The Effects of Argument Structure and Affective Tagging on Product Attitude Formation

How do structural and affective elements in a persuasive message influence consumers' product beliefs and attitudes? In this article, we examine how the logical structure of arguments (provided through warrants) influences consumers' beliefs about product claims. Next, we examine how explicit statements about product claim desirability (provided through affective tag sentences) influence product attitude. Our results show that argument structure has a strong effect on consumers' beliefs. More important, our results suggest that consumers' product attitudes are based on their beliefs about product claims, but only when the desirability of those claims is made explicit. Copyright 1993 by the University of Chicago.