INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN CULTURAL AND CONTENT VARIABLES ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PERSUASIVE COMMUNICATIONS IN THE INTERNATIONAL FIELD.

Abstract

The case studies and experimental investigations indicated that successful persuasive message is more transferable from one culture to another than much of the current literature (both theoretical and pragmatic) would indicate at least with an upper middle class urban sample in one well-developed Western European country and one developing Middle Eastern country. There was no evidence that a persuasive message was more effective (in terms of attitude change, comprehension of message and preference for the product) if it were attributed to a source from the country in which the message was disseminated or if it featured visually people of that country. Only limited evidence suggested that an original message composed by a native of the particular country was superior to a good idiomatic translation of one proven successful in the United States. A follow-up experiment indicated that remembrance of the message was low in France, not quite so low in Egypt. Another set of experiments conducted in the United States suggested that a country can under certain circumstances serve as a national reference group and can influence attitudes of respondents toward the persuasive message. Both series of experiments and the case studies suggested that the generality of the message was a variable of some significance. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 15, 1966
Accession Number
AD0640191

Entities

People

  • S. Watson Dun

Organizations

  • University of Wisconsin–Madison

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Case Studies
  • Comprehension
  • Continents
  • Literature
  • Translations
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • Organizational Psychology.
  • Theoretical Analysis.