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Behind the stage of deliberate self‐persuasion: When changes in valence of associations to an attitude object predict attitude change
Author(s) -
Lu Tong,
Lord Charles G.,
Yoke Kristin
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/bjso.12111
Subject(s) - persuasion , psychology , valence (chemistry) , social psychology , attitude change , persuasive communication , attitude , object (grammar) , developmental psychology , physics , quantum mechanics , linguistics , philosophy
Modern theory and research on evaluative processes, combined with a comprehensive review of deliberate self‐persuasion (Maio & Thomas, 2007, Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull ., 11 , 46), suggest two types of strategies people can use to construct new, more desired attitudes. Epistemic strategies change the perceived valence of associations activated by the attitude object. Teleologic strategies, in contrast, keep undesired associations from being activated in the first place, thus obviating the need to change their perceived valence. Change in perceived valence of associations therefore might predict attitude change better when people pursue epistemic than teleologic strategies for deliberate self‐persuasion. This hypothesis gained convergent support from three studies in which use of epistemic versus teleologic strategies was measured as an individual difference (Study 1) and manipulated (studies 2 and 3). The results of these studies supported the theoretical distinction between the two strategies and suggested further research directions.