Dispelling the illusion of invulnerability: The motivations and mechanisms of resistance to persuasion
Brad Sagarin, Robert Cialdini, William Rice and Sherman Serna tested a treatment meant to build resistance to deceptive persuasion. In the first of three studies, advertisements that used illegitimate appeals to authority became less persuasive after the treatment, while advertisements that used legitimate appeals became more persuasive. The second study found that the resistance carried over to new examples, lasted over time and appeared outside the laboratory. In the third, a procedure that dispelled people's belief that they were immune to persuasion produced the greatest resistance. The authors conclude that efforts to build resistance are most likely to work when people come to see that the source and the appeal have undue, manipulative intent and that they are personally vulnerable to such manipulation. The abstract gives no sample sizes.
Brad Sagarin, Robert Cialdini, William Rice and Sherman Serna tested a treatment meant to build resistance to deceptive persuasion. In the first of three studies, advertisements that used illegitimate appeals to authority became less persuasive after the treatment, while advertisements that used legitimate appeals became more persuasive. The second study found that the resistance carried over to new examples, lasted over time and appeared outside the laboratory. In the third, a procedure that dispelled people's belief that they were immune to persuasion produced the greatest resistance. The authors conclude that efforts to build resistance are most likely to work when people come to see that the source and the appeal have undue, manipulative intent and that they are personally vulnerable to such manipulation. The abstract gives no sample sizes.
Written from the openAlex abstract record read 2026-10-22.
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Sagarin, B. J., Cialdini, R. B., Rice, W. E., & Serna, S. B. (2002). Dispelling the illusion of invulnerability: The motivations and mechanisms of resistance to persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(3), 526-541. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.83.3.526