The feeling of familiarity as a regulator of persuasive processing

Two experiments demonstrated that a subjective feeling of familiarity deter mined whether participants processed persuasive information analytically (s ystematically) or non-analytically (heuristically). In the first experiment , individuals unfamiliar with message content showed differential attitude change when strong versus weak arguments were presented, whereas individual s made familiar with the message through unrelated repetition failed to do so. These results were confirmed in a second study that manipulated familia rity through subtle repetition and eliminated procedural priming explanatio ns of the effect, implications of these findings for familiarity as a regul ator of persuasive processing are discussed.