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Modele propositionnel probabiliste de la structure de l'argument et de l'acceptation du message
Abstract
Sur la base de notions de logique, de rhétorique classique, de psycholinguistique, de psychologie sociale, et de la théorie des probabilités, cet article développe le modèle propositionnel probabiliste (MPP) de la structure de l'argument et de l'acceptation du message dans lequel les arguments verbaux sont décomposés en trois types de propositions: (a) les promesses du produit, (b) les données prouvant ces promesses et (c) les règles conditionnelles précisant la relation entre les données et ces promesses. Les propositions constituant un argument donné peuvent être des implicatures conversationnelles, être imposées, inférées, présupposées et/ou linguistiquement signalées. L'acceptation d'un message est basée sur la formation et/ou la modification des croyances correspondant aux propositions pour un argument donné. Dans l'objectif de prédire de façon précise l'efficacité des structures variées d'argument, ces croyances sont représentées par des probabilités associées à chaque proposition. Différents postulats découlent du MPP et des directions pour la recherche future sur la communication et la persuasion sont discutées.
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A methodology for testing consumers' interpretations of advertisements was developed and used to test understanding of implied claims about products. 180 undergraduates heard 20 brief commercials on tape and later evaluated statements about the products as true, false, or of indeterminate truth value, based on the advertisement. The independent variables were (a) type of claim (asserted or implied); (b) temporal relation of advertisement and test (test while hearing and reading advertisement, test immediately after hearing, or test 5–20 min later); and (c) type of instruction (presence or absence of specific instruction discriminating between assertions and implications). Results show that discrimination of asserted and implied claims was very poor under the most real-life conditions but was vastly improved by the explicit instruction discriminating assertions and implications, and by a reduction in the time between hearing the advertisement and receiving the test. Ramifications for information processing, consumer education and the empirical determination of deceptive advertising are discussed. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Tested the view that the number of arguments in a message could affect agreement with a communication by serving as a simple acceptance cue when personal involvement was low but could affect agreement by enhancing issue-relevant thinking when personal involvement was high. In addition to manipulating the personal relevance of the communication topic, both the number and the quality of the arguments in the message were varied. In a pilot study with 46 undergraduates, when the issue was of low relevance, Ss showed more agreement in response to a message containing 6 arguments (3 strong and 3 weak) than to messages containing either 3 strong or 3 weak arguments. Under high involvement, however, the 6-argument message did not increase agreement over the message containing only 3 strong arguments. In the full experiment, 168 undergraduates received either 3 or 9 arguments that were either all cogent or all specious under conditions of either high or low involvement. The manipulation of argument number had a greater impact under low than under high involvement, but the manipulation of argument quality had a greater impact under high than low involvement. Results indicate that increasing the number of arguments in a message could affect persuasion whether or not the actual content of the arguments was scrutinized. (53 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Defines involvement as a motivational state induced by an association between
an activated attitude and the self-concept. Integration of the available research suggests that
the effects of involvement on attitude change depended on the aspect of message recipients'
self-concept that was activated to create involvement:(a) their enduring values (value-
relevant involvement),(b) their ability to attain desirable outcomes (outcome-relevant
involvement), or (c) the impression they make on others (impression-relevant involvement) ...
Text interpretations, two experiments, and a set of reader-response interviews examine the impact of stylistic elements in advertising that form visual rhetorical figures parallel to those found in language. The visual figures examined here--rhyme, antithesis, metaphor, and pun--produced more elaboration and led to a more favorable attitude toward the ad, without being any more difficult to comprehend. Interviews confirmed that several of the meanings generated by informants corresponded to those produced by an a priori text-interpretive analysis of the ads. However, all of these effects diminished or disappeared for the visual tropes (metaphor and pun) in the case of individuals who lacked the cultural competency required to adequately appreciate the contemporary American ads on which the studies are based. Results are discussed in terms of the power of rhetorical theory and cultural competency theory (Scott 1994) for illuminating the role played by visual elements in advertising. Overall, the project demonstrates the advantages of investigating visual persuasion via an integration of multiple research traditions. Copyright 1999 by the University of Chicago.
