Regulatory fit and persuasion: Roles of elaboration and transportation likelihood

This chapter puts current research on regulatory fit and persuasion into the larger contexts of elaboration likelihood and transportation likelihood (the likelihood of becoming experientially engaged with a narrative). I lay groundwork by describing regulatory fit with prevention focus and promotion focus, how regulatory fit is operationally defined, and how it can affect judgments through feelings-as-information, metacognitive, and other processes. Then I review current research on how regulatory fit affects persuasion through advocacy messages and through narratives, noting where interpretational ambiguities exist. Finally I speculate about how effects of regulatory fit on persuasion might differ according to elaboration or transportation likelihood and according to whether the regulatory-fit experience results from an initial event unrelated to the communication or from engagement with the communication itself