ABSTRACT
Changing attitudes is the business of advertisers, governments, politicians, and teachers. Persuasive communications may work by a central route or a peripheral route. Most research on attitude change has focused on the factors affecting the first three of these steps; the last two relate to maintenance and effect of attitude change rather than to change itself. Comprehension depends on the complexity of the argument contained in the message, and on the recipient's ability to understand it. An important message characteristic affecting yielding is source credibility: the more expert, trustworthy, familiar, or liked is the person or body presenting the communication, the more likely is attitude change to occur. The main reason for changing attitudes is as a means of changing behavior. More recently, it has become clear that these weak relationships result largely from failing to make the attitude measures correspond with the behaviors.
