Abstract
The current study explored the interaction of verbal ability and presentation order on readers’ attitude formation when presented with two-sided arguments. Participants read arguments for and against compulsory voting and genetic engineering, and attitudes were assessed before and after reading the passages. Participants’ verbal ability was measured, combining vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension skill. Results suggested that low verbal-ability participants were more persuaded by the most recent set of arguments whereas high verbal-ability participants formed attitudes independent of presentation order. Contrary to previous literature, individual differences in the personality trait need for cognition did not interact with presentation order. The results suggest that verbal ability is an important moderator of the effect of presentation order when formulating opinions from complex prose.
Highlights
Most of the issues considered to be important by modern societies tend to be highly controversial
Given that verbal ability was significantly associated with recall and recent item recall, we considered the possibility that these measures might moderate the effect of presentation order
We did not find an interaction between presentation order and need for cognition, the results suggest that verbal ability is a significant moderator of primacy and recency effects in two-sided argumentation
Summary
Most of the issues considered to be important by modern societies tend to be highly controversial. The strength of an argument can play an important role in determining a reader’s response, there is evidence that the order in which arguments are presented can play an important role as well These text-level features have been argued to interact in specific ways with individual-level traits when readers are forming a particular attitude for a debated topic (e.g., Petty et al, 2001). Of particular interest in the current study is how (a) the order in which the arguments are presented, (b) readers’ verbal abilities, and (c) readers’ need for cognition (an assessment of the general tendency for people to engage in and enjoy effortful information-processing activity) interact in contexts in which individuals formulate opinions about controversial issues presented in text
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