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“Family Values” and Political Persuasion: Impact of Kin‐Related Rhetoric on Reactions to Political Campaigns 1
Author(s) -
Garst Jennifer,
Bodenhausen Galen V.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1996.tb02288.x
Subject(s) - persuasion , rhetoric , politics , argument (complex analysis) , scrutiny , psychology , social psychology , value (mathematics) , political communication , elaboration likelihood model , political science , law , linguistics , medicine , philosophy , computer science , machine learning
Within the framework of dual‐process models of persuasion, it was hypothesized that including references to kin in a persuasive speech might either (a) promote greater scrutiny of the message by making it seem more value‐relevant, or (b) serve as a simple peripheral cue of value congruence. Republicans, Democrats, and Independents read a political speech that varied by argument quality (strong/weak), kin terms (absent/present), and the speaker's party affiliation. Results indicated that Democrats scrutinized the message more when kin terms were used, whereas such terms appeared to discourage message elaboration on the part of Republican participants, but only when used by an in‐group member. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the efficacy of political rhetoric using kin terms.