Psychology I / Persuasion and Attitude Change: The Art of Influence
Practice question · Multiple choice

Central processing requires both motivation and ability. Why does an audience with high motivation and low ability fall back on peripheral cues just as an unmotivated audience does?

Hints
  1. Both conditions are necessary. What happens when one is missing?
  2. Picture a patient desperate to decide about a treatment and unable to read the trial data.
Show the answer

A. Because both motivation and ability are needed for central processing.

Why

The two requirements are conjunctive, so failing either sends the listener peripheral. A patient facing a serious diagnosis is as motivated as an audience gets, and a set of hazard ratios they cannot interpret leaves motivation nothing to work with. Which complicates the usual moral, much peripheral processing is not laziness but what remains when someone cares and lacks the expertise.

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