A rhetorical figure can be defined as an artful deviation in the form taken by a statement. Since antiquity dozens of figures have been cataloged, ranging from the familiar (rhyme, pun) to the obscure (antimetabole). Despite the frequent appearance of rhetorical figures in print advertisements, their incorporation into advertising theory and research has been minimal. This article develops a framework for classifying rhetorical figures that distinguishes between figurative and nonfigurative text, between two types of figures (schemes and tropes), and among four rhetorical operations that underlie individual figures (repetition, reversal, substitution, and destabilization). These differentiations in the framework are supported by preliminary validation data and are linked to suggested consumer responses. The article also considers the theoretical import of the proposed framework for future research on rhetorical structure in advertising. Copyright 1996 by the University of Chicago.
Consumer research on advertising response has gradually separated the act of reading an ad from the acquisition of brand information. Because the advertising text is the pathway through which brand information is accessed, current models truncate the process that leads to response in a way that distorts our view of both advertising and the mind that reads it. This author proposes that reader-response theory would help researchers study the process of reading as an essential link between advertising text and consumer response. Reader-response theory is a movement within literary criticism that emphasizes the study of reading over formal textual analysis. Copyright 1994 by the University of Chicago.
In this article, past consumer research dealing with advertising images is analyzed and critiqued for its underlying assumption: that pictures are reflections of reality. The case against this assumption is presented, and an alternative view, in which visuals are a convention-based symbolic system, is formulated. In this alternative view, pictures must be cognitively processed, rather than absorbed peripherally or automatically. The author argues that current conceptualizations of advertising images are incommensurate with what ads are really like, and that many images currently dismissed as affect laden or information devoid are, in fact, complex figurative arguments. A new theoretical framework for the study of images is advanced in which advertising images are a sophisticated form of visual rhetoric. The process of consumer response implied by the new framework differs radically from past concepts in many ways, but also suggests new ways to approach questions currently open in the literature on the nature and processing of imagery. A pluralistic program for studying advertising pictures as persuasion is outlined.
The importance of signs and symbols has been widely recognized, but only a handful of consumer researchers have developed theory and research programs based on semiotics, the doctrine of signs. This article outlines the emergence and principal perspectives of semiotics and then discusses its applications and implications for consumer research. Among its strengths, semiotics positions meaning at the nucleus of consumer behavior, provides a rich metalanguage for semiotic consumer research, and recommends a multi-paradigm philosophy of science.
Undergraduates expressed their attitudes about a product after being exposed to a magazme ad under conditions of either high or low product involvement. The ad contained either strong or weak arguments for the product and featured either prominent sports celebrities or average citizens as endorsers. The manipulation of argument quality had a greater impact on attitudes under high than low involve- ment, but the manipulation of product endorser had a greater impact under low than high involvement. These results are consistent with the view that there are two relatively distinct routes to persuasion.
Discourse markers - the particles oh, well, now, then, you know and I mean, and the connectives so, because, and, but and or - perform important functions in conversation. Dr Schiffrin's approach is firmly interdisciplinary, within linguistics and sociology, and her rigourous analysis clearly demonstrates that neither the markers, nor the discourse within which they function, can be understood from one point of view alone, but only as an integration of structural, semantic, pragmatic, and social factors. The core of the book is a comparative analysis of markers within conversational discourse collected by Dr Schiffrin during sociolinguistic fieldwork. The study concludes that markers provide contextual coordinates which aid in the production and interpretation of coherent conversation at both local and global levels of organization. It raises a wide range of theoretical and methodological issues important to discourse analysis - including the relationship between meaning and use, the role of qualitative and quantitative analyses - and the insights it offers will be of particular value to readers confronting the very substantial problems presented by the search for a model of discourse which is based on what people actually say, mean, and do with words in everyday social interaction.
