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They will complain about the alienated parent, talk negatively about them, and then tell the child they “must have fun” when they are with the other parent. When the child does not visit, the alienated parent then says, “I try everything I can to get my child to visit and have a good time, but they just won’t go.”
They tell the child that they should see their mother or father, but then tell the child to call up the mother or father to tell them if they don’t want to go.
They do not actively dissuade the child to go to visitation, but they don’t persuade the child, either.
They tell the child or imply to the child the other parent is the cause of bad things (i.e. “We don’t have any cable anymore,” “I don’t have enough money to buy sneakers,” “We can’t go to Disneyworld”) but then say “Mommy (or Daddy) loves you, you have to visit with them.”
Research on trustworthiness and persuasiveness address these types of statements and indoctrinations. For instance trustworthiness in speakers increases when they argue against their own self-interests (Eagly, Wood & Chaiken, 1978). If a parent complains about the co- parent all week long, but then in effect argues against the position that the child should avoid the parent by saying “Now you must go visit your father because he loves you,” the original message (“Your father or mother is bad,”) may become even more persuasive.
At the beginning of this section there was a distinction made between central routes of persuasion versus peripheral routes of persuasion. Intelligent, analytical audiences may be more influenced by well thought out strategies directed toward their logical thought processes (Ciaccopo, 1983). Less sophisticated
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