Page 110 - The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

Persuasion in the Political Context 103

Figure 4.3 A schematic illustration of the relationship between anxiety and
persuasiveness of the message

The research results were indisputable in the case where the evoked
anxiety was high. Despite the simultaneous presentation of the argumenta-
tion in positive and negative framing, the subjects tended toward more
risky behavior; that is, they opted for a new treatment. Figure 4.3 presents
the role of anxiety in modifying the persuasive appeal of a message.
Arceneaux’s (2012) conception proved that persuasive appeal is de-
pendent not only on how the argumentation is framed but also on the af-
fect evoked by the adopted mode of argumentation. The presentation of
loss-framed arguments alone is not sufficient to make persuasion effective.
The tendency to react more intensely to loss rather than to gain must also
be activated through the process of presenting the argument. It is the
arousal of anxiety that strengthens the sense of increased persuasiveness of
loss-framed arguments as opposed to gain-framed arguments. In this way,
the conception presented by Arceneaux introduced an important enhance-
ment to prospect theory, expanding it to include an affective aspect.
A key element of Arceneaux’s (2012) analysis is his emphasis on the fact
that the process of creating persuasion must take into account the way vot-
ers function in a competitive environment. Factual political environments
are always open to multiple perspectives for viewing a given issue in either
positive or negative framing. One issue is very likely to be presented in a
number of different contexts by different political options. Voters are faced