Page 174 - Media Effects Advances in Theory and Research

7. MASS MEDIA ATTITUDE CHANGE 163

This analysis helps to explain why previous research on mass media
effects has sometimes found that message learning and changes in knowl-
edge occur in the absence of attitude change and vice versa (Petty, Glei-
cher, & Baker, 1991). For example, after an extensive review of the mass
media programs commonly used by government agencies to educate and
to reduce social problems involving drugs and alcohol, Kinder, Pape, and
Walfish (1980) concluded that although these programs were typically
successful in increasing participants’ knowledge about drugs, there was
very little evidence that they were successful in changing attitudes and
behavior (see also Bruvold & Rundall, 1988).
Second, the model tells us little about the factors that produce yielding.
Even though the initial steps in the information processing sequence are
viewed as prerequisites to acceptance, McGuire did not mean to imply
that people would invariably yield to all information they comprehended
and learned. That is, the earlier steps were thought to be necessary but not
sufficient for yielding. Rather, just as source and other variables deter-
mine the extent of attention, they also determine the extent of acceptance.
As implied by the Communication/Persuasion matrix, current psycho-
logical research on influence focuses on how and why various features of
a persuasion situation (i.e., aspects of the source, message, channel, recip-
ient, and context) affect each of the steps in the communication sequence
(e.g., How does the credibility of the source affect attention to the mes-
sage?). The most research by far, however, focuses on the question of how
variables affect the processes responsible for yielding to or resisting the
communication.

Cognitive Response Approach. Cognitive response theory (Green-
wald, 1968; Petty, Ostrom, & Brock, 1981) was developed explicitly to
address two key issues unaddressed by the communication/persuasion
matrix. That is, cognitive response analysis attempted to account for the
low correlation between message learning and persuasion observed in
many studies and for the processes responsible for yielding. In contrast to
the traditional view that acceptance of a message depended on learning
the message content, the cognitive response approach contends that the
impact of variables on persuasion depends on the extent to which indi-
viduals articulate and rehearse their own idiosyncratic thoughts to the
information presented. The cognitive response perspective maintains that
individuals are active participants in the persuasion process who attempt
to relate message elements to their existing repertoires of information. The
influence of cognitive responses—or one’s own thoughts—on subsequent
attitudes has been demonstrated in a variety of ways.
For example, in early research on “role playing,” it was shown that ask-
ing people to self-generate arguments on an issue can lead to relatively