Forewarned and forearmed? Two meta-analytic syntheses of forewarnings of influence appeals
Wendy Wood and Jeffrey Quinn report two meta-analyses of what happens to attitudes when people are warned that someone is about to try to influence them. A warning generally appeared to threaten people's attitudes or their self-image, and its effect depended on which of the two was under threat. When the topic concerned immediate outcomes, or when the appeal was actually delivered, recipients seemed to focus on the threat to their attitudes and responded defensively, bolstering their existing views in their own minds and resisting the appeal. When the topic mattered less to them, a warning produced agreement before the appeal arrived. The authors suggest that this happened because the warning made people aware of a threat to their self-image, looking gullible, and agreeing in advance reduced it.
Wendy Wood and Jeffrey Quinn report two meta-analyses of what happens to attitudes when people are warned that someone is about to try to influence them. A warning generally appeared to threaten people's attitudes or their self-image, and its effect depended on which of the two was under threat. When the topic concerned immediate outcomes, or when the appeal was actually delivered, recipients seemed to focus on the threat to their attitudes and responded defensively, bolstering their existing views in their own minds and resisting the appeal. When the topic mattered less to them, a warning produced agreement before the appeal arrived. The authors suggest that this happened because the warning made people aware of a threat to their self-image, looking gullible, and agreeing in advance reduced it.
Written from the openAlex abstract record read 2026-10-22.
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Wood, W., & Quinn, J. M. (2003). Forewarned and forearmed? Two meta-analytic syntheses of forewarnings of influence appeals. Psychological Bulletin, 129(1), 119-138. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.1.119