The Power That Blinds: How Power and Persuasion Knowledge Affect Marketplace Interactions

Abstract

This research examines how consumers' psychological power states and persuasion knowledge jointly affect their responsiveness to persuasion attempts. Results from four experiments demonstrate that when persuasion knowledge is accessible, consumers will detect and correct marketers' ulterior motives, reducing their susceptibility to persuasion tactics. However, under conditions where persuasion knowledge is relatively inaccessible, consumers experiencing low‐ (vs. high‐) power states continue to exhibit reduced susceptibility to persuasion tactics. This effect is theorized to arise because low‐ (vs. high‐) power states promote the perspective‐taking necessary for identifying a marketer's ulterior motives when persuasion knowledge is not accessible. Reflecting this theorizing, low‐power consumers exhibited greater persuasion under cognitive load conditions that limit their capacity to consider the markers' perspective in using a persuasion tactic, an effect that was mediated by the level of sincerity attributed to the marketer. Collectively, these findings offer a more nuanced understanding of how persuasion knowledge shapes consumers' processing and 'response to marketing appeals. The results also hold implications for marketers and sales managers by emphasizing the importance of considering both persuasion knowledge and consumer power in developing persuasive communications and sales strategies.