THE EFFECTS OF MESSAGE REPETITION AND THREATS TO ATTITUDINAL FREEDOM ON RESISTANCE TO PERSUASION

Abstract

The present study was designed to investigate the effects of message repetition and the amount of threat to freedom on resistance to persuasion. This experiment focused on subjects whose initial attitude were in line with the position presented in the persuasive message.
Two factors were involved in this experiment, i, e., the number of message presentations (1 or 2), and the amount of threat (high or low), which constituted, then, a 2×2 before-after factorial design.
Regardless of the number of message presentations, reactance effects were found in the high threat condition and positive attitude change was induced in the low threat condition. But no interaction effect between message repetition and the arnount of threat was found.
The results were discussed in terms of the theory of psychological reactance. However, some doubt remained as to the validity of its basic propositions.