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P a r i y a S r i p a k d e e v o n g ( W i l l )
Final Paper: Research Methods in Social Psychology
Psychology 310R
Professor Robin M. Akert
December 21, 2010
Fall 10
The Roles of Power and Ease of Retrieval Effects in Persuasion:
An Examination on the Self-Validation Hypothesis
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Pariya Sripakdeevong (Will) 2
The Roles of Power and Ease of Retrieval Effects in Persuasion:
An Examination on the Self-Validation Hypothesis
Pariya Sripakdeevong, Kayla Kim, Betsy T. Gratner, and Laila Alawa
Wellesley College
The present research explores the effects of the interaction between power and ease of retrievalon persuasion. In line with the Self-Validation Hypothesis of the Elaboration Likelihood Modelof Persuasion, higher levels of power and perceived ease of a retrieval task are independentlyassociated with higher confidence in thoughts. The authors hypothesized that simultaneouslyinfluencing power and ease of retrieval in the same or opposite directions would strength theeffect of thought confidence on persuasion or create an interaction effect. In the experiment,
participants were induced to feel powerful or powerless and generated either high (difficult) or low (easy) number of counterarguments against the topic of a persuasive message they read. Noresult of attitude change due to levels power or ease of retrieval was found, but there was amarginal main effect of ease of retrieval on attitude such that participants who perceived greater ease in a retrieval task reported more unfavorable attitude towards the message in line with thedirection of their self-generated counterarguments. Furthermore, thought confidence was foundto have a direct effect on attitude such that participants who were more confident in their thoughts were less persuaded by the message. Possible interpretations of the result contrary tothe self-validation hypothesis, including possible absence of thought confidence mediation andthe inapplicability of the self-validation hypothesis on multiple simultaneous manipulations of thought confidence variables, were discussed.
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Understanding when and why a persuasive communication is effective has always been
an inquiry for people across all disciplines. Over the past three decades, a large number of
researchers have examined various factors that constitute a successful persuasion effect, where a
persons attitude is modified in the desired direction as a result of receiving a persuasive
message (see Petty & Wegener, 1998). The Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion (ELM;
Petty & Cacippo, 1981) integrates many conflicting persuasion theories by proposing that the
process and consequence of persuasion depend upon the likelihood of elaboration being high or
low. Under high elaboration (when need for cognition is high), persuasion occurs via the central
route where factors such as argument quality determine the extent of attitude change.
Meanwhile, under low elaboration condition, the effectiveness of a persuasive communication
depends on peripheral cues, such as the attractiveness and expertise of the message source.
Recent research on the ELM has been heavily focused on the Self-Validation Hypothesis,
an expansion to the model, which proposes that the impact of persuasion depends not only on
whether thoughts are elaborated as the tradition ELM suggests but also on whether one have
confidence in those thoughts (Petty, Briol, & Tormala, 2002). The key component of the self-
validation hypothesis is that thought confidence is an essential factor determining how much
effort one should devote to processing a message, that is, whether a message is processed under
low or high elaboration. Therefore, thought confidence is essential to understanding persuasion,
since an important implication of the ELM is that a variable can produce multiple effects on
persuasion depending on the level of elaboration. (For example, positive emotion can lead to
more persuasion when elaboration is low but less persuasion when elaboration is high (Schwarz,
Bless & Bohhber, 1991). Thought confidence influences different variables of the ELM (eg.
source credibility, incidental emotions, personal relevance, power, and ease of retrieval) in
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Pariya Sripakdeevong (Will) 4
different ways depending whether the cognitive responses to the message are negative or
positive (Briol and Petty, 2009).
The role of power is recognized as an important motivating force in human relationship
formation. Much of the research on power and persuasion has been heavily focused on the
power of the message sources such that powerful sources produce persuasion effect than
powerless sources (eg. Festinger & Thibaut, 1951; French & Raven, 1959). Recently, the effect
of persuasion on the power of the message recipient has been examined through the level of
confidence that power induce.
