Strengthening personalized matching by targeting persuasive messages to strong traits of the recipient

Personalized matching is important because matching some aspect of a persuasive message to the recipient can affect the degree of attitude change. In the present review, we discuss how researchers and practitioners can benefit from considering insights from the literature on attitude strength and me...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Pablo Briñol, Brett S. Burton, David Santos, Richard E. Petty
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2025-08-01
Series:Cogent Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23311908.2025.2545290
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849404321093910528
author Pablo Briñol
Brett S. Burton
David Santos
Richard E. Petty
author_facet Pablo Briñol
Brett S. Burton
David Santos
Richard E. Petty
author_sort Pablo Briñol
collection DOAJ
description Personalized matching is important because matching some aspect of a persuasive message to the recipient can affect the degree of attitude change. In the present review, we discuss how researchers and practitioners can benefit from considering insights from the literature on attitude strength and meta-cognition to improve the persuasive impact of personally matched appeals. After describing this general framework, we summarize a growing body of recently published research showing that the extent to which people hold their traits (and any aspect of the self) with confidence can improve the predictive ability of those traits to guide a wide range of judgments and behaviors. Next, we cover a selection of illustrative, new studies showing that person-situation matches can be strengthened by taking certainty and other meta-cognitive perceptions into account. Then, we discuss avenues for future research, including how confidence in individual differences also can matter for persuasion when people generate messages that match their own personalities. We conclude by noting how considerations of confidence can be applied beyond individual differences to other aspects of the persuasion context.
format Article
id doaj-art-1b3fbcb6477f42de92af525c62a0679d
institution Kabale University
issn 2331-1908
language English
publishDate 2025-08-01
publisher Taylor & Francis Group
record_format Article
series Cogent Psychology
spelling doaj-art-1b3fbcb6477f42de92af525c62a0679d2025-08-20T03:37:02ZengTaylor & Francis GroupCogent Psychology2331-19082025-08-0112110.1080/23311908.2025.2545290Strengthening personalized matching by targeting persuasive messages to strong traits of the recipientPablo Briñol0Brett S. Burton1David Santos2Richard E. Petty3Department of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, SpainDepartment of Psychology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USADepartment of Psychology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, SpainDepartment of Psychology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USAPersonalized matching is important because matching some aspect of a persuasive message to the recipient can affect the degree of attitude change. In the present review, we discuss how researchers and practitioners can benefit from considering insights from the literature on attitude strength and meta-cognition to improve the persuasive impact of personally matched appeals. After describing this general framework, we summarize a growing body of recently published research showing that the extent to which people hold their traits (and any aspect of the self) with confidence can improve the predictive ability of those traits to guide a wide range of judgments and behaviors. Next, we cover a selection of illustrative, new studies showing that person-situation matches can be strengthened by taking certainty and other meta-cognitive perceptions into account. Then, we discuss avenues for future research, including how confidence in individual differences also can matter for persuasion when people generate messages that match their own personalities. We conclude by noting how considerations of confidence can be applied beyond individual differences to other aspects of the persuasion context.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23311908.2025.2545290Matchingtargetingtailoringpersonalizingconfidenceattitude strength
spellingShingle Pablo Briñol
Brett S. Burton
David Santos
Richard E. Petty
Strengthening personalized matching by targeting persuasive messages to strong traits of the recipient
Cogent Psychology
Matching
targeting
tailoring
personalizing
confidence
attitude strength
title Strengthening personalized matching by targeting persuasive messages to strong traits of the recipient
title_full Strengthening personalized matching by targeting persuasive messages to strong traits of the recipient
title_fullStr Strengthening personalized matching by targeting persuasive messages to strong traits of the recipient
title_full_unstemmed Strengthening personalized matching by targeting persuasive messages to strong traits of the recipient
title_short Strengthening personalized matching by targeting persuasive messages to strong traits of the recipient
title_sort strengthening personalized matching by targeting persuasive messages to strong traits of the recipient
topic Matching
targeting
tailoring
personalizing
confidence
attitude strength
url https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23311908.2025.2545290
work_keys_str_mv AT pablobrinol strengtheningpersonalizedmatchingbytargetingpersuasivemessagestostrongtraitsoftherecipient
AT brettsburton strengtheningpersonalizedmatchingbytargetingpersuasivemessagestostrongtraitsoftherecipient
AT davidsantos strengtheningpersonalizedmatchingbytargetingpersuasivemessagestostrongtraitsoftherecipient
AT richardepetty strengtheningpersonalizedmatchingbytargetingpersuasivemessagestostrongtraitsoftherecipient