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Effects of Message Repetition on Argument Processing, Recall, and Persuasion
Abstract
Previous research has suggested that message argument scrutiny is enhanced by moderate levels of message repetition, whereas tedium develops at high levels of message repetition. Such a conceptualization implies that responses to messages containing strong versus weak arguments should be affected differently by a moderate level of message repetition. This prediction was tested in a study of 102 undergraduates assigned randomly to the cells of a 2 (Argument Quality: Strong vs. Weak) x 2 (Message Repetition: One vs. Three) between-subjects factorial design. Analyses revealed the predicted interaction on the measure of postcommunication attitudes, providing convergent evidence that moderate levels of message repetition can increase or decrease persuasion by enhancing argument scrutiny.
... Personal relevance is a determinant of motivation to think with higher relevance motivating more thinking (Blankenship & Wegener, 2008;Fleming & Petty, 2000;Petty & Cacioppo, 1990). Cognitive load is a variable that influences the ability or capacity to think with higher load reducing ability (Cacioppo & Petty, 1989;Ratneshwar & Chaiken, 1991). In the high elaboration condition, participants were told "Your answers will be especially important given that the responses of relatively few people will be taken into account. ...
... If the central route is chosen, the product-related information needs to be systematically analyzed, which will cost consumers a lot of energy. In the stage of consumer attitude, many scholars have studied the external factors that affect the effectiveness of information persuasion, such as source credibility, repetition times, and so on 35 , and UGC quality information has high credibility. In the stage of consumer purchase decisions, when studying the online conformity behavior of consumers, some researchers find that when the rate of favorable reviews is 100%, the proportion of choosing to buy is higher than when the rate of favorable reviews is 75% 36 . ...
Based on the theory of the Elaboration Likelihood Model, we constructed the relationship model between online content characteristics and consumer purchasing decision process. And we used the actual data of the “shoebox” Tmall flagship store for empirical analysis. The results show that the characteristics of Marketer-generated Content (MGC) and the characteristics of User-generated content (UGC) influence the three stages of consumer purchasing decision process, and they have different influences at different stages. The research conclusions provide suggestions for the development and improvement of social e-commerce platforms in practice, and expand the empirical research in the field of online content in theory
... Moreover, repetition has been shown to increase the ease of recall of pertinent information in individuals, which has further downstream effects on attitudinal changes (44). According to the perceptual fluency explanation for repetition, verbatim repetition should lead to greater increases in processing fluency of the campaign claim, compared to non-verbatim repetition. ...
Large Language Models (LLMs) have the potential to enhance message features and exploit cognitive heuristics to increase the persuasiveness of strategic information campaigns. In this paper, we focus on one such heuristic cue --- repetition, which is known to increase belief through the illusory truth effect. We investigate repetition by extracting verbatim repetitive messaging (CopyPasta) from recent U.S. disinformation campaigns. After using an LLM to rewrite the CopyPasta messages, we show that AI-paraphrased messages (AIPasta) are lexically diverse in comparison to their CopyPasta counterparts while retaining the semantics of the original message. In a preregistered experiment comparing the persuasive effects of CopyPasta and AIPasta (N = 1,200, U.S. nationally representative sample), we find that AIPasta (versus control) increases perceptions of social consensus for false claims, particularly among participants less familiar with the false narrative. Among Republican participants, AIPasta also increases belief in false claims as compared to the control group. Additionally, AIPasta (versus control) increases sharing intention of the disinformation messages among participants, as well as the degree to which the broader false claims are recalled. Notably, we find that CopyPasta does not demonstrate the same level of persuasiveness across these dimensions. Broadly, our findings suggest that generative AI tools have the potential to amplify or increase the effectiveness of strategic information campaigns through strategies like non-verbatim repetition. Results have implications for the detection and mitigation of harmful and false information.
Priming examinees with questions about intended effort prior to testing has been shown to significantly increase examinee expended effort via self-reported effort and response-time effort. However, this question-behavior effect seems to wear off later in a testing session. We examined whether administering a second “dose” of the question-behavior effect could combat the decrease in examinee effort later in a testing session. We randomly assigned examinees to one of three question conditions prior to completing two low-stakes tests: answering three questions about intended effort directly before the first test in a session, answering three questions about intended effort directly before each test in a session, and answering no priming questions (control).Administering a second dose of questions directly before the second test in a session significantly increased response-time effort and self-reported effort for the more difficult test. This simple administration of multiple sets of questions throughout a testing session appears to combat issues with low effort on difficult tests that are administered later in a testing session.
