Expertness and Trustworthiness as Components of Communicator Credibility: Four Cross-Cultural Experiments on Attitude Change.
Abstract
A cross-cultural attitude-change experiment was performed on 1059 persons in four countries. Two aspects of the communicator's credibility, his expertness and trustworthiness, were varied in a 2 X 2 factorial design of the after-only type. Differences in attitude were found between countries, with Ss from Japan most favorable, followed by those from New Zealand, Australia, and the U.S.A. The trustworthy source was more persuasive than the nontrustworthy, but the superiority of the expert source over his nonexpert counterpart was only marginal. An expertness X trustworthiness interaction appeared in the Australian data; the source low on both dimensions was notable less persuasive than the other three. The control Ss, who received only the communication, were generally more persuaded than those in the experimental conditions. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1970
- Accession Number
- AD0717743
Entities
People
- Charles D. Ward
- Elliott Mcginnies
Organizations
- University of Maryland