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The hypothesis that a communicator's physical attractiveness influences acceptance of an emotionally toned but not a rationally toned persuasive appeal was tested in a 2 × 2 × 2 (attractive vs. unattractive × expert vs. nonexpert × rational vs. emotional) design. Believing that the study concerned sensory-mode information integration, 80 female undergraduates read a five-argument product endorsement written with neutral or emotionally charged words, which was attributed to a physically attractive or unattractive male who was described as having expertise relevant or irrelevant to the product. Analysis of evaluations of the product and willingness to buy it both revealed attractiveness × message tone interactions, such that both liking and behavioral intentions were greater when the emotional endorsement was attributed to the attractive than to the unattractive communicator, with no effects for rational endorsement. Analysis of the thoughts listed and the within-cell correlations with product evaluations supported the interpretation that the rational message was processed systematically, the emotional message heuristically.
Pallak et al. (Wed,) studied this question.