The Effects of Cognitive and Metacognitive Input in Narrative Persuasion

• In Event: Narratives

Abstract

How does counterarguing affect narrative persuasion? According to the cognitive perspective, the generation of counterarguments is a key obstacle to persuasive efforts. Following the metacognitive view, however, the experience of difficulty that accompanies increased counterarguing, actually, may benefit persuasion. These two contrasting predictions were experimentally evaluated (N = 587) by manipulating the instructions of thought-listing tasks following exposure to a story that advocated for Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS). Results for participants low-in-NfC supported the cognitive prediction, whereby generating many counterarguments (7) led to less favorable attitudes toward PAS, whereas fewer counterarguments (2) engendered more positive attitudes. In contrast, participants high-in-NfC were not only influenced by the thought content, but also by the experience of ease or difficulty that accompanied the generation of counterarguments. Among this group, increased counterarguing (7) resulted in more favorable attitudes toward PAS, while fewer counterarguments (2) were translated into greater opposition.

Authors

• Nathan Walter, Northwestern University

• Jonathan Cohen, U of Haifa