THE COGNITIVE MEDIATION HYPOTHESIS REVISITED - AN EMPIRICAL RESPONSE TO METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL CRITICISM

The cognitive mediation hypothesis has become a well-established assum ption in persuasion theory. However, several theoretical and methodolo gical criticisms have been raised to call this assumption into questio n. Three experiments that address these criticisms were conducted to p rovide a more direct test of the cognitive mediation hypothesis. Using the forewarning effect as a testing arena, Experiment 1 demonstrated that interference with either motivation or ability to counterargue re duced forewarning-induced resistance to persuasion. Experiment 2 demon strated that exposure to counterarguments generated by others and self -generated counterarguments were functionally equivalent and redundant . Experiment 3 used a path-analytic approach to demonstrate that the p ersuasion differences produced by forewarning were eliminated by covar ying the effect of cognitive responses generated between forewarning a nd message exposure. Taken together, the three experiments provide con verging support for the cognitive mediation hypothesis, reconfirming t he central role of cognition in the persuasion process.