Regorius, Lisa (2025) How Working Memory Capacity and Induced Eye Movements Shape Persuasion: A Study on Defensive Reactions to Health Messages. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
Persuasive health messages intend to encourage healthier behaviors, yet the achieved effects are often diminished due to recipients defensive responses, which are especially prevalent if the message feels threatening. The Working Memory Approach of Persuasion (WMaP) conceptualizes this and suggests that all persuasive processes happen within the working memory, which has limited capacity and varies between individuals. This study examined how exactly these individual differences in working memory capacity (WMC) influence the effectiveness of persuasive health messages and whether additional cognitive load can moderate these processes. The participants (N = 139) took part in an online experiment, in which they first completed a digit span task to measure individual WMC and then listened to a negatively framed health message. In the induced eye movement condition, participants followed a moving stimulus on the screen while listening to the message, for added cognitive taxation. The results showed some unexpected effects that were likely caused by the main outcome variable being intention and not actual behavior, which has limited explanatory power. Nonetheless, the findings emphasized WMC’s overall moderating impact on the processing of persuasive health messages, causing significant differences in individuals intentions and message acceptance, which were further influenced by EMi. Conclusively, the results support WMaP as an important framework for research in the persuasive context, underlining the importance of considering cognitive capacity when constructing effective persuasive health messages.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Supervisor name: | Dijkstra, A. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Applied Social Psychology (ASP) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 24 Oct 2025 13:11 |
| Last Modified: | 24 Oct 2025 13:11 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/5973 |
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