Self-validation suggests that powerful individuals feel more confident in their thoughts;
when asked to generate positive or negative thoughts about a campus vaccination policy and
recalled an incident where felt powerful or powerless, participants who were induced to feel
powerful reported higher confidence and greater attitude change in the direction of their self-
generated thoughts (Briol, Petty, Valle, Rucker and Becerra, 2007). Like many variables of the
ELM, power can affect persuasion in many ways depending on the elaboration process. For
example, in another experiment of the same study, the role of power being induced before and
after presentation of a persuasive message was examined (Briol et al., 2007). In contrast to
eliciting greater persuasion effect when induced to feel powerful after processing a persuasive
message, being induced to feel powerful (through role-playing as the boss compared to
relatively powerless roles like employees) led participants to be less persuaded by a subsequent
persuasive message. This occurs because, when feeling powerful, people become more
confident in their own current views and therefore have little need to process additional
information from the persuasive message. Thus the dynamic role of power, driving persuasion
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Pariya Sripakdeevong (Will) 5
effect in whatever direction that validates mental content in individuals thought, is vital to
understanding persuasion process.
Moreover, much research attention has been paid to the effect of perceived ease of
information processing (ease of retrieval effect) on persuasion. One study found that when
participants were instructed to generate one reason for choosing a BMW over a Mercedes Benz
car, their attitudes towards BMW became more positive, but the opposite direction of attitude
change occurred when they were instructed to generate ten reasons, due to the perceive easiness
of generating one reason and perceived difficulty of generating ten reason (Wnke, Bohner &
Jurkowisch, 1997). This suggested that attitudes supporting the self-generated argument become
more positive when the task is perceived as easy. This result has recently been shown to be
consistent with the self-validation hypothesis, such that such that perceived relative ease of a
retrieval task leads to higher thought confidence. For example, in one study participants read a
strong or weak message purposing a comprehensive exam upon graduation from college, and
generated either 2 or 10 counterarguments against it (Tormala, Petty & Briol, 2002). The
researchers found that, under high elaboration condition (strong message), participants attitude
were more influenced by their thoughts against the exam when generating few rather than any
counterarguments (ease of retrieval effects), and that this process was mediated by thought
confidence the participants had. Thus, ease of retrieval can influence persuasion in the direction
either for or against a persuasive message, depending on the direction of the individuals own
thought and the confidence individuals have on those thoughts.
The present study is an examination of the self-validation hypothesis through the
interplay between the roles of two thought confidence variables, power and ease of retrieval, on
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persuasion. Much of the research on self-validation has been focused on the effectiveness of one
variable on persuasion mediated by thought confidence. Thus, this study aims to answer the
following questions: Will the effect of thought confidence on persuasion be present when two
variables co-occur? Will the effect of one variable be stronger than the other? Will persuasion
effect be strengthened when two variables influence thought confidence in the same direction?
Finally, What will happen to the persuasion effect when the thought confidence variables are
manipulated in opposite directions? This study is a conceptual replication of parts of the power
in role-playing scenario study (Briol et al., 2007) and the ease of retrieval in comprehensive
exam study (Tormala et al., 2002). We focused on high elaboration processing since it has been
found that the impact of power and ease of retrieval on thought confidence was greatest when
motivation and ability to process is relatively high (Briol et al., 2007; Tormala et al., 2002). .
We aim to demonstrate that level of power (high power, producing high thought
confidence and low power, producing low thought confidence) and level of ease (easy task,
producing high thought confidence and difficult task, producing low thought confidence) will
increase or decrease persuasion, depending on the resulting level of thought confidence from the
interaction of the two variables. We hypothesize that people who feel powerful before a
persuasive message and perceive a retrieval task as easy will have higher thought confidence
than those who feel powerless and perceive difficulty in the task; as a result, those in the
powerful/easy condition will show less attitude change in the direction of a persuasive
communication than those in the powerless/difficult condition if the message is inconsistent to
their prior attitude. This hypothesis is consistent with existing research findings on self-
validation: thought confidence should decrease the effects of persuasion that are unfavorable to
ones attitude prior to receiving a persuasive message. Thus we expect that doubling the thought
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confidence manipulation in the same direction will increase the effect even more. Furthermore,
people who feel powerful but engage in a difficult task, or feel powerless but engage in an easy
task, will experience one confidence boosting and one confidence reducing manipulation. This
contradiction leads us to hypothesize a main effect on either the power or ease of retrieval
variable, and possibly an interaction effect on persuasion.
