ABSTRACT

The rhetorical figures that are of increasing interest among persuasion researchers were first discussed by ancient Greek and Roman scholars. This chapter reviews the ancient Greek and Roman writings on rhetoric as viewed from a modern information-processing perspective to determine how the ancient scholars expected audiences to respond when rhetorical figures were added to persuasive messages. The modern-day literature is then reviewed to determine the extent to which empirical evidence supports the ancient hypotheses. The main finding is that many plausible hypotheses held by the ancients have not yet been empirically tested, giving new avenues of pursuit to modern persuasion researchers who are developing and testing hypotheses about audience responses to rhetorical figures.