Arousal role playing and persuasion

Past researchers have indicated the existence of both positive and negative relationships between emotional arousal and persuasion. The present study is one of a series in a program designed to examine the relationships between extraneous arousal and persuasibility. Male and female participants role played either a relaxed or an aroused mood state, and then listened to a persuasive communication. Participants’ mood ratings were recorded both prior to and immediately following the communication. Attitudes and recall were assessed after the communication. Results indicated that the role playing manipulation was successful in creating different moods. No arousal differences were found for the attitude measure, but significant sex differences were found. A weak negative relationship between arousal and attitude was found for female participants. Factor analyses of the data yielded potentially useful information regarding mood states and attitudes. The finding of a negative relationship between arousal and persuasion for females and virtually no relationship for males is comparable with other recent research. The present data provided tentative support for Leventhal’s (1970) parallel response model.