Great expectations: argument order expectations shape the efficacy of order effects in one-sided advertisements

Should persuasion start strong or end strong? Though persuasion researchers have long known that the order in which the same arguments are presented can influence the efficacy of an appeal, much less is known about the factors that determine optimal argument order. In this paper, we propose that consumers hold expectations regarding the order in which arguments are most effectively presented—expectations grounded in lay beliefs regarding message recipients’ capacity to attend to the persuasive appeal. However, we predict that messages that violate these expectations invoke greater processing and thus generate greater persuasion in the form of more favorable intentions toward the target product. We present three experiments in support of these hypotheses and thereby demonstrate the importance of consumers’ expectations about the structure of one-sided advertisements in determining the efficacy of different argument orders.