Naïve theories about persuasion: implications for information processing and consumer attitude change

Abstract

Consumers have knowledge about persuasion that includes naïve theories about persuasion. The present work examines naïve theories with regard to whether consumers associate the meaning of persuasion as something that is either good or bad. Furthermore, naïve theories about persuasion are demonstrated to affect how consumers respond to a persuasive message. Two studies are presented, one that manipulates and another that measures naïve theories related to the meaning of persuasion. The meaning associated with persuasion is found to play a significant role in influencing the amount of message elaboration that consumers engage in. Implications for attitude change and advertising, persuasion knowledge, and the importance for further research on the meanings attached to persuasion are discussed.

Keywords:

• persuasion knowledge
• naïve theories
• attitude change
• elaboration
• meaning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported in part by the following grants: Spanish grant No. PSI2011-26212 from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Inovacion awarded to the first author, and National Science Foundation (NSF) grant No. 0847834 awarded to the third author.