Healthy Skepticism Library item: 10084

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Tormala ZL, Desensi VL, Petty RE.
Resisting persuasion by illegitimate means: a metacognitive perspective on minority influence.
Pers Soc Psychol Bull 2007 Mar; 33:(3):354-67
http://psp.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/33/3/354

Abstract:

The present research tests a new metacognitive perspective on resistance in minority influence situations. It is proposed that when people initially resist persuasive messages from sources in the numerical minority, they can lose attitude certainty if they perceive that they have based their attitudes on the source’s minority status and also believe this is an illegitimate basis for resistance. In three studies, participants were presented with a message from a minority source. In Study 1, participants became less certain of their attitudes after resisting this message. In Study 2, this effect only emerged when participants were led to believe they had based their attitudes on the source’s minority status and this was an illegitimate thing to do. In Study 3, this effect was shown to have implications for persuasion in response to a second message. The implications of these findings for classic minority influence effects are discussed.

Keywords:
MeSH Terms: Attitude* Cognition* Humans Minority Groups* Persuasive Communication* Psychology/legislation & jurisprudence* Social Behavior* Time Factors