Power and Message Framing: the Case of Comparative Advertising

Two studies tested the hypothesis that power affects an individual’s likelihood to be influenced by positively vs. negatively framed comparative messages. Experiment 1 showed that individuals with a higher personal sense of power are more persuaded by positively framed messages than negatively framed messages. Experiment 2 showed that this effect is partly attributable to higher power individuals being more suspicious of the negatively framed communicator’s motivation. Message frame did not have a significant influence on individuals with lower levels of power. These results have important implications for tailoring comparative messages aimed at persuasion toward targets with different levels of power.