[Air-l] Positive Aspects of Spam

[Christian Nelson]

Art:
Interesting speculations. Persuasion researchers (Pratkanis in
particular, if memory serves) argue that the mere repetition of a
persuasion message leads to higher levels of persuasion. But they've
also shown that certain features of messages and features of persuasion
recipients' psychology have an impact on how they process and react to
those messages. So, spam could well be more effective with some, but I
suspect that, depending on the message, it could also have the effect of
aversion therapy for others. It would seem, then, that a study of
specific messages is really necessary. Preferably someone could do a
naturalistic one--e.g., request access to some men's email "trash" files
to determine their level of exposure to certain kinds of spam and then
determine such things as their level of comfort with their size and/or
their desire for bimbos. (I suppose you could simply ask  subjects to
recall the amount of exposure they've had to specific types of spam, but
I suspect that many subjects would feel it is socially undesireable to
admit getting these messages let alone remember how often one receives
them, particularly since more than a few people out there seem to think
that such spam is only, or more frequently, visited upon those who surf
the web for porn.)
--Christian Nelson