ROLE ENACTMENT AS A SOCIALLY RELEVANT EXPLANATION OF SELF-PERSUASION

This paper reports four tests of Berger's role enactment model of persuasion. The model is addressed to generalizing counter attitudinal communication to social situations when persons find themselves encoding belief-discrepant messages. This encoding takes the form of role enactments which lead to attitude change. Crucial to predicting from the model are variables identifying the communicator's self-perceived role enactment competence (SPREC), post performance evaluation (PPE), information, and role involvement. Studies 1 and 2 found no support for predictions concerning the predictive utility of information but did point to the importance of SPREC and PPE in assessing post enactment attitude. Study 3 tested a re-conceptualization of Berger's model and confirmed a multivariate relationship among SPREC, PPE, message intensity, and attitude change. In Study 4 ego involvement was conceptually linked to role involvement, and results confirmed the SPREC, PPE, involvement, message intensity, and attitude change relationship.     

BASIC PREMISES OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL ATTITUDE CHANGE THEORY: AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS

Multidimensional attitude change models propose that (1) stimuli defining the domain of attitudes may consist of a multidimensional rather than unidimensional pattern; (2) stimuli associated with each other in the persuasion process will converge with each other in the multidimensional attitude domain. These two propositions receive clear support from three of the hypotheses tested in four-panel cohort data, which analyses show to be multidimensional. The sources of a persuasive message converge on the position they advocate. Multiple sources converge on each other. The findings provided partial support for two other hypotheses on the convergence of self-concept with advocated position and with sources of a persuasive message. A final, somewhat tangential hypothesis also receives clear support: existential associations of concepts are more effective than hortatory associations. These results support further development of multidimensional attitude change models.