METHOD
Participants and Design
Sixty undergraduates from Wellesley College participated in this study for fulfillment of
their 100 and 200 levels psychology courses credit. Participants were all female, with age range
approximately from 17-22. Participants signed up for an experimental session in pairs and were
run in pairs. Participants were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions in the 2 (Power:
powerful or powerless) x 2 (Ease of retrieval: easy or difficult) between-subjects design. The
two independent variables concern level of thought confidence, where high confidence is
induced in the powerful and easy conditions and low confidence induced in the powerless
and difficult conditions.
Overview
Two participants participated per experimental session. When both participants arrived,
they were informed that they would be completing two experimental studies: the first one about
non-verbal behavior in social roles and the second one about attitudes towards current issues at
Wellesley College. They were told that together, these two short studies counted as one research
participation credit. (The two studies were actually parts of the same experiment). The
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participants were then told that the task for the first study involved role-playing in a business
situation and were asked to sign a consent form for the first study. After role-playing in either a
powerful or powerless role, participants completed a questionnaire that included a manipulation
check for power. Participants were then told that the first study was completed and that in the
second study they will be asked opinions on possible college budget cuts. After signing the
second consent form, participants read a personally relevant message and then listed either a
high or low number of counterarguments against the topic of the message. After the listing task,
participants completed a manipulation check for ease of retrieval, rated their thought confidence,
and rated their attitudes towards the topic of the message Upon ending the session, participants
were debriefed and thanked for their participation.
Procedure
Power Independent Variable. Following a random role assignment (i.e. each participant
picked a chopstick from a bowl with an indicated role written on it), one participant from each
pair acted as the Vice President (powerful role inducing high thought confidence) and the other
as the Secretary (powerless role inducing low thought confidence). The participants role-played
following a provided script about a situation where the Secretary was unable to complete her
task and was therefore fired by the Vice President. Participants were instructed to read the script
word for word and that their non-verbal behaviors would be crucial to our results. The Vice
President participant was additionally instructed to act as she had complete control over the
work setting, the evaluation of the Secretary, and the ability to fire the Secretary. Meanwhile,
the Secretary participant was instructed to act as if she had no control over the work setting, how
the work was done, or the evaluation process. In order to involve participants in their roles, the
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Vice President participant wore a nametag as Mrs. Smith and stood during the role-play, while
the Secretary participant wore a nametag as Mary and remain seated before the Vice President
participant. After the role-playing activity, participants responded to a questionnaire, which
included two manipulation check questions asking how powerful they felt in a 9-point semantic
differential scale ( not at all-very) and how much control they felt they had over what happened
in 9-point semantic differential scale ( none-a great deal) (adapted from Overbeck & Park, 2001).
The questionnaire also included a series of filler questions to support the cover story (eg.
estimate the number of eye contacts made, describe participants tone of voice, rate how realistic
the role-play was, and etc). Participants were then told that the first study was completed, and
moved to the second study.
Ease of Retrieval Independent Variable. After manipulating the level of power in the
role-playing task, we then manipulated the level of ease in the second task. Participants read a
personally relevant message explaining that the colleges Board of Trustees are currently
reviewing the possibility of eliminating Senate bus that commutes Wellesley students into
Boston on weekends, as the colleges endowment is affected by the recent economic crisis and it
is necessary for the college reduce operating budgets in non-academic areas. The message was
intended to provide a strong argument (as a cue for high elaboration processing) for eliminating
the Senate bus, which we expect participants would be against. Immediately after reading the
persuasive message, participants were informed that their opinions on the issue would be
important for the colleges decision-making process. Participants were instructed to list either 2
reasons or 10 reasons against bus elimination, which aims to create easy or difficult tasks to
heighten or lower thought confidence respectively. Then, participants completed manipulation
check questionnaire for level of ease perceived in doing the task in a 9-point semantic
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differential scale (How difficult did you find it to generate the requested number of reasons?;
not at all-extremely difficult; from Tormala et al., 2002).
