Interesting Results
Influencing the Ambivalent
Understandably, those who are ambivalent toward something can be influenced by new information about the subject of their ambivalence. Surprisingly though, recently published research1 suggests that they are less inclined than those who are not ambivalent to scrutinize the source of the information before accepting it. This means that even relatively unreliable sources can influence the attitudes of ambivalent people as much as reliable sources.
1 Zemborain, Martin R. and Gita Venkatramani Johar (2007), “Attitudinal Ambivalence and Openness to Persuasion: A Framework for Interpersonal Influence”, Journal of Consumer Research, 33(4), 506-514