Everyday persuasion knowledge

Abstract

Laypeople's everyday persuasion knowledge is one of their most valuable sociocognitive resources. People draw on their beliefs about persuasion to cope with other people's attempts to influence them and to fashion their own persuasion attempts. Because persuasion-related tasks are so important in everyday life, the acquiring and sharing of persuasion expertise is an ongoing sociocultural process. In this article we discuss how beliefs about persuasion tactics get diffused within a culture, the role of researchers in that diffusion process, and the murky meaning of expertise in the domain of persuasion. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.