The Present and Future Landscape of Personalized Persuasion

In this chapter, the authors summarize the current state of research on personalized persuasion, introduce new theorizing on when and why personalized persuasion is effective, and describe important areas for future research. More specifically, this chapter identifies how features such as the salience of the personalization (i.e., how prominent the personalization is in the appeal), its generalizability (i.e., how topic- or domain-specific the personalization is), its importance (i.e., how significant or central the specific form of personalization is), and more, all impact the instantiation and effectiveness of personalized persuasion. The chapter also describes important areas for future research, both in terms of theoretical understanding as well as practical application, and it raises pressing considerations about what role new technologies (e.g., generative artificial intelligence) will have in this persuasive approach. In sum, this chapter provides an overview of the key themes and insights from the various chapters included in The Handbook on Personalized Persuasion: Theory and Practice, offering a systematic framework and agenda for research into this fundamental communication strategy.