This study offers a critical test of two competing theoretical accounts of message repetition effects—processing fluency and message fatigue—which have yet to be examined together under a coherent framework. Furthermore, integrating research on metacognition and motivated processing, we propose audience favorability toward message advocacy as a crucial moderator in this dynamic. A repeated-exposure experiment (N = 845) involving five different messages about climate change mitigation was conducted. Multilevel moderated mediation analyses showed that audience favorability critically moderated the mediational effects of the two mechanisms: For favorable individuals, repeated exposure enhanced persuasion through increased fluency and decreased fatigue. In contrast, for unfavorable individuals, repeated exposure diminished persuasion via increased fatigue and decreased fluency. Collectively, this study demonstrates that message repetition does not have uniform effects on persuasion but rather its effects critically hinge on audience favorability and challenges the fundamental notion that fluency and fatigue necessarily increase with repetition.

中文翻译：

---

信息重复的两个方面：受众的好感度是处理流畅性和信息疲劳的解释能力的决定因素

这项研究对消息重复效应的两种相互竞争的理论解释——处理流畅性和消息疲劳——进行了严格的测试，这两种理论尚未在一个连贯的框架下一起进行检验。此外，结合元认知和动机处理的研究，我们提出受众对信息倡导的好感度作为这一动态的关键调节因素。进行了一项重复暴露实验（N = 845），涉及有关减缓气候变化的五种不同信息。多级调节中介分析表明，受众好感度严重调节了两种机制的中介效应：对于有利的个体，反复接触通过提高流畅性和减少疲劳来增强说服力。相比之下，对于不利的人来说，反复接触会因疲劳增加和流畅性下降而削弱说服力。总的来说，这项研究表明，信息重复对说服力的影响并不统一，而是其影响关键取决于受众的好感度，并挑战了流畅性和疲劳必然会随着重复而增加的基本观念。