Purpose
Scholars of persuasion have long made a distinction between appeals to logic, emotion and authority- logos, ethos and pathos- but ideas developed to account for live face-to-face conversation processes must also be tested in new media. We aimed to test the effectiveness of these three strategies in one-to-one chats through different communication media.
Design/methodology/approach
With a 3 × 3 × 2 between-subject factorial design, we tested these three strategies in one-to-one chats (female–female or male–male pairs) through three communication media: face-to-face, Skype video or Skype text. The persuasion scenario was adapted from prior studies in which students were presented with the idea of requiring a comprehensive exam as part of their degree. The participants were all undergraduate students of a major university in USA.
Findings
Our results showed trivial differences between female–female and male–male conditions. The logos appeal worked best overall in persuading the participants to change their reported attitudes. Additionally, the explanations provided by the participants for their own opinions were most like the persuasion scripts in the logos condition compared to the other two appeal conditions. Separately, participants indicated some disapproval of the pathos appeal in the text-based chat condition, although this did not seem to make a difference in terms of actual attitude change.
Research limitations/implications
One major limitation of our study is that our subjects are college students and therefore are not representative of Internet users in general. Future research should test these three types of persuasion strategies on people of diverse backgrounds. For example, while logos seems to be most effective strategy in persuading college students (at least in our study), pathos or ethos may be more effective when one attempts to persuade people of different backgrounds.
Practical implications
Although it is enough for a statistical test, our sample size is still relatively small due to constraints on time, personnel and funding. We also recognize that it is challenging both conceptually and empirically to compare the effectiveness of three persuasion strategies separately.
Social implications
Our findings suggest it is helpful to use fact-checking tools to combat disinformation in cases where users may not have sufficient domain knowledge or may not realize the need to identify or examine the given information. Additionally, it may require more effort to negate the impact of the disinformation spread than correcting the information, as some users may not only believe false information but also may start to reason in ways similar to those presented in the disinformation messages.
Originality/value
Past studies on online persuasion have limitedly examined whether and how communication media and persuasion strategies interact in one-to-one persuasion sessions. Our experiment makes an attempt to close this gap by examining the persuasion process and outcome in three different communication media and with three different persuasion strategies.
Purpose
This study aims to understand how unimanual and bimanual motor actions in the form of writing a message (handwriting and typing) influences consumer behavior intention and attitude.
Design/methodology/approach
Three studies have been conducted to understand how the method of writing (typing or handwriting) and moderator type of message (moderator: emotional vs. rational) can influence persuasion variables.
Findings
This paper shows evidence that bimanual and unimanual motor actions activate contralateral brain hemispheres and influence consumer behavior. Specifically, how the use of these motor actions leads to a change in behavior intention and attitude. Furthermore, how bidirectional behavior and role-reversal occurs when a unimanual vs bimanual motor actions are used to create an emotional or rational message.
Research limitations/implications
This research focuses on explaining cognitive implications of unimanual vs bimanual motor actions (typing vs handwriting) on self and specifically on consumers when they are exposed to situations of producing/creating a message. Adding further evidence to persuasion, behavior intention and attitude research in embodied cognition (e.g. Petty and Cacioppo, 1986b; Briñol and Petty, 2008), the role of haptic interfaces in online marketing and consumer behavior (e.g. Brasel and Gips, 2015). The authors did not collect any FMRI data but it can be the future scope of this work.
Practical implications
The novel findings of bimanual and unimanual motor actions have a direct application to the current scenario of the online reviews/surveys, which have become a crucial point for e-commerce businesses and retailers that require customers to give feedback. Since, consumer emotions can influence behavioral outcomes and decision making through sensory cues (Abdolmohamad Sagha et. al , 2022; Haase Wiedmann and Labenz, 2022). From this perspective, depending on the mapping/recording of the felt emotionality or rationality by the customer, the feedback method can be oriented in a way to reduce the effect of negative reviews. Further applications are suggested for retailers, increasing prosocial or sustainable behavior and attitudes.
Social implications
Marketing and advertising research conducted in different social settings is considered important in neuropsychology and neurophysiology research (Pozharliev et al. , 2017). Therefore, this research can be extended to test in different social settings and marketing contexts, for example, in the virtual reality, metaverse and gamification. Thus, this research can serve as an avenue to examine the bimanual and unimanual motor actions in a scenario where the participants can combine several motor actions, for example, talking on the phone or walking while filling consumer reviews online/offline and wearing the VR devices like Apple Vision Pro and performing unimanual or bimanual motor actions.
