Effects of the evaluative characteristics of forewarning on persuasion

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate the evaluative characteristics of forewarning on persuasion. In this experiment, we manipulated forewarning by providing premessage information about the topic and position (TP-type forewarning), or the topic only (TO-type forewarning) of the upcoming communication.Five kinds of forewarnings were used: TP-type forewarnings with positive, negative and neutral evaluative characteristics, TO-type forewarning with neutral evaluative characteristics, and no forewarning.Subjects in the experimental conditions were forewarned or not forewarend before presentation of the communication. Subjects in the control condition were, however, exposed to neither forewarning nor communication.Results showed that TP-type forewarning with negative evaluative characteristics produced resistance to persuasion, and increased psychological reactance in the overall period and counterarguments in the period between the forewarning and the communication.But, TP-type forewarning with positive evaluative characteristics did not indicate persuasion facilitating effect. Results in this study suggested that forewarnings with different evaluative characteristics might produce different effects on persuasion mediated by different psychological processes.