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Abstract
Intense language, under many conditions, has been shown to substantially increase attitude change. However, the effect of language intensity on actual behavior has rarely been examined and the effectiveness of intense messages has never been tested in new media environments. The current study empirically examined the effect of the level of intense language employed in an electronic mail survey by a university alumni association. Email records of 11,363 alumni at a large public southwestern university were extracted and assigned randomly to one of two alumni association surveys, a low language intensity survey or a high language intensity survey and emailed to the alumni database. Results supported the hypothesis that the survey introduced with higher levels of intense language yielded significantly higher response rates. Implications for both communication theory and for the more pragmatic concern of increasing survey responses are provided.
