The persuasion effect caused by the emotional message and rumination

Abstract

This study investigated the process of persuasion caused by the affective message and ruminative thoughts. Two-hundred and seventy-seven undergraduate students were presented with a message that appealed for the necessity of capital punishment using an emotional episode (emotional message) or objective reporting (objective message). Then, participants were required to describe their opinion about capital punishment (ruminative condition) or their plan for the next week (distractive condition) before rating their attitudes about capital punishment, or immediately rate attitudes (immediate rating condition). The results indicated that the ruminative thought about capital punishment facilitated the attitude change only in the emotional message condition. Furthermore, path analyses showed that the attitude change was mediated by the emotional thought in the emotional message condition, whereas, the change was mediated by the cognitive thought, in the objective message condition. Discussion considered the mechanism in which the ruminative thought about the contents of emotional message facilitates the attitude change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)