The authors consider the effects of exposure to various advertising appeal types (differing in sidedness) on cognitive response and belief change in the context of inoculation and correspondence theory. In one experiment, subjects were exposed to either a one-sided, two-sided refutational, or two-sided nonrefutational appeal and the degree of cognitive activity incurred was measured. Results are partially supportive of both inoculation and correspondence theory, as two-sided appeals produced significantly less counterargumentation and source derogation than the one-sided appeal. In addition, the refutational appeal led to significantly more support argumentation than the one-sided appeal. However, exposure to either two-sided appeal did not differentially affect cognitions. In a second experiment, a disconfirming product trial experience was introduced as an “attack” condition to observe the effects on belief change given exposure to one of the advertising appeals used before. For all attributes, exposure to the one-sided appeal resulted in the greatest degree of belief change. Dominance for the predictions of inoculation over those of correspondence theory is not evident as belief change did not differ significantly between subjects exposed to either two-sided appeal. Finally, a measure of the change in purchase intent has only (nonsignificant) directional support.
Marketers have yet to adopt a standard repertoire of techniques with which they can critically evaluate argument-centered works. Certain analytical techniques of the logician are proposed for evaluating such works. The authors provide an example to illustrate the use and value of these techniques.
The simplistic form of linear compensatory attitude modeling includes a number of significant research questions involving concepts, measurement, and analysis. Results and conclusions of marketing research on the model are summarized for each issue and directions for further development are suggested.
In two experiments, the authors manipulated the audience's level of involvement in processing an advertisement and whether the advertisement was open-ended (i.e., did not include an explicit conclusion) or closed-ended. Results of both experiments show the open-ended advertisement to be superior to the closed-ended one for an involved audience in terms of brand attitude, purchase intention, and choice, whereas only a small and statistically insignificant difference between the two types of advertisements is found for the uninvolved audience. Moreover, the second experiment shows that the choice advantage of the open-ended ad for the involved audience persisted when measured one week later.
An article in a recent issue of this journal suggested that marketers adopt the tools of formal deductive logic to evaluate “argument-centered” works in marketing. In this comment, the authors argue that the criterion of deductive validity is inappropriate for evaluating such works and would require rejecting almost all principles central to advancing knowledge in general and marketing knowledge in particular.
The relative influence of comparative and noncomparative advertising on purchase intention ratings, perceptions of believability, credibility, quantity of information, and usefulness of information is investigated. The impact of the advertiser's competitive position, claim substantiation, and theme are considered, and the degrees of brand loyalty toward the advertised and competing brands are treated as covariates. Results indicate that ratings of purchase intentions, believability, and credibility were not differentially affected by comparative and noncomparative advertisements; however, the relative effectiveness of comparative advertising is influenced by the theme and advertiser's competitive position. The terms in the model did not explain a significant amount of the variation in ratings of quantity and usefulness of information.
This book is nominally about linguistic representation. But, since it is we who do the representing, it is also about us. And, since it is the universe which we represent, it is also about the universe. In the end, then, this book is about everything, which, since it is a philosophy book, is as it should be. I recognize that it is nowadays unfashionable to write books about every thing. Philosophers of language, it will be said, ought to stick to writing about language; philosophers of science, to writing about science; epis temologists, to writing about knowing; and so on. The real world, however, perversely refuses to carve itself up so neatly, and, although I recognize that the real w,orld is nowadays also unfashionable, in the end I judged that one might get closer to the truth of various matters by going along with it. So I have done so. lt was Wilfrid Sellars who initially convinced me of the virtues of this way of proceeding. At this point one normally says something like "The debt that this book owes him is immense". I would say it too, were it not to understate the case, From Wilfrid, I learned to think about things. If the upshot of my thinking tends, as it obviously does, to show a general con silience with the upshot of his, it is primarily because he is so very good at it - and he had a head start.
