Starke und schwache Argumente als Teile derselben Botschaft: Die "Mixed-Message Methode" zur Erfassung des kognitiven Aufwands bei der Verarbeitung persuasiver Kommunikation [Strong and weak arguments as parts of the same message: The mixed-message method for assessing processing effort in persuasion]

In persuasion research, a standard method for assessing cognitive effort in information processing entails the variation of message argument quality between participants. If recipients expend high effort in processing these messages, strong messages lead to more favorable attitudes than do weak messages. However, the standard method has some disadvantages: Argument quality may inadvertently affect evaluations of the message source, unambiguously weak or strong messages attenuate the effects of non-content information, and unambiguous messages prevent the observation of biased processing. The (mixed-message method (MMM) overcomes these drawbacks. The idea is to vary the persuasiveness of single aspects within a single message. Then, differences in attitude judgments referring to each of these aspects can be used to assess processing effort.