Abstract

The present research has the goal to study how belonging to reciprocally asymmetric groups of a source and a receiver influence the processing and the acceptance of a persuasive message. We hypothesised that if the message is pertinent to the group membership, the attribution to an in-group or out-group source is not processed like a peripheral cue. We expected that receivers of the dominated group processed information more carefully than receivers of the dominant group, since the latter's need to keep under control the possibilities toimprove their own position. Moreover, we expected that arguments from the source within the dominated group were analysed more accurately. The results show that members of both groups elaborate in depth the arguments of the proposed message, but receivers of the dominated group pay more attention to the contents than other people. They are also mainly influenced by an out-group source proposing strong arguments. The same pattern of results was found in relation to behavioural intentions.