Fundamental processes leading to attitude change:: Implications for cancer prevention communications

Developing appropriate intervention strategies for cancer-related communications depends on understanding the basic mechanisms underlying persuasion. By examining the psychological processes through which attitudes change, cancer researchers can understand and predict further changes in behavior and maximize the chances of designing effective research and interventions. In the present article, we group the main persuasion processes into meaningful categories to provide a useful guide to organize the reviewed findings. One of the most common findings on cancer communication has been that matching persuasive messages to people's characteristics increases persuasion. The present review provides a detailed examination of the different psychological mechanisms through with such persuasive matching effects and exceptions might occur.