Easy doesn’t always do it

Political communicators aim to engage and persuade the public, but exposure to dissonant information can lead to defensive processing. Here, we propose that messages designed to facilitate an easy information processing experience can counteract some of the negative consequences of motivated resistance to persuasion. Using an experimental design (N = 390), we find that mock political advertisements associated with an out-party political group lead to motivated resistance to persuasion, which reduces perceived credibility and attitude change. We also find that information presented in easy-to-read font increases processing fluency, which promotes greater engagement with political topics. However, processing fluency does not interact to mitigate the negative effects of defensive processing on outcomes of engagement and persuasion

Attitude change · Cognitive psychology · Fluency · Information processing · Mathematics education · Persuasion · Persuasive communication · Political science · Politics · Processing fluency · Media Influence and Health · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology

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