Many decisions are based on beliefs concerning the likelihood of uncertain events such as the outcome of an election, the guilt of a defendant, or the future value of the dollar. Occasionally, beliefs concerning uncertain events are expressed in numerical form as odds or subjective probabilities. In general, the heuristics are quite useful, but sometimes they lead to severe and systematic errors. The subjective assessment of probability resembles the subjective assessment of physical quantities such as distance or size. These judgments are all based on data of limited validity, which are processed according to heuristic rules. However, the reliance on this rule leads to systematic errors in the estimation of distance. This chapter describes three heuristics that are employed in making judgments under uncertainty. The first is representativeness, which is usually employed when people are asked to judge the probability that an object or event belongs to a class or event. The second is the availability of instances or scenarios, which is often employed when people are asked to assess the frequency of a class or the plausibility of a particular development, and the third is adjustment from an anchor, which is usually employed in numerical prediction when a relevant value is available.
Although the literature on the consequences of powerful and power-less language styles for impression formation is extensive, the persuasive effects of power of style have been neglected. Accordingly, a 2 x 2 x 2 experiment was conducted (strong vs. weak argument strength x high vs. low power language x relevant vs. irrelevant topic). Respondents read a message arguing for implementing comprehensive examinations for college seniors which served as a vehicle for the independent variables. Dependent measures consisted of scales assessing persuasion and communicator style/ability. Additionally, cognitive responses were assessed. Dependent measures for persuasion and communicator attributes yielded a three-factor solution: Persuasion, CompetencelControl and Sociability. Further analyses indicated that strong arguments were generally more persuasive than weak ones regardless of relevance, and power of style had no effect upon Persuasion. On the other hand, powerful versus powerless language had a strong effect upon ratings of communicator CompetencelControl and, in conjunction with argument strength, Sociability. Among other things, the cognitive response data indicated that persons were more likely to think about the powerless style than the style that was ostensibly powerful. The results offer little support for Petty and Cacioppo's Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasive effects.
Using the Heuristic‐Systematic Model as a theoretical basis, this study replicates, extends, and integrates previous research on communication modality (i.e., print vs. audio vs. audiovisual) and power of language style (POS). Specifically, it focuses on the extent to which communication modality moderates the effects of powerful versus powerless language styles on (1) evaluations of the speaker and (2) attitudes toward the speaker's recommendation. It supports the hypothesis that modality moderates the effects of POS on the latter but not the former. Additionally, the results indicate that systematic information processing is used to form attitudes toward a recommendation when arguments are presented in writing, whereas audio and audiovisual modes appear to encourage the use of speaker‐related heuristics to form opinions about the speaker's recommendations.
A model of deductive reasoning requires 2 components. The performance component comprises programs for comprehending premises and for constructing a line of reasoning. The logical component, the subject of the present article, consists of some logical vocabulary and a repertory of elementary deductive steps. This component is specified for propositional reasoning by presenting a logic in which the connectives capture essential syntactic and semantic properties of the corresponding English words (unlike the connectives of standard logic). The repertory of deductive steps is defined through inference rule schemata. The system has the same "theorems" as standard propositional logic but different foundations. However, people lack explicit knowledge of their inference rule schemata and, therefore, are unaware of what can be proved from them. This ignorance of the entailments of their own system, coupled with the difference in foundations, explains the difference between natural and standard logic, especially in relation to
or and
