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The Role of Different Markers of Linguistic Powerlessness in Persuasion

Purdue University

Thomas Holtgraves

Ball State University

This research examined the unique effects of different markers of linguistic powerlessness (hedges, hesitations, and tag questions) on persuasion. Participants read (Experiment 1) or listened to (Experiment 2) a communication advocating comprehensive exams. Under high message relevance, messages containing powerless markers resulted in less favorable attitudes and more negative perceptions of the message and source than did the control message. This effect occurred in both experiments and was a result of these markers lessening the impact of strong arguments; in Experiment 2, strong arguments were no more persuasive than weak arguments when the message contained any of these markers. Under low message relevance, tag questions improved the persuasiveness of message arguments relative to the control condition. These results demonstrate that the effects of linguistic markers of powerlessness are complex and depend on marker type and processing depth.

Key Words: powerless language • persuasion • attitudes

Journal of Language and Social Psychology, Vol. 24, No. 1, 3-24 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0261927X04273034


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