CROSS-CULTURAL INVESTIGATION OF SOME FACTORS IN PERSUASION AND ATTITUDE CHANGE. WRITTEN VERSUS ORAL PRESENTATION OF A COMMUNICATION,

Abstract

In order to determine the relative effectiveness of written and vocal communications, 42 Japanese university students were presented with a tape-recorded communication representing the position of the United States at the time of the Cuban crisis. An additional 26 students from a different class read the same communication from a printed form. The attitudes of the students on this issue, defined as pro-United States or pro-Soviet, were determined one week prior to the experimental treatments and again immediately after exposure to the communications, whether written or oral. The subjects also rated the convincingness of the communication under each condition and indicated their perceptions of the communicator, using an adjective checklist. The results showed that those students who read the communication moved to a significant extent in a more pro-United States direction on the attitude scale. Those students who listened to the communication, on the other hand, showed no shift in attitude from their original position. The reading subjects also judged the communication as significantly more convincing and perceived the communicator more favorably than did the listening subjects. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1965
Accession Number
AD0612649

Entities

People

  • Elliott Mcginnies

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Continents
  • Geographic Regions
  • Mental Processes
  • Perception
  • Students
  • United States
  • Universities

Readers

  • Brain and Cognitive Science; Experimental Psychology; Cognitive Neuroscience
  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • Organizational Psychology.