Emotional And Rational Appeals Essay, Research Paper

Emotional and Rational Appeals

Abstract

In many studies, data has been led to suggest that rational messages may

encourage the generation of content based cognitive responses and lead to

attitudes heavily influenced by these cognitions. Studies have also led to

suggest that people in negative moods are affected by the quality of persuasive

messages. Using manipulations techniques, bad mood may result in a different

interpretation of anything from a verbal argument to a literal message. Even

though most studies indicate that good mood manipulations may not have that much

effect on one’s perception of a scenario, further investigation may do away with

that theory.

Persuasion in Response to Emotional and Rational Appeals

Much research has been done to try and indicate that emotional appeals

may influence attitude change. The other side of looking at the spectrum is that

rational appeals may do likewise (e.g., Rosselli; Francine; Skelly, John J.;

Mackie, Diane M, 1995). In one study conducted at the University of California

at Santa Barbara, 184 students received partial course credit in return for

their participation. Subjects in the experiment were assigned to the cells of a

2(positive or neutral mood) x 2(emotional or rational message type) x 2(strong

or weak argument quality). Subjects were in groups of two to six.

After this step was established, eight messages in approximately equal

length were developed. Each message contained six arguments that were either in

favor or against using animals for research purposes. Rational and emotional

were used in nature and strong and weak were used in quality. In the procedure

of the experiment, subjects participated in an experimental session that

included several tasks that were not directly related to the study. The first

test included a survey of the subjects’ attitudes toward animal testing. After

this was completed, subjects read a persuasive message, then responded to

questions concerning the topic of animal research, and finally completed items

designed to check the effectiveness of the manipulations.

After checking the analysis, indications showed that there was no

effects for gender. To add to this, responses to all manipulation check measures

were entered into one of four separate groups between subjects analyses of

variance (ANOVAs). When looking at the message type, the data had revealed the

expected main effect for message type, F(1, 65) = 33.44. p