8 - Tests of the one-message model

Summary

The purpose of Chapter 7 was to familiarize the reader with the basic logic of the reception-acceptance process and to develop a model capable of capturing the essentials of the process as it manifests itself in the limited attitude change data that are available in typical surveys. The present chapter develops and tests the model's deductive implications, including some nonintuitive ones. The aim is to convince the reader that the success of the model in its initial tests was not merely fortuitous but arises from a significant congruence between its structure and the actual dynamics of mass opinion.

The chapter has three parts. The first analyzes two message-level determinants of attitude change: the intensity of the change-inducing messages, and whether the messages deal with a familiar or unfamiliar issue. These factors create predictably different patterns of opinion change. The second part examines the dynamics of resistance to persuasion at the level of the RAS model's primitive term, considerations. Finally, the chapter uses the model to shed light on a classic problem of opinion research, generational differences in receptivity to new ideas.

I should warn that, in the course of developing these diverse tests of the reception-acceptance model, the chapter skips from one empirical example to another – from public support for foreign wars to presidential approval ratings to racial attitudes – without developing a comprehensive picture of opinion in any single domain.