Time, awareness, and order of presentation in opinion change

Abstract

Primacy-recency was investigated as a function of time interval interpolated between the presentation of the opposing arguments and of the level of awareness of the manipulatory intent of the experimenter. Utilizing the pretest—experimental treatment—posttest design, 210 Ss were made differentially aware of the manipulatory intent of the experimenter. Half of the Ss were read the opposing arguments in immediate succession while the other half had a 2-week time interval interpolated between the argument presentations. Results indicated that those Ss who were unaware of manipulatory intent yielded a significant recency effect. Recency was minimized with those Ss who were made differentially aware of manipulatory intent. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)