Radiosensitivity of Large Human Monocytes

摘要

In the near future, robotic agents might employ\n persuasion to influence people’s behavior or attitudes, just\n as human agents do in many situations. People can comply\n with these requests, but, people can also experience psychological\n reactance, which may lead to the complete opposite\nof the proposed behavior. In this study we are interested in\n the social nature of psychological reactance. Social agency\n theory proposes that more social cues lead to a more social\ninteraction. We argue that this also holds for psychological\n reactance. Therefore, we expect a positive relationship between\n the level of social agency of the source of a persuasive\n message and the amount of psychological reactance the\n message arouses. In an online experiment, participants read\nan advice on how to conserve energy when using a washing\n machine. The advice was either provided as text-only, as text\n accompanied by a still picture of a robotic agent, or as text\naccompanied by a short film clip of the same robotic agent.\n Confirming our expectations, results indicated that participants\n experienced more psychological reactance when the\n advice was accompanied by the still picture or when the advice\n was accompanied by the short film clip as compared\n to when the advice was provided as text-only. This indicates\n that stronger social agency of the messenger can lead\n to more psychological reactance. Furthermore, our results\n confirmed earlier research about the effects of controlling\n language on psychological reactance. Implications are discussed.