Effects of Emotional and Nonverbal Characteristics on Persuasion: Towards a New Model in a New Medium

• In Event: Investigating the Processes Underlying Social Influence

Abstract

This experiment was designed to explore emotions, nonverbal characteristics, and persuasion. Evidence replicates Information Processing Theory (Hamilton, Hunter, & Boster, 1993). Evidence supports a hypothesized causal order among socioemotional characteristics from the C4 scale (Buck & Vieira, 2002) based on MacLean’s (1993) triune brain hypothesis. Contrasting empirical models contain nonverbal cues, argument quality, and language intensity as also antecedent to attitude change. Different conceptualizations of charisma based on analytic and syncretic processing are suggested.

Authors

• Jeffrey Kotz, University of Connecticut

• Peter Palumbo, University of Connecticut

• Megan Johnston, University of Connecticut

• Ross W. Buck, Univ of Connecticut, Storrs