Spread of Effect of Reinforcement in Persuasive Communication

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Abstract
Seventy-eight high school students took part in an opinion change experiment using the topic “use of nuclear weapons.” After reading opposing persuasive communications to Ss “contiguously” prior to the presentation of a reinforcing event, subsequent opinion change was found to be statistically significant and in the direction of the one communication (either pro or con) that was more proximal to the reinforcement. This finding supports an hypothesis derived from Thorndike's earlier Law of Effect. From research on the Spread of Effect, a similar occurrence was hypothesized for the situation where communications followed reinforcement. These latter results were, however, not statistically significant, and the second hypothesis was rejected.