<P> Emotions perceived as negative or containing threat are often studied more than perceived positive emotions like humor . Though the inner - workings of humor are not agreed upon, humor appeals may work by creating incongruities in the mind . Recent research has looked at the impact of humor on the processing of political messages . While evidence is inconclusive, there appears to be potential for targeted attitude change is receivers with low political message involvement . </P> <P> Important factors that influence the impact of emotion appeals include self efficacy, attitude accessibility, issue involvement, and message / source features . Self efficacy is a perception of one's own human agency; in other words, it is the perception of our own ability to deal with a situation . It is an important variable in emotion appeal messages because it dictates a person's ability to deal with both the emotion and the situation . For example, if a person is not self - efficacious about their ability to impact the global environment, they are not likely to change their attitude or behavior about global warming . </P> <P> Dillard (1994) suggests that message features such as source non-verbal communication, message content, and receiver differences can impact the emotion impact of fear appeals . The characteristics of a message are important because one message can elicit different levels of emotion for different people . Thus, in terms of emotion appeals messages, one size does not fit all . </P> <P> Attitude accessibility refers to the activation of an attitude from memory in other words, how readily available is an attitude about an object, issue, or situation . Issue involvement is the relevance and salience of an issue or situation to an individual . Issue involvement has been correlated with both attitude access and attitude strength . Past studies conclude accessible attitudes are more resistant to change . </P>

The tendency to act in a certain way toward an attitude object is referred to as the