1. INTEGRATION THEORY AND INOCULATION THEORY AS EXPLANATIONS OF THE 'PAPER TIGER' EFFECT.
- Author
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Farkas, Arthur J. and Anderson, Norman H.
- Subjects
ATTITUDE (Psychology) ,COLLEGE students ,MOTIVATION (Psychology) ,PSYCHOLOGY ,BEHAVIORISM (Psychology) - Abstract
This experiment compared a weighted-average model from information integration theory with McGuire's inoculation theory as explanations of the "paper tiger" effect. Ss were 24 male and 24 female American college students. Procedure and design were similar to that used by McGuire, and his messages were used verbatim. Each S indicated his attitude on each of four health issues and also made direct estimates of the weight and scale value of each piece of information upon his attitude. An apparent paper tiger effect was observed for some issues, but the opposite effect was observed for other issues. The predictions of the averaging model were quite good in six of eight cases. The two discrepancies seemed to reflect an underestimation of the importance of attacking message. Overall, the results were interpreted as supportive of the informational interpretation. No need was found for the motivational concepts of belief threat and refutational practice used in inoculation theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1976
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