if, which are discussed in some detail. (46 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Outlines an approach to the analysis of inference and classification processes, based on the assumption that subjective probabilities are related according to the laws of objective probability, and suggests certain of its implications for the study of relationships among attitudes and beliefs. Some preliminary empirical support for the formulation is reported. The consistency theories proposed by W. McGuire, by F. Heider, and by R. Abelson and M. Rosenberg (see33:3) are compared to the formulation proposed, and possible differences in their assumptions and implications are identified. Implications of the proposed formulation for impression-formation processes are discussed. (24 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Reviews research trends on the effects of persuasive messages on attitude change. It is concluded that new orientations to this area are required, and 2 general directions for theories of persuasion are proposed: (a) a theory of the acceptance of assertions and (b) a theory of the acceptance of complex messages. 270 female college students participated in an empirical investigation on the former, which supported the viability of the proposed approach. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The Federal Trade Commission's handling of alleged false advertising representations that are made by implication is examined. Alleged false advertising presentations are held to be implied to the public by the advertiser even though they are not literally stated in his advertisement. The FTC has extended its reach over this kind of misrepresentation in recent years. Cases for 1970–76 are identified, and a catalog is developed of ten types of implications that have been attacked as deceptive during this period. Some, such as the Expansion Implication, are types established as deceptive in earlier years; others, such as the Reasonable Basis Implication, were not attacked prior to the 1970s. Some types, such as the Uniqueness Implication, have been given considerable publicity; others, such as the Inconspicuous Context Implication, are newly categorized in this paper. The consequences of FTC's identification of these types of implications, and of its growing attention to the possibility of misrepresentation by implication, are discussed in detail. A prediction is offered that attention to implications will continue to increase for some time in the future. Puffery is discussed as a category which the FTC might recognize in the future as a type of implied misrepresentation; a rationale is offered for regulating such claims. The role of the researcher is examined, using the assumption that greater attention to misrepresentation that extends beyond a message's literal meaning will produce a greater need for research. The researcher will have attractive opportunities for such work, but will have to confront the problem that playing an advocacy role in legal proceedings may involve significant conflicts with the impartial role that is appropriate for the academic researcher.
Research in cognition has shown that people frequently draw pragmatic inferences that go beyond what is stated directly in the text (e.g., understanding that Sparkle fights cavities implies that it prevents cavities). This study examines the effects of directly asserted claims and five different types of implied claims (hedge words, deleted comparatives, juxtaposed imperatives implying causality, statistical abuses, and negative questions) on the ratings of the truth value of a related claim and on the rated likelihood of purchasing that product. The different types of implied claims that produced the highest truth rating were not the most convincing in the sense of purchase likelihood. Directly asserted claims were no more true or convincing than many of their weaker implied counterparts. Overall, women rated test claims more true than men, regardless of which type of claim they had read. Subjects who were frequent users of a particular product class tended to rate both truth and purchase likelihood higher than nonusers but the effect was significant only for some products. Results are discussed in terms of methodological concerns and general applications.
The present research sought to understand the components of syllogistic reasoning used in a syllogistic evaluation task. In this task, subjects must indicate whether a conclusion such as “Some Yale professors are humbugs” is definitely true, or never true of a set of premises such as “Some humbugs study syllogistic reasoning; some Yale professors study syllogistic reasoning”. A modified form of componential analysis (Sternberg 1977, 1978) was used to decompose the syllogistic evaluation task with abstract content into encoding and encoding plus combination subtasks. The response-choice data from these subtasks were used to provide (a) direct tests of a proposed theory of syllogistic reasoning, and in particular, of its assumptions about sources of error in syllogistic reasoning; and (b) direct inferences regarding the representation of relations between the subject and predicate of the premises as encoded and combined. The results supported a proposed transitive-chain model of syllogistic reasoning.
Verbalizations of the thoughts evoked by an advocacy message are used as data in many persuasion experiments. In this article, the theory and measurement principles underlying such research are examined, and a review of empirical evidence on the relationship between experimental treatments, verbalized thoughts, and ensuing topical judgments is presented. The conclusion is that verbalized thoughts may be valid indicants of some audience processing activities.
