Whatever? The effect of social exclusion on adopting persuasive messages

ABSTRACT

The aversive state of social exclusion can result in a broad range of cognitive deficits. Being unable or unmotivated to process relevant information, we assumed that social exclusion would also affect the success of persuasive attempts. We hypothesized that socially excluded people would adopt attitudes regardless of persuasion quality. In three studies using different manipulations of social exclusion and persuasion, we showed that participants who were socially excluded adopted persuasive messages regardless of argument quality. In contrast, this undifferentiated response was not shown by socially included participants who were more persuaded by high- compared to low-quality arguments. In Study 3, we moreover revealed that this pattern could only be replicated in reliable situations—that is, when the communicator appeared credible. These findings support the assumption that social exclusion can lead to reduced processing of information.

KEYWORDS:

• Cognition
• persuasion
• social exclusion

Acknowledgment

The authors wish to thank Sarah Danböck, Katharina Ritschel, Clara Sowade, Friedemann Starke, Sara Volkmer, and Regina Wendlinger for assistance during data collection.

Notes

1. To ensure that the appearance of both speakers alone was associated with different credibility levels, we conducted a pre-test. Nineteen participants rated on four items for each speaker how knowledgeable, qualified, competent, and sufficiently expert the speaker is to make serious recommendations about sustainability (based on Pierro et al., 2012) on 1 = not at all to 7 = very much response scales (α = .91–.93). Leonardo DiCaprio was experienced as significantly less credible (M = 3.58, SD = 1.28) than John Wetherand (M = 5.55, SD = 0.92), t (18) = −5.57, p < .001, d = 1.81, 95% CI = [0.93, 2.66].

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michaela Pfundmair

Michaela Pfundmair is a Professor at the University of Munich. Her main research focuses on the causes and consequences of social exclusion. Nilüfer Aydin is a Professor at the University of Klagenfurt. Her research involves social exclusion at the individual and group level. Dieter Frey is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Munich. Inter alia, his research investigates decision-making behavior, team work, leadership, and systems of values.

Nilüfer Aydin

Michaela Pfundmair is a Professor at the University of Munich. Her main research focuses on the causes and consequences of social exclusion. Nilüfer Aydin is a Professor at the University of Klagenfurt. Her research involves social exclusion at the individual and group level. Dieter Frey is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Munich. Inter alia, his research investigates decision-making behavior, team work, leadership, and systems of values.

Dieter Frey

Michaela Pfundmair is a Professor at the University of Munich. Her main research focuses on the causes and consequences of social exclusion. Nilüfer Aydin is a Professor at the University of Klagenfurt. Her research involves social exclusion at the individual and group level. Dieter Frey is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Munich. Inter alia, his research investigates decision-making behavior, team work, leadership, and systems of values.