Thought Confidence Mediation. After completing the power and ease of retrieval
manipulation tasks and the manipulation check questionnaires pertaining each of the
independent variables, participants completed another questionnaire for thought confidence
mediation from Briol et al. (2007):How valid do you believe the thoughts you listed are? on
a 9-point semantic differential scale ( not at all-extremely difficult) . The primary purpose of
manipulating both independent variables was to manipulate the level of thought confidence in
our participants. Thus, the mediation questionnaire checked whether increased level of power
and ease increase thought confidence as previous researches suggest, and aimed to explore the
thought confidence levels of participants who experienced contradicting direction of
manipulations (i.e. participants in the powerful/difficult and powerless/easy conditions).
Attitude Dependent Measure. Finally, participants rated their attitudes towards
eliminating the Senate bus in order to balance the colleges budget and avoid cutting funding
from academic areas using four 9-point semantic differential sales: positive-negative, good-bad,
favorable-unfavorable and in favor-against (adapted from Briol et al., 2007)
RESULT
All analyses were conducted using a 2(Power: powerful or powerless) x 2 (Ease of
retrieval: easy or difficult) ANOVA, unless indicated otherwise.
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Manipulation Checks
Power. Ratings from the two 9-point semantic differential scales on power manipulation
check were highly intercorrelated (Cronbachs =0.87) and therefore averaged to create a power
manipulation check index. Power was scored such that 1 was least powerful and 9 was most
powerful. Participants assigned to the powerful condition reported significantly greater feeling
of power (M=7.25, SD=1.62) than did the participants in the powerless condition (M=2.50,
SD=1.46), F(1,56)=140.63, p
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the Senate bus would be less did participants in the difficult condition, F(1,56)=3.55, p=.07
(See Table 2).
Table 2: Table 3: Mean (and Standard Deviation) of Effect of Ease of Retrieval Attitudes towards
Bus Service Elimination
Positive-Negative Good-Bad Favorable-Unfavorable
In Favor-Against
Easy (n=30) 7.57(1.70)
7.47(1.70)
7.83(1.67)
7.63(1.67)
Difficult (n=30) 7.67(1.24)
7.00(2.20)
6.83(2.35)
7.00(1.93)
The interaction effects of power and ease of retrieval on attitude towards eliminating the
bus were not signification across four measures: positive-negative (F(1,56)=0.01, p=.44) , good-
bad (F(1,56)=0.02, p=.90), favorable-unfavorable (F(1,56)=0.77, p=.40), and in favor-against
(F(1,56)=.25, p=.62).
Because power and ease of retrieval did not have a significant effect on attitude, we were
interested in assessing whether thought confidence has direct effect on attitudes. Thought
confidence levels of participants were divided into two groups, high and low, with the mean
thought confidence score as a divider (regardless of experimental conditions). The attitude
ratings from four 9-point attitude measures ( positive-negative, good-bad, favorable-unfavorable
and in favor-against) were highly intercorrelated (Cronbachs =0.90) and were therefore
averaged as the attitude index. The one-way ANOVA analysis indicated that participants with
higher thought confidence had more unfavorable attitudes towards bus elimination
(F(53,6)=2.66, p
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DISCUSSION
The data indicated that power and ease of retrieval did not affect persuasion, contrary to
what the self-validation hypothesis would expect. Persuasion effect on eliminating bus
transportation, a subject unfavorable to the participants position, did not increase when
participants were less powerful and/or engaged in a difficult task (thus our first hypothesis was
not supported).
We suspect that the lack of difference in persuasion effect was caused by the absence of
thought confidence manipulation across experimental conditions. According to the self-validation hypothesis, the consequential roles of power and ease of retrieval on persuasion relies
on an assumption that the process is mediated by increased or decreased level of thought
confidence (Petty et al., 2002). However, this mediation process is lacking in our study.
Although prior researchers established that increasing power (eg. Tormala, Briol & Petty 2007;
Briol et al., 2007) and ease of retrieval ( eg. Wnke & Bless , 2000; Tormala et al., 2002)
increase thought confidence level, our data indicated no difference in thought confidence across
all four conditions. Participants who role-played in a powerful position, although felt
significantly more powerful, did not have higher level of thought confidence than did
participants who were in a powerless condition. Likewise, participants who generated low
number of counterarguments, although perceived the task as easier than participants who
generated high number of counterarguments, did not have higher level of thought confidence.
