The paradoxical thinking ‘sweet spot’: The role of recipients’ latitude of rejection in the effectiveness of paradoxical thinking messages targeting anti-refugee attitudes in Israel
Author(s) / Creator(s)
Hameiri, Boaz
Idan, Orly
Nabet, Eden
Bar-Tal, Daniel
Halperin, Eran
Abstract / Description
The current research examined whether for a message that is based on the paradoxical thinking principles—i.e., providing extreme, exaggerated, or even absurd views, that are congruent with the held views of the message recipients—to be effective, it needs to hit a ‘sweet spot’ and lead to a contrast effect. That is, it moderates the view of the message's recipients. In the framework of attitudes toward African refugees and asylum seekers in Israel by Israeli Jews, we found that compared to more moderate messages, an extreme, but not too extreme, message was effective in leading to unfreezing for high morally convicted recipients. The very extreme message similarly led to high levels of surprise and identity threat as the extreme message that was found to be effective. However, it was so extreme and absurd that it was rejected automatically. This was manifested in high levels of disagreement compared to all other messages, rendering it less effective compared to the extreme, paradoxical thinking, message. We discuss these findings’ practical and theoretical implications for the paradoxical thinking conceptual framework as an attitude change intervention, and for social judgment theory.
Keyword(s)
psychological intervention attitude change paradoxical thinking social judgment theory latitude of rejection refugeesPersistent Identifier
Date of first publication
2020-03-27
Journal title
Journal of Social and Political Psychology
Volume
8
Issue
1
Page numbers
266–283
Publisher
PsychOpen GOLD
Publication status
publishedVersion
Review status
peerReviewed
Is version of
Citation
Hameiri, B., Idan, O., Nabet, E., Bar-Tal, D., & Halperin, E. (2020). The paradoxical thinking ‘sweet spot’: The role of recipients’ latitude of rejection in the effectiveness of paradoxical thinking messages targeting anti-refugee attitudes in Israel. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 8(1), 266-283. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v8i1.1158
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jspp.v8i1.1158.pdfAdobe PDF - 1.03MBMD5: 22b53e34f749cbd7d6cae25435a113eb
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There are no other versions of this object.
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Hameiri, Boaz
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Idan, Orly
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Nabet, Eden
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Bar-Tal, Daniel
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Author(s) / Creator(s)Halperin, Eran
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PsychArchives acquisition timestamp2022-04-14T11:23:32Z
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Made available on2022-04-14T11:23:32Z
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Date of first publication2020-03-27
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Abstract / DescriptionThe current research examined whether for a message that is based on the paradoxical thinking principles—i.e., providing extreme, exaggerated, or even absurd views, that are congruent with the held views of the message recipients—to be effective, it needs to hit a ‘sweet spot’ and lead to a contrast effect. That is, it moderates the view of the message's recipients. In the framework of attitudes toward African refugees and asylum seekers in Israel by Israeli Jews, we found that compared to more moderate messages, an extreme, but not too extreme, message was effective in leading to unfreezing for high morally convicted recipients. The very extreme message similarly led to high levels of surprise and identity threat as the extreme message that was found to be effective. However, it was so extreme and absurd that it was rejected automatically. This was manifested in high levels of disagreement compared to all other messages, rendering it less effective compared to the extreme, paradoxical thinking, message. We discuss these findings’ practical and theoretical implications for the paradoxical thinking conceptual framework as an attitude change intervention, and for social judgment theory.en_US
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Publication statuspublishedVersion
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Review statuspeerReviewed
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CitationHameiri, B., Idan, O., Nabet, E., Bar-Tal, D., & Halperin, E. (2020). The paradoxical thinking ‘sweet spot’: The role of recipients’ latitude of rejection in the effectiveness of paradoxical thinking messages targeting anti-refugee attitudes in Israel. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 8(1), 266-283. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v8i1.1158en_US
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ISSN2195-3325
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Persistent Identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/5617
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Persistent Identifierhttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.6221
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Language of contenteng
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PublisherPsychOpen GOLD
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Is version ofhttps://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v8i1.1158
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Is related tohttps://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.2789
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Keyword(s)psychological interventionen_US
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Keyword(s)attitude changeen_US
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Keyword(s)paradoxical thinkingen_US
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Keyword(s)social judgment theoryen_US
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Keyword(s)latitude of rejectionen_US
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Keyword(s)refugeesen_US
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Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)150
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TitleThe paradoxical thinking ‘sweet spot’: The role of recipients’ latitude of rejection in the effectiveness of paradoxical thinking messages targeting anti-refugee attitudes in Israelen_US
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DRO typearticle
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Issue1
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Journal titleJournal of Social and Political Psychology
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Page numbers266–283
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Volume8
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Visible tag(s)Version of Recorden_US