Ideological group influence: central role of message meaning |
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| Authors: | Timothy Hayes Wendy Wood |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Psychology, Florida International University, Miami, FL, USA;2. Department of Psychology and Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA |
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| Abstract: | Social influence, in Asch’s famous analysis, depends on recipients’ interpretations of what issues mean. Building on this view, we showed that influence is a two-step process in which recipients first infer the meaning of a message based on the ideology of the source group. In the second step, recipients agree more with messages that support their own group ideologies. Supporting the causal sequence in the model, recipients’ attitudes changed when message meaning changed, but not when message meaning was held constant. |
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| Keywords: | Social influence social meaning ideology attitude change ideological influence |
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