PROCESSING RATIONAL AND EMOTIONAL MESSAGES - THE COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE MEDIATION OF PERSUASION

Do rational and emotional appeals produce persuasion via the same process? We examined this question by exposing subjects experiencing a positive or neutral mood to a counterattitudinal message comprising strong or weak, rational or emotional arguments. Persuasion in response to rational messages was best accounted for by current models of persuasion: attitude change was mediated by the valence of the cognitive responses generated in neutral mood conditions but not in positive mood conditions. Persuasion in response to emotional messages, however, was best explained by a model which allowed for both the cognitive and affective mediation of persuasion: attitude change was mediated by the valence of both cognitive and affective responses generated in neutral mood conditions but these mechanisms were again disrupted in the positive mood conditions. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.