Effects of Outcome-Relevant Involvement and Prior Information on Persuasion

This research examined the possibility that prior information about the persuasive issue interacts with argument quality and outcome-relevant involvement to affect attitude change. In support of the perspective that both involvement and knowledge have motivating effects on persuasion, under high-involvement conditions, when prior information about the issue should satisfy curiosity and decrease message processing, it was predicted and found that the tendency for strong arguments to produce more positive cognitive responses and agreement than weak arguments was less pronounced for high- than for low-knowledge subjects. The parallel hypothesis, that under low-involvement conditions, additional information about the issue should raise curiosity and increase processing, received weaker support. Finally, consistent with prior research, involvement tended to produce unbiased systematic processing, but only when subjects did not receive prior information. These and other findings are discussed as they relate to research on involvement and knowledge-like variables.