The persuasive power of emotions: Effects of emotional expressions on attitude formation and change.
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Despite a long-standing interest in the intrapersonal role of affect in persuasion, the interpersonal effects of emotions on persuasion remain poorly understood-how do one person's emotional expressions shape others' attitudes? Drawing on emotions as social information (EASI) theory (Van Kleef, 2009), we hypothesized that people use the emotional expressions of others to inform their own attitudes, but only when they are sufficiently motivated and able to process those expressions. Five experiments support these ideas. Participants reported more positive attitudes about various topics after seeing a source's sad (rather than happy) expressions when topics were negatively framed (e.g., abandoning bobsleighing from the Olympics). Conversely, participants reported more positive attitudes after seeing happy (rather than sad) expressions when topics were positively framed (e.g., introducing kite surfing at the Olympics). This suggests that participants used the source's emotional expressions as information when forming their own attitudes. Supporting this interpretation, effects were mitigated when participants' information processing was undermined by cognitive load or was chronically low. Moreover, a source's anger expressions engendered negative attitude change when directed at the attitude object and positive change when directed at the recipient's attitude. Effects occurred regardless of whether emotional expressions were manipulated through written words, pictures of facial…
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Some students who received written angry statements and angry emoticons from classmates in response to their opinion about an educational issue subsequently voted against their initial preference.
“A persuasion study showed that some students who received written angry statements and angry emoticons from classmates in response to their opinion about an educational issue subsequently voted against their initial preference (Van Kleef et al. 2015).”
From The Social Effects of Emotions (2022) · cites this paper as Van Kleef et al. 2015
Targets of persuasive communications are more strongly influenced by the verbal and nonverbal emotional expressions of a source when they are low rather than high on dispositional need for structure and when they are under low rather than high cognitive load.
“Research on persuasion and attitude change similarly indicates that targets of persuasive communications are more strongly influenced by the verbal and nonverbal emotional expressions of a source when they are low rather than high on dispositional need for structure and when they are under low rather than high cognitive load-conditions that are conducive to thorough processing of (social) informa”
From The Social Effects of Emotions (2022) · cites this paper as Van Kleef et al. 2015
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References 132 · Cited by 242
- Authors
- Van Kleef, G. A., van den Berg, H., & Heerdink, M. W.
- Affiliations
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- Venue
- Journal of Applied Psychology
- Published
- 2015-07
- Volume
- 100
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1124-1142
- ISSN
- 0021-9010 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1854
- OpenAlex
- W1991434848
- Cited by
- 242
- References
- 132
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 62 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 29.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- handle.uba.uva.nl
- Licence
- other-oa
- Locations
- Journal of Applied Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (452-09-010)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Psychology of Social Influence
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Emotions and Moral Behavior
- Keywords
- emotional expression, attitude formation, attitude change, emotions as social information, interpersonal persuasion, facial expressions, anger expression, affective persuasion, social influence, cognitive load, negative framing, positive framing, emoticons
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attitude, Emotions, Facial Expression, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Persuasive Communication, Young Adult
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