Generating arguments when feeling ambivalent: examining attitude-message congruency

Although a large literature has examined factors that determine how people’s attitudes change in the face of existing persuasive messages, less is known about how attitudes guide the production of such messages. This research examines whether ambivalence moderates the degree to which people produce persuasive messages in line with their own attitudes. Prior research on attitude strength would suggest that ambivalence undermines the influence of one’s attitude on the message they produce. However, feeling conflicted could motivate people to reduce ambivalence, potentially by producing more attitude-congruent messages. Across two studies, we found that the effects of ambivalence on attitude-message congruency depended on the target of persuasion. When persuading others, people tended to produce more attitude-congruent messages when they experience relatively little ambivalence. This effect of ambivalence, however, was attenuated when people focused on convincing themselves. In Study 2, we also found evidence that these effects on attitude-message congruency in turn predicted people’s attitude clarity, but not correctness, after writing a message. Implications of these findings for attitude strength models are discussed.