ABSTRACT

A boomerang effect involves the movement of a message recipient's belief, attitude, or behavior in a direction contrary to the advocated position in the message. There has been limited scholarly attention to the mechanism of belief boomerang. To better understand boomerang effects, we tested the effect of message discrepancy on belief boomerang and the mechanism underlying such an effect with a between-subjects factorial study (N = 458). Our results revealed that a counterattitudinal message resulted in belief boomerang, whereas a proattitudinal message resulted in persuasion. The relationship between discrepancy and belief boomerang was accounted for by a motivational (i.e., reactance) process. The results suggest the significance of examining the boomerang effect as an outcome distinct from a failure to persuade.

摘要

回旋镖效应涉及消息接收者的信念、态度或行为向与消息中提倡的立场相反的方向移动。学术界对信仰回旋镖机制的关注有限。为了更好地理解回旋镖效应，我们通过主体间的析因研究（N= 458）。我们的结果表明，反态度的信息会导致信仰回旋镖，而反态度的信息会导致说服。差异和信念回旋镖之间的关系是由一个动机（即反应）过程来解释的。结果表明，将回旋镖效应视为与说服失败不同的结果的重要性。