Need for cognition: an individual differences approach to underst anding warning effectiveness

摘要

Research has shown that trait individual differences in need for cognition influence the evaluation of persuasive messages.Product warning instructions cna be considered a form of persuasive messae because a goal of warnings is to change attitudes and alter behavior.This research investigated the relationship between need for cognition scores and rating and recall meausres of warning quality and effectivenexss.Product warning instructions were presneted with and without infjury outcome statistics which may act as a heuristic cue in the persuasion process.Results showed that individuals higher in need for cognition recalled more warnings that contained statistics and juged all types of warnings as more improtant.The potential for individual differences to help explain warning effectiveness is discussed.