Authors
Pablo Briñol, Richard E Petty
Publication date
2023
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Description
A common treatment of the term openness within the persuasion literature is to refer to the readiness of a person to contemplate changing in response to a persuasive advocacy. It is sometimes called receptiveness and is a mindset that precedes actual attitude change. This chapter treats openness as an outcome, as a motive, and as a process. It illustrates how openness and other related constructs can be imbued with positive (eg, growth) but also with negative (eg, vulnerability) meanings, with potential consequences for actual openness. It ends with an important question for future research. That is, can people deliberatively use the techniques described throughout this chapter to try to be more open? We know that openness in a person can be primed externally and that it can be communicated to others intentionally, but can people choose to deliberatively generate doubtful memories to invalidate their own …