Off-Target? Changing Cognitive-Based Attitudes

Researchers argue that the effectiveness of cognitive versus affective persuasive appeals depends in part on whether the appeal is congruentor incongruentwith a primarily cognitiveor affectiveattitudebase. However, considerableresearchsuggests that these persuasioneffectsmay holdonly for predominantlyaffectiveattitudesand not cognitiveattitudes.Indeed, resultsof Experiment 1 show that the relative effectivenessof congruent relative to incongruentpersuasion appealsholds for brands with predominantlyaffectiveassociations,but not those with predominantly cognitive associations. Experiment 2 explores one reason for this anomalous finding: Cognitive attitudes may be relatively impervious to persuasive appeals because the probability of targeting the specific attribute on which the cognitive attitude is based is smaller. The results are supportive,showingthat significantpersuasioneffectsare foundwhen the specificbeliefson whichcognitiveattitudesare basedare taken into account.However, theseeffectsonly occur under conditions of low cognitive load and not high cognitive load where resources for the cognitive processingof the appealsare limited. We discuss the implicationsof the researchfor the role of attitudestructurein understandingpersuasioneffectsand the interplayof affectiveand cognitive elements in persuasion processes.