Kenneth G. DeBono

Source expertise, source attractiveness, and the processing of persuasive information: a functional approach

Male undergraduates high and low in self-monitoring listened to either an expert or attractive male source deliver a counterattitudinal message supported by either strong or weak arguments. As expected, high self-monitoring individuals agreed with the expert source regardless of the quality of the arguments presented but agreed with the attractive source only when he delivered strong arguments. By contrast, low self-monitoring individuals agreed with the attractive source regardless of the quality of the arguments presented but agreed with the expert source only when he delivered strong arguments. Cognitive response and recall data suggested that high-self monitoring individuals were systematically processing the attractive sources message and were heuristically processing the expert sources message, whereas low self-monitoring individuals were systematically processing the expert sources message and were heuristically processing the attractive sources message. We discuss the role of source variables in persuasion settings, the determinants of an information-processing strategy, and the functional underpinnings of attitudes.

Personal Involvement and Strategies for Making Contingency Judgments: A Stake in the Dating Game Makes a Difference

To examine the relation between degree of involvement in a task and the complexity of strategy a subject applies to the task, we randomly assigned 48 female university volunteers to either a dating condition (high-involvement) or one of two (low-involvement) control conditions. These subjects performed a covariation judgment task for which the likelihood of their using simple or complex strategies was calculated. High-involvement subjects used more complex strategies and tended to be more accurate. These data are discussed in terms of the functionality of human information processing, heuristic analyses of inference strategies, and the importance of considering level of personal involvement in analyses of task performance.

The Effects of Advertising Appeal on Perceptions of Product Quality

In Study 1, high and low self-monitors either listened to music on a cassette tape or sampded a cola product after observing either an image- or a quality-oriented advertisement for the product. High self-monitors rated the quality of the products higher than low self-monitors after suing the image-oriented advertisements, and low self-monitors rated the quality of the products higher than high self-monitors after seeing the quality-oriented advertisements. In Study 2, high and low self-monitors -sorted ads that varied in the degree to which they represented image- or quality-based appeals into self-relevant and non-self-relevant categories. The more image oriented the ads were, the more self-relevant high self-monitors perceived the ads to be, and the more quality oriented the ads were, the more self-relevant low self-monitors perceived them to be. In Study 3, 1 week after viewing image-and quality-oriented ads, high and low self-monitors saw additional image and quality ads (some new, some originals) and were asked whether the ads were old or new. High self-monitors were more accurate at identifying image ads as old or new, whereas low self-monitors were more accurate at identifying quality ads as old or new.

Acting on One's Attitudes: The Role of a History of Choosing Situations:

Three investigations examined the contributions of a history of choosing attitudinally relevant situations to attitude-behavior relations. Study I showed that differing histories of choosing attitudinally relevant situations were predictive of differing degrees of willingness to engage in an attitudinally consistent behavior for low self-monitors but not for high self-monitors. Study 2 showed that manipulated frequency of attitude expression increased attitude accessibility for low, but not for high, self-monitors. Study 3 showed that histories of choosing attitudinally relevant situations were predictive of attitude accessibility for low self-monitors but not for high self-monitors. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Individual Differences in Predicting Behavioral Intentions from Attitude and Subjective Norm

The relations between attitude toward the act and subjective norm to behavioral intentions were examined from an individual difference perspective. High- and low-self-monitoring American undergradu...

Source Expertise and Persuasion: The Moderating Role of Recipient Dogmatism

Individuals high and low in dogmatism read a counter attitudinal message from either an expert or a nonexpert source who supported his position with either strong or weak arguments. Low-dogmatic individuals tended to be persuaded by the strength of the arguments regardless of the source. High-dogmatic individuals were persuaded by the strength of the arguments when the source was nonexpert but were equally persuaded by strong and weak arguments when the source was expert. Cognitive response data suggested that low-dogmatic individuals may have been systematically processing the message in both source conditions but high-dogmatic individuals may have been doing so only in the nonexpert condition. Results are discussed in terms of the psychological needs that source factors can fulfill for message recipients.

Social Hypothesis Testing and the Role of Expertise

Research on social hypothesis-testing processes has demonstrated that there is a strong preference for seeking and using hypothesis-confirming evidence when testing hypotheses about other people. An experiment was conducted to examine the extent to which expertise in a particular knowledge domain represents a delimiting condition of this inferential tendency. Expert and novice subjects completed a hypothesis-testing recall task. Recall differences in line with the different strategies commonly used by experts and novices on problem-solving and reasoning tasks were predicted. As expected, novices recalled more hypothesis-matching evidence after a delay interval, regardless of the nature of the hypothesis to be tested. Expert recall, by contrast, was not characterized by this confirmatory preference when experts tested the hypothesis inside their domain of expertise. The extent to which these expert/novice differences provide support for motivated social cognition is discussed.

Attitude accessibility and biased information processing: The moderating role of self-monitoring

High and low self-monitors read and evaluated two studies relevant to the deterrent effects of the death penalty, one that supported its deterrent effects and one that did not. Low self-monitors’ evaluations of the studies were significantly related to the accessibility of their attitudes toward capital punishment. The more accessible their attitudes were, the more favorable, relatively, were their evaluations of the study that supported their personal attitudes toward capital punishment. In contrast, attitude accessibility was unrelated to high self-monitors’ relative evaluations.

On the effects of product name on product evaluation: An individual difference perspective

High and low self-monitoring individuals sampled and evaluated energy drinks that had either an image-oriented name or a name that simply described the product. High self-monitors evaluated the drinks more favorably when they had the image-oriented name than when they had the self-descriptive name. In contrast, low self-monitors preferred the drinks more when they had the self-descriptive name than when they had the image-oriented name.