Ours is an age of consumerism, and the study of persuasion is a central topic of consumer research. Over time our knowledge of most persuasive topics has grown, but on a few topics knowledge has been lost. One lost topic is the persuasion effect of using figurative language (tropes, rhetorical figures) in communications, which had been a popular issue in earlier ages of persuasion but in our own era has been largely ignored. This neglect can be corrected by our "standing on the shoulders of ancients" and exploiting the progress made during earlier rhetorical ages in identifying and classifying tropes and hypothesizing how inclusion of such rhetorical figures affects perceptions and impacts of communications. A program of research on the effects of figurative language is described as an example of how giving greater consideration to ancient wisdom can enhance our understanding of persuasive communication and consumer behavior, especially in the creative hypothesis-generating phase of research. Copyright 2000 by the University of Chicago.
Previous consumer research has attributed differences in persuasion between communication modes (e.g., audio vs. print) to differences in the audience's control over the pace of argument presentation. It is argued in this article that communication modes also differ in the extent to which argument order is an important determinant of persuasion. The results of two studies show that, while order of argument presentation affects persuasion with audio messages, order is unimportant with print messages. These differences appear to be due to a first-in-first-out retrieval strategy employed in response to audio presentations but not in response to visual presentations. Implications of the research for understanding how consumers process messages and how to develop effective communications are discussed. Copyright 1994 by the University of Chicago.
This article develops a framework that encompasses past two-sided persuasion research and incorporates additional theory and research on optimal arousal and attitude toward the ad to provide explanations for inconsistencies in previous findings. In particular, explanations are provided for the following: (1) when credibility gains will be enhanced, (2) when refutation is needed, (3) how the message should be structured (in terms of amount and placement of negative information), and (4) what types of attributes should be discounted (in terms of importance, type, and correlation with other attributes). In addition, directions for future research are discussed. Copyright 1994 by the University of Chicago.
How do structural and affective elements in a persuasive message influence consumers' product beliefs and attitudes? In this article, we examine how the logical structure of arguments (provided through warrants) influences consumers' beliefs about product claims. Next, we examine how explicit statements about product claim desirability (provided through affective tag sentences) influence product attitude. Our results show that argument structure has a strong effect on consumers' beliefs. More important, our results suggest that consumers' product attitudes are based on their beliefs about product claims, but only when the desirability of those claims is made explicit. Copyright 1993 by the University of Chicago.
An experiment investigated the relation between inference and persuasion. Subjects were exposed to an ad in which presence or absence of conclusions and level of involvement were manipulated orthogonally. Omitted conclusions were more likely to be inferred spontaneously in high than in low involvement conditions. Further, when conclusions were omitted and high involvement made spontaneous inference formation likely, brand attitudes were more favorable and accessible than attitudes formed in low involvement conditions. Brand attitudes based on spontaneous inferences were as favorable and more accessible than attitudes formed in explicit conclusion conditions. The effects of motivation and effort on inference are discussed.
The proposition is advanced that knowledge about the mere number of positive and negative attributes possessed by a brand is an important component of a consumer's knowledge structure. A series of experiments is presented that illustrates the unique character of frequency knowledge and its potential role in decision making. In general, it is shown that frequency knowledge can influence judgment and choice, particularly when other types of information have been poorly encoded, poorly remembered, or poorly understood.
Experimental tests of two strategies for attitude change suggested by multiple attribute attitude models indicate that the strategy of changing consumers' perceptions of brand attribute possession offers considerable potential. The viability of a strategy designed to change the values consumers attach to attributes, however, is less certain.
Three experiments are reported that investigate the weighting attached to logic and belief in syllogistic reasoning. Substantial
belief biases were observed despite controls for possible conversions of the premises. Equally substantial effects of logic
were observed despite controls for two possible response biases. A consistent interaction between belief and logic was also
recorded; belief bias was more marked on invalid than on valid syllogisms. In all experiments, verbal protocols were recorded
and analyzed. These protocols are interpreted in some cases as providing rationalizations for prejudiced decisions and, in
other cases, as reflecting a genuine process of premise to conclusion reasoning. In the latter cases, belief bias was minimal
but still present. Similarly, even subjects who focus primarily on the conclusion are influenced to an extent by the logic.
Thus a conflict between logic and belief is observed throughout, but at several levels of extent.