Oneness With the Source as a Means of Reducing Motivated Reasoning About Climate Policy

Abstract

Addressing climate change requires persuading political conservatives—many of whom remain skeptical of climate science—to support climate initiatives. A possible method of reducing conservatives’ resistance to such messages is to use a source that matches their political identity. We attempted to replicate previous findings that perceived oneness with the source may explain why source matching increases persuasiveness for both a targeted attitude and potentially related attitudes. We also tested the extent to which the source-matching effect was further moderated by audience ego-involvement in their political identity. Two studies using pretest–posttest designs were used to assess these hypotheses. Results replicated the importance of oneness in explaining the source-matching effect, but found ego-involvement to be an inconsistent moderator. The data were consistent with a path model summarizing these predictions for the source-matching effect and oneness with the source.