Communicator Attributes and Persuasion: Recipients' Access to Attitude-Relevant Information in Memory

Message recipients' recall of attitude-relevant beliefs and experiences was expected to affect message processing such that high-retrieval recipients base their opinions relatively more on an analysis of message validity, whereas recipients who could recall few beliefs and experiences base their opinions on noncontent features such as source cues. Indeed, high-retrieval recipients were unaffected by the likability of the message source, they demonstrated relatively good recall of the message position and arguments, and cognitive response data indicated that persuasion was enhanced by positive rather than negative reactions to message content. In contrast, low-retrieval recipients were more persuaded by likable and by expert sources than unlikable and nonexpert ones. Further, these recipients showed relatively poor recall of the message position and arguments, and cognitive response data suggested that persuasion was enhanced by positive rather than negative reactions to the communicator.