Situational influences on the selection of compliance‐gaining messages: Two tests of the predictive utility of the Cody‐McLaughlin typology

Abstract

Recent work on the dimensions of compliance‐gaining situations offers an opportunity for systematizing a portion of message selection research. Two studies that utilize the six dimensions isolated by Cody and McLaughlin (1980), as well as one other, as predictors of compliance‐gaining message selection are reported. The first study relied on the hypothetical situation method typical of most compliance‐gaining research. Study 2 utilized a new method that asked participants to recall a persuasion situation they had been part of. Across the two investigations the effects attributable to the situation were relatively few in number and small in size. Several alternative interpretations of the data are suggested. The advantages and disadvantages of the two methods are examined. Explanations for each of the situational effects (or lack thereof) are considered.

Notes

James P. Dillard is Assistant Professor of Communication, University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Michael Burgoon is Professor of Communication, University of Arizona. The authors wish to thank Randall Koper and fames B. Stiff for their help with data collection. This research was supported in part, by a Wisconsin Alumni Research Fund (WARF) grant, #150491, to the first author.