Note, however, that participants with higher level of thought confidence reported more
unfavorable attitude towards bus elimination as we expected. Yet, although thought confidence
affected attitude, neither power nor ease of retrieval manipulations affected attitude as the
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manipulations were not mediated by thought confidence. Furthermore, our second hypothesis
relied on the interaction of thought confidence level in participants who receive one thought
confidence boosting and one thought confidence reducing variable. Since thought confidence
did not differ across experimental conditions, our second hypothesis was also not supported.
(See figure 1 for model of results).
Figure 1: Full Model of Result (p
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Furthermore, unlike in prior researches on ease of retrieval where many participants in
the difficult condition failed to generate the requested number of arguments (eg. Wnke et al.,
1997), all of our participants in the difficult condition were able to generate the requested
number of counterarguments, as participants in the easy condition were able to. By successfully
completing the task, our participant pool may have experienced a unique achievement that
heightens their thought confidence no matter whether they were in the easy or difficult condition.
Ability to complete the task further suggests that our participant pool may have a relatively
higher thinking ability, a characteristic that can be crucial to persuasion effect.
One future research direction could involve examining whether different factors that lead
to high elaboration processing (i.e. motivation and personal relevance as this research aimed to
manipulate vs. ability to thoughtfully process) lead to different effects of thought confidence on
persuasion. Researchers such as Tormala, Petty and Briol suggested that high-ability
thinkersmight be less likely to perceive certain tasks as subjectively difficult and could there
evince a different pattern of result.perhaps extensive thoughts stemming from ability factors
would actually reduce reliance on ease of retrieval (Tormala et al., 2002; p. 1710) Future
research might measure participants need of cognition (see NC scale in Cacioppo, Petty & Kao,
1984) and see the effects of high or low need of cognition levels on thought confidence level.
Nevertheless, it is also possible that thought confidence mediation occurred. Thought
confidence level may have been manipulated across experimental conditions but because we
relied on a single scale as a check for thought confidence manipulation, that single measure
could have been an invalid measure of thought confidence, especially since it may be hard for
participants to admit that they have low confidence in their own self-generated thoughts. If that
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was the case, our null result may have been a result of other confounds. This is because we
believe that type II error occurred, since there should have been at least a main effect on either
power or ease on persuasion consistent to prior research findings on this topic if not for some
confounding variable. Hence, we will evaluate the instruments used in our study and discuss
possible source of error.
A possible source of error could have been the subject of the persuasive message. The
message was intent to act as a strong and personally relevant central cue to induce high
elaboration persuasion against participants prior attitude. However, compared to a similar
research that presented a message proposing a comprehensive exam that students have to take to
graduate that will be implemented in two years (Tormala et al., 2002), this studys message
topic on eliminating the colleges bus transportation may have involved participants more with
their daily lives, hence suggesting a more direct and more immediate threat to the participants
wellbeing. Compared to the non-existing and less immediate comprehensive exam upon
graduation from college, the colleges bus transportation should be something participants were
more familiar with. Thus, arguments for why they should have the right to use the bus might be
something they could generate relatively more easily, or perhaps something they have
previously generated through their experiences of using the bus. Therefore, despite being
presented with the strong persuasive message, participants might have not been motivated to
elaborate the message and might be already equipped with counterarguments against bus
elimination before they even process the message. Moreover, one research suggested that
thought confidence can affect elaboration of a persuasive message differently when the social
consensus of the topic is viewed as negative (Petty et al., 2002). It may be possible that bus
elimination is a topic sensitive to social approval of the colleges community, and thus eliciting
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a different pattern of result. Therefore, choosing a topic that is personally relevant but not
sensitive to social consensus and not too familiar on participants daily lives basis is a
recommended approach.
