Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-229). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 24 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 23-24).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 288-325).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oklahoma, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-275).

In this dissertation, I provide two essays that examine how parties in the financial communication process attempt to persuade other market participants. In the first essay, I provide a thought piece in which I accomplish two objectives. First, I explain how the financial communications process involves persuasion, which is defined as “any effort to modify an individual’s evaluations of people, objects or issues by the presentation of a message” (Petty and Cacioppo 1986, p. 25). The parties on which I focus are corporate managers, information intermediaries (hereafter, sell-side analysts), and investors. I describe the typical communications among the three dyads represented by these groups (e.g., managers-analysts, analysts- investors, etc.), and argue that it involves persuasion. Second, I introduce one persuasion theory--the persuasion knowledge model (PKM)--and explain how it can increase our understanding of the financial communications process. The PKM outlines additional factors beyond those suggested by economic theory--such as, topic knowledge, persuasion knowledge, and recipient (provider) knowledge--that influence the selection of and reaction to persuasion strategies in financial communications. In the second essay, I use two experiments to investigate one dyad--e.g., analysts-investors--in the communications process. Within these experiments, I examine one persuasion strategy that sell-side analysts might use to persuade investors. I test the hypothesis that including some negative argumentation in a favorable analyst report (e.g., two-sided argumentation) acts as a credibility enhancer and augments investor response to the positive arguments included in the report. I also examine whether this effect depends on how investors view one- and two-sided reports: separately or simultaneously. Experimental results show that two-sided argumentation influences credibility only when one- and two-sided reports are viewed simultaneously. Further, this credibility effect is moderated by the strength of the positive arguments, as credibility is enhanced only when the arguments are weak. In contrast, when one- and two-sided reports are viewed independently, two-sided argumentation does not enhance credibility. Rather, argument strength alone determines credibility, as well as the likelihood of investment. These results suggest that, under certain conditions, sell-side analysts can use attributes of accounting argumentation to enhance the credibility of their favorable research and generate trade. / text

The purpose of this research program was to explore how the personality traits of extraversion and self-monitoring may impact a persuasive appeal within the framework of the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion. Using both descriptive and injunctive normative messages, I hypothesized that under conditions of low elaboration, when one is unable and unmotivated to process a message; those high in the traits of extraversion and self-monitoring would be more compliant to a persuasive appeal that utilized a descriptive normative message. Further, I hypothesized that under conditions of low elaboration, those low in the aforementioned traits would be more compliant to an appeal utilizing injunctive normative messages. I did not expect to find any differences relating to personality under conditions of high elaboration. In order to examine these expected interactions, I pre-tested messages to ensure they were adequately descriptive or injunctive (study one) and then presented these messages to participants who had previously completed measures of extraversion and self-monitoring (study two). In study one I successfully created both injunctive and descriptive normative messages that were adequately divergent. In study two, I manipulated elaboration by giving participants in the low elaboration condition a distracter task while they were reading the message, and by reducing personal relevance of the message, whereas for those in the high elaboration condition, there were no distractions and personal relevance was high. Contrary to predictions, I did not find the expected three-way interactions between extraversion, message type, and elaboration or self-monitoring, message type, and elaboration. However, I did find evidence supporting a two-way interaction between message type and elaboration, suggesting that descriptive messages are more persuasive under conditions of low elaboration whereas injunctive messages are more persuasive under conditions of high elaboration. Explanation for these findings, as well as implications of the findings both theoretical and practical, will be discussed in terms of the persuasion literature. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2010-08-10 14:32:21.064

Two experiments examined the influence of affective vocal qualities on attitude change according to the degree of congruency between vocal qualities and the message content (i.e., the extent to which the vocal qualities matched the intent of the message content). In Experiment 1, the design was a 2 (attitude formation: affective base vs. cognitive base) x 4 (persuasive message: fully matched vs. partially matched vs. fully mismatched vs. written passage) between participants factorial. In the initial phase, an attitude was created towards a novel object. This goal was accomplished by directing each participant to read either an emotionally evocative passage or an informational passage designed to produce favorable attitudes towards a fictitious animal called a lemphur (Crites, Fabrigar, & Petty, 1994). In the persuasion phase of Experiment 1, participants were exposed to a negative affective message designed to elicit fear. The results indicated the degree of attitude change produced by the fully matched vocal quality (i.e., a fearful voice) was no different relative to the written passage. However, both the partially matched (i.e., a bored voice) and fully mismatched vocal qualities (i.e., a content voice) generated significantly more attitude change than both the written passage as well as fear. In Experiment 2, the attitude formation phase was similar to that of Experiment 1. However, in the persuasion phase of Experiment 2, the focus was on messages that were cognitive in their content. Specifically, participants were exposed to a negative cognitive message designed to convey negative characteristics of the target. The data revealed the degree of attitude change generated by the fully mismatched vocal quality (i.e., an excited voice) was significantly greater than the written passage as well as both the partially matched (i.e., a fearful voice), and fully matched (i.e., an emotionless voice) vocal qualities. No further differences between vocal qualities were found. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2012-08-14 11:05:05.886

No description available.

People usually have favorable evaluations when incoming information matches with their self view, which has been evidenced in cross-cultural research on advertisement appeals. However, the current paper demonstrates a counterintuitive finding in a retailing context. Results show that when an interdependent self-construal is made salient situationally, individually focused persuasion attempts (i.e. uniqueness) have a more positive impact on consumers’ trustworthiness toward the salesclerk and need for uniqueness than interpersonally focused persuasion attempts (i.e. connectedness). However, when an independent self-construal is activated situationally, persuasion attempts used by a salesclerk have no influence on consumers’ perceptions of trustworthiness toward the salesclerk and need for uniqueness. Five studies are presented that test these propositions and investigate their underlying processes. Study 1 conducted in Canada supported the hypothesized effects. Study 2 provided evidence for the robustness of the effect observed in Study 1 by conducting a similar experiment in China. Study 3, a field study, further supported the propositions when measuring self-construal as an individual difference. Study 4 provided support for the proposed underlying mechanism. That is, the observed effect in Study 1, 2 & 3 is due to persuasion knowledge through deliberate processing. Study 5 extended this result by recruiting participants from four different countries (France, Canada, China, and Israel).

There is no abstract available for this thesis.