Do Vision-Language Models Understand Visual Persuasiveness? A Diagnosis via Visual Persuasive Factors

Excerpt

arXiv:2511.17036v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Visual persuasion uses images to shape cognition, emotion, and behavior, with its effects depending on both visual attributes and semantic context. Despite recent progress, it remains unclear whether Vision-Language Models (VLMs) understand visual persuasiveness. This motivates us to ask: can VLMs assess whether an image persuasively supports an intended message, which visual factors shape this judgment, and do they align with human judgments?