Furthermore, the operationalization of the dependent measure could also be a source of
error. This study involved only one aspect of dependent measure, which was the attitude
towards bus service elimination. This attitude measure relied more on the ease of retrieval
manipulation task (generating low or high number of counterarguments against bus elimination)
than the power manipulation task (role-playing in powerful or powerless roles). The effects of
power on attitude may have been erased when participants were presented with a more
proximate and relevant ease of retrieval manipulation. Meanwhile, as we discussed earlier, the
effect of ease of retrieval may have been inhibited given the highly familiar and personally
relevant message and the high thinking ability of our participant pool. Hence, the effects of both
the power and ease of retrieval may have been inhibited due to the dependent measure
operationalization.
Finally, it may be possible that the finding contrary to the self-validation hypothesis was
not a result of a type II error but that hypothesis was inapplicable to the two-thought confidence
variables scenario. A prominent difference between this studys approach and that of prior
studies on this topic was the examination of two variables of the ELM instead of one. We
expected that two variables manipulating thought confidence in the same direction would
increase the persuasion effect even more than in the one variable case.
For example, we expected that feeling powerful would increase peoples thought
confidence and inhibit their elaboration of a persuasive message against their prior views. Then,
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being given a relatively easy task would boost confidence in their thoughts against the
persuasive message even more, thus causing less persuasion effect. However, the fact that two
variables were presented may possibly cancel out each others effect on level of thought
confidence instead of doubling it. Perhaps those who felt powerful may have become confident
in the subsequent task no matter if it was an easy or difficult task, meaning that the effect of
power on thought confidence may have been used during the ease of retrieval manipulation task
and thus have no effect on the subsequent attitude measure.
Furthermore, the lack of difference in persuasion effect for participants who were
induced to feel low thought confidence through both variable manipulations may also be
explained in a similar manner. We expected that those who felt powerless would have low
thought confidence and become more susceptible to the persuasive message against their
attitudes. Then when given a difficult task to generate counterargument against the message, the
perceived difficulty would make them even less confident about their prior attitude and
therefore increased persuasion effect. However, it may have been that those who felt powerless
may needed to compensate for lacking thought confidence by using the subsequent ease of
retrieval task; generating counterarguments consistent to their prior attitudes might have served
to boost thought confidence.
The null effect in the interaction between one high thought confidence and one low
thought confidence manipulation could also be explained in terms of two manipulations
neutralizing each other. Feeling powerful may have lead to higher thought confidence and less
need to process the persuasive message against the participants views. Then being presented
with a subsequent difficult task may lower their thought confidence but not the thought
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confidence pertaining the persuasive message because the effect of power already inhibit
persuasion prior to the difficult task. On the other hand, those who were induced to feel
powerless may be more motivated to process the message, but then became highly confident in
the counterarguments they later generated against the message in the easy task, and therefore
showed no persuasion effect.
In order to determine whether the effects of thought confidence were neutralized across
two variables, it is crucial to determine level of thought confidence once right after the first
variable manipulation and again after the second variable manipulation. Future research should
examine whether having more than one variables of thought confidence result in a different
pattern in persuasion effect from what the self-validation hypothesis would expect. Such finding
would have important implications to the applicability of the self-validation hypothesis, as it is
likely for various stimuli to influence thought confidence simultaneously in the real world.
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APPENDICES
APPENDIX I: Role-Play Script
Vice President Performance instruction: Act as if you have complete control over the work setting, the evaluation of the Secretary, and the ability to fire her.
Secretary Performance instruction: Act as if you have no control over the work setting, how the work was done, or the evaluation
process.
Script: Role-playing of the Vice President and Secretary
VP and Secretary stand and sit respectively.
Vice President : Mary, I see you were late again today. I have heard complaints from other employees over the past week concerning your recurring tardiness.
Secretary : Im really, really sorry! Its just that Ive had
*Vice President- cuts Secretary off.
Vice President : I do not have time for excuses, Mary. Because of your lateness, you havent
finished your work. At this point you have fallen behind on a number of tasks.
Secretary : I I didnt think I was behind
Vice President : Mary, I needed the corporate account copies made three days ago.
Secretary : Ms. Smith, I am so sorry. I can make those copies right away.
Vice President : My concern is not only the copies, Mary. The letters that were supposed to besent to our international branches never made it out of your office. I have received calls fromtwo companies expressing their discontent.
