ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines an approach to analyzing reception and acceptance processes and will apply the approach to some representative bodies of research on attitude and opinion change. It argues that subjects who expect to receive a communication change their opinion toward the position they expect will be advocated in the message—in anticipation of receiving it. W. J. McGuire constructed persuasive communications that attacked these propositions and, in the absence of other information, substantially decreased subjects’ beliefs that they were true. The two factors underlying the effectiveness of refutational defenses—the information that they provide which helps the subject to counterargue, and the stimulation they give him to practice counterarguing—may sometimes be negatively correlated. Information to a subject about the purpose of the experiment may suggest to him the nature of the responses the experimenter is likely to consider acceptable. In McGuire and S. Millman experiment, sources were all allegedly highly skillful and persuasive but differed in their apparent reputability.
