Teacher immediacy and student involvement: A dual process analysis

Abstract
A field experiment investigated the impact of teacher immediacy and student involvement on student attitudes toward learning. Based on dual process models of persuasion, it was predicted that teacher immediacy would interact with student involvement. Undergraduate students (N = 123) were randomly assigned to one of four immediacy / involvement conditions during a regular class session. Student attitude was strongly affected by immediacy, but this effect interacted with involvement. Teacher immediacy operated as a persuasion cue, showing greater impact under low involvement conditions compared to high involvement.