The hot-cold empathy gap and persuasion: Does fatigue boost or reduce the argument quality effect?

Reed 330

Research on the hot-cold empathy gap (Nordgren et al., 2007) suggests that participants currently experiencing some visceral state (e.g., fatigue) empathize more with others in that same state and evaluate them more positively when their behavior is impacted by it (e.g., a tired mother yelling at a cashier). Research on persuasion suggests that the quality of a persuasive message (strong vs. weak) has more of an impact among people for whom that message is more relevant (Ajzen, Brown & Rosenthal, 1996), but less of an impact among those who are distracted (Petty, Wells & Brock, 1976). In this study, I integrate these two areas, seeking to determine whether participants in a state of fatigue who read a persuasive message from an overtired employee to his boss will display a larger argument quality effect (indicating relevance) or a smaller argument quality effect (indicating distraction) relative to participants who are not currently fatigued. A multiple regression predicting persuasion from argument quality and fatigue revealed a significant interaction (F(1,237) = 7.37, p = .007, η_p² = .03), suggesting that argument quality had less of an impact for fatigued participants (b = .46, F(1,237) = 2.26, p = .14, η_p² = .009) than non-fatigued participants (b = 1.39, F(1,237) = 102.81, p < .0001, η_p² = .30). These findings appear to fit better with a distraction account than a relevance account, but this and other alternatives will be discussed.