Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Tugging At Their Heartstrings: Partner’S Knowledge Of Affective Meta-Bases Predicts Use Of Emotional Advocacies In Close Relationships, Kenneth Tan, Ya Hui Michelle See

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Traditional studies of attitude change have focused on attempts between strangers, but what about in close relationships? The present article examines whether accuracy regarding a partner's meta-attitudinal bases can influence persuasion attempts. Because meta-bases reflect informationprocessing goals, we hypothesized that given partners with more affective meta-bases, greater accuracy regarding partners' meta-bases would predict use of emotional advocacies and their perceived persuasiveness. Self and partner ratings of meta-bases were assessed, and emotional advocacies as well as cognitive ones were provided to participants to present to their partners. Results revealed that the correspondence between perceptions of partner's affective meta-bases and use of …