the person is allowed much more control over the extent of his exposure. The analogy to the medical situation can be pursued as regards techniques for developing belief resistance.
- Subjects
PERSUASION (Psychology); APPLIED psychology; BELIEF &; doubt; HOVLAND, Carl I., 1912-1961; PSYCHOLOGY; RESISTANCE (Philosophy)
- Publication
Public Opinion Quarterly, 1962, Vol 26, Issue 1, p24
- ISSN
0033-362X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1086/267068