Secretary : Ms. Smith, I really am sorry. Im justIm overwhelmed. I wasnt aware. And mylife and work it has been so
*Vice President- cuts Secretary off.
Vice President : I do not care what it has been like, Mary. This is a business. I need employeeswho can complete the tasks I assign.
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APPENDIX II: Power Manipulation Check & Filler Questions
For each question, please circle the dot that best reflects your attitude.
1. How realistic did you find the role-playing situation?
. . . . . . . . .Not at all realistic Extremely
2. How comfortable did you feel with the role-playing situation?
. . . . . . . . .Not at all comfortable Extremely
3. How nervous were you during the role-playing situation?
. . . . . . . . .Not at all nervous Extremely
4. When you were in the role-playing situation, how powerful did you feel?
. . . . . . . . .Not at all Very
5. In the role-playing situation, how much control did you feel you had over whathappened?
. . . . . . . . .None A great deal
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6. Please estimate the length of the role-play in minutes.
_______ minute(s)
7. Please estimate the number of times you made eye contact with your role-play partner a. One to three times
b. Four to ten timesc. Eleven or more times
8. How would you describe your role-playing partners tone of voice (i.e. what kind of emotions did they express) during the role-play?
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
9. How would you describe your tone of voice (i.e. what kind of emotions did you express)during the role-play?
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
10. How much acting experience do you have?
. . . . . . . . .None A great deal
11. What role did you play? (Please circle one)
Vice President Secretary
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APPENDIX III: Persuasive Message & Ease of Retrieval Manipulation Task
Wellesley Issue Informational Paragraph
Please read the following information about budget cuts at Wellesley College and answer the subsequent questions.
Due to the recent economic crisis and resulting decrease in the Colleges endowment, theWellesley College Board of Trustees is looking to reduce the Colleges annual operating budget.Many budget cuts (such as closing the Bebee and Cazenove dining halls and eliminating themorning and afternoon Senate Bus service) have already occurred and more will be needed. All
expenditures at the college are being reviewed, but it is important to the Board that academics atWellesley not be affected by budget cuts, so cuts in non-academic areas are the first things thatare being discussed. One large, non-academic cost in the operating budget is the transportation
provided to students from Wellesley into Cambridge and Boston on the weekends (known as theSenate Bus). Eliminating the Senate Bus is a top choice for budget cuts because it wouldallow other aspects of campus and academic life to remain intact, and the issue of studenttransportation could be dealt with by students choosing to use public transportation systemssuch as the Commuter Rail. Student representatives on the Transportation Advisory Committee,a subcommittee of the Board of Trustees, are currently gathering information about the effectsthe elimination of the Senate Bus would have on students.
As students, your opinions on this issue are important to the Colleges decision-making process.
[For Easy Condition]: Please think about this issue and list 2 reasons you think the Senate Bus should not be eliminated.
[For Difficult Condition]: Please think about this issue and list 10 reasons you think theSenate Bus should not be eliminated.
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Appendix IV: Ease of Retrieval Manipulation Check
How difficult did you find it to generate the requested number of reasons?
. . . . . . . . .Not at all difficult Extremely difficult
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Appendix V: Thought confidence mediation check
1. How valid do you believe the reasons you listed are?
. . . . . . . . .Not at all valid Extremely valid
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APPENDIX VI: Dependent Measure
Attitude towards Wellesley Issue
Please rate your attitude toward the issue of eliminating the Senate Bus using the 4 scales below. Please circle the dot that best reflects your attitude.
1. I think eliminating the Senate Bus in order to balance the Colleges budget and avoidcutting funding from academic areas would be
. . . . . . . . .Positive Negative
2. I think eliminating the Senate Bus in order to balance the Colleges budget and avoidcutting funding from academic areas would be
. . . . . . . . .Bad Good
3. I think eliminating the Senate Bus in order to balance the Colleges budget and avoidcutting funding from academic areas would be
. . . . . . . . .Unfavorable Favorable
4. To what extent are you in favor of or against the elimination of the Senate Bus in order to balance the Colleges budget and avoid cutting funding from academic areas?
. . . . . . . . .In favor of Against
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