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Rumors Denials as Persuasive Messages: Effects of Personal Relevance, Source, and Message Characteristics 1
Author(s) -
Bordia Prashant,
DiFonzo Nicholas,
Haines Robin,
Chaseling Elizabeth
Publication year - 2005
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.1559-1816.2005.tb02172.x
Subject(s) - credibility , source credibility , denial , rumor , psychology , relevance (law) , anxiety , social psychology , persuasive communication , empirical research , empirical evidence , trustworthiness , persuasion , public relations , political science , epistemology , psychotherapist , law , philosophy , psychiatry
Denial is a commonly used strategy to rebut a false rumor. However, there is a dearth of empirical research on the effectiveness of denials in combating rumors. Treating denials as persuasive messages, we conducted 3 laboratory‐based simulation studies testing the overall effectiveness of denials in reducing belief and anxiety associated with an e‐mail virus rumor. Under the framework of the elaboration likelihood model, we also tested the effects of denial message quality and source credibility, and the moderating effects of personal relevance. Overall, the results provided some support for the effectiveness of denials with strong arguments and an anxiety‐alleviating tone in reducing rumor‐related belief and anxiety. The effects of denial wording and source credibility were visible for participants who perceived high personal relevance of the topic. Limitations of the current research and future research directions are discussed.