Regulatory Fit and Persuasion: Basic Principles and Remaining Questions

How can researchers and practitioners use regulatory fit theory to increase the effectiveness of their attempts to change attitudes and behavior? In this article, we extract from the literature a set of basic processes by which fit can influence persuasion and describe different methods for inducing fit. Regulatory fit can influence persuasion by: (i) making message recipients feel right during message reception; (ii) increasing recipients’ strength of engagement with the message, which contributes to processing fluency; and (iii) influencing elaboration likelihood. Integral methods induce fit within the persuasion situation (as with framing of message arguments, source delivery style, and decision means), whereas incidental methods induce fit independent of the persuasion situation. We discuss common difficulties researchers may encounter with these techniques, and clarify existing confusions about regulatory fit and regulatory focus theory. Throughout, we highlight important questions that must be addressed to attain a complete understanding of regulatory fit. A sizeable literature has amassed recently on the role of regulatory fit in attitude formation and change. Rather than provide a complete summary of existing research findings, the goal of this article is to extract some basic principles from the methodologies that have been used to date, and to provide an introduction for researchers and practitioners who wish to use regulatory fit to increase message effectiveness. As is the case when any new theory attracts interest, there is some misinterpretation and confusion about regulatory fit. We will attempt to clarify a few of the most important of these issues, and describe some difficulties researchers may encounter in using regulatory fit. What Is Regulatory Fit? To start with the most basic question, what is regulatory fit? Regulatory fit theory (Higgins, 2000, 2005) is a goal-pursuit theory that places special emphasis on the relation between the motivational orientation of the actor