Originality/value
Mapping of human behavior has always been done dependent on the cognition aspect and limited in its scope for embodied cognition. The results can be used for more direct and impactful ways of conducting surveys, feedback and handling communications for major businesses. In addition, it can be a helpful tool for message persuasion for a new brand or increasing awareness about sustainable consumption depending on typed or handwritten inputs by a potential consumer.
The press, by spreading the availability of resources, shortages linked with preservation. In this sense, the work explores nine briefings from 2002 to 2022 published in national newspapers regarding the lack of supply, quality, benefit, punishment and discomfort as a consequence of the water situation in a demarcation east of Mexico City. Index Framing the water situation (IESH) was used to weight the media bias in information note by content reaching a value of 102 points out of a total of 180. This finding was considered as evidence of a moderate degree of media coverage the press regarding the problems arising from water shortages. From the results discussed its implications with other studies conducted in the demarcation.
People are often advised to project confidence with their bodies and voices to convince others. Prior research has focused on the high and low thinking processes through which vocal confidence signals (e.g., fast speed, falling intonation, low pitch) can influence attitude change. In contrast, this research examines how the vocal confidence of speakers operates under more moderate elaboration levels, revealing that falling intonation only benefits persuasion under certain circumstances. In three experiments, we show that falling (vs. rising) vocal intonation at the ends of sentences can signal speaker confidence. Under moderate elaboration conditions, falling (vs. rising) vocal intonation increased message processing, bolstering the benefit of strong over weak messages, increasing the proportion of message-relevant thoughts, and increasing thought-attitude correspondence. In sum, the present work examined an unstudied role of vocal confidence in guiding persuasion, revealing new processes by which vocal signals increase or fail to increase persuasion.
Repeated presentations of commercials save production costs and increase their persuasive effectiveness. This observation holds empirically up to a point; however, there is now ample proof that excessive presentations of a commercial decrease persuasive effectiveness, which may lower or reverse the benefits realized from the earlier advertising expenditures. This survey reports several social-psychological analyses of the manner and means by which message repetition might influence persuasion. Two experiments that were designed to select from among these accounts are reported. We conclude our survey by focusing on the cognitive-response formulation, because it provided the most parsimonious account of the data.
Two experiments with 96 undergraduates tested the hypothesis that high issue involvement enhances thinking about the content of a persuasive communication. Exp I varied involvement and the direction of a message (pro- or counterattitudinal). Increasing involvement enhanced persuasion for the proattitudinal but reduced persuasion for the counterattitudinal advocacy. Exp II again varied involvement, but both messages took a counterattitudinal position. One message employed compelling arguments and elicited primarily favorable thoughts, whereas the other employed weak arguments and elicited primarily counterarguments. Increasing involvement enhanced persuasion for the strong message but reduced persuasion for the weak one. Together the experiments provide support for the view that high involvement with an issue enhances message processing and therefore can result in either increased or decreased acceptance. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Two experiments were conducted to test competing accounts of the distraction-persuasion relationship, thought disruption and effort justification, and also to show that the relationship is not limited to counterattitudinal communication. Exp I, with 132 undergraduates, varied distraction and employed 2 discrepant messages differing in how easy they were to counterargue. In accord with the thought disruption account, increasing distraction enhanced persuasion for a message that was readily counterarguable, but reduced persuasion for a message that was difficult to counter-argue. The effort notion implied no interaction with message counterarguability. Exp II, with 54 undergraduates, again varied distraction but the 2 messages took a nondiscrepant position. One message elicited primarily favorable thoughts, and the effect of distraction was to reduce the number of favorable thoughts generated; the other, less convincing message elicited primarily counterarguments, and the effect of distraction was to reduce counterarguments. A Message * Distraction interaction indicated that distraction tended to enhance persuasion for the counterarguable message but reduce persuasion for the message that elicited primarily favorable thoughts. The experiments together support the principle that distraction works by inhibiting the dominant cognitive response to persuasive communication and, therefore, it can result in either enhanced or reduced acceptance. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Predicted that message repetition would increase positive attitudes in a situation where highly similar communications are used. 5 similar advertisements (i.e., those using the same basic arguments but differing in the phrasing and order of points raised) served as stimulus messages and were sequentially presented with attitude being measured by a cognitive response analysis of thoughts recorded by 50 undergraduates. Results support the prediction of a positive relationship between the number of presentations and attitude. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
To examine the relationship between mere exposure, psychological reactance and attitude change, 115 college students received either no exposure, moderate exposure or excessive exposure to a political message. Results indicated positive evaluation to the message under moderate exposure but negative evaluation under excessive exposure. A delayed post-test indicated that the negative evaluation after excessive exposure improved over time. Psychological reactance was suggested as a possible explanation for the findings.