Richness of fantasy and beliefs about attempts to refute a proposal as determinants of attitude

The influence of the personality variable “Richness of Fantasy” (RF) was studied in that persuasion situation where, prior to hearing a persuasive message, receivers learn of the success or failure of the forthcoming speaker when defending his proposal in an earlier encounter with an opposing speaker. High RF subjects’ attitudes toward the proposal became more favorable than did the attitudes of low RF subjects. When the unheard refutation was depicted as ineffective, attitudes toward the proposal became more favorable than when it was characterized as effective. The pattern of cell means supported the hypotheses tested.