Yale Group Studies
Answer each of the following hypothetical generalizations in terms of whether it is
"True" or "False" of the findings recorded in the social science persuasion literature.
1. There will be more attitude change in the desired direction if the speaker
has high credibility rather than low credibility.
2. Credibility is a unidimensional, uniform perception about sources of information
held by receivers.
3. To refer to persuasiveness due to the communicator, the term "source
credibility" is used primarily in the public arena, but the term "opinion leader" is
used in the interpersonal or small group arena.
4. As time passes there is a separation in the receiver's mind between what
was said and who said it; thus, a persuasive effect produced by the high credibility
of the speaker will probably be short lived.
5. A heterogeneous communicator is one who the audience perceives as being
similar in attitudes and beliefs.
6. To achieve the maximum amount of attitude change in a single speaking
event, the speaker should ask the receiver to accept a position at the extreme end of
his latitude of acceptance or latitude of noncommitment.
7. One of the best ways to get an audience to agree with your message is for
you to have high source credibility, and one of the best ways for you to achieve
high source credibility is to present agreeable information in your message.
8. Research indicates that most people have a single opinion leader (instead of
several) that they go to in an effort to make decisions and change attitudes.
9. Competence, authoritativeness, and qualification are all referring to
basically the same dimension of source credibility.
10. A speaker's source credibility may be helped or hindered by events
preceding the speech as well as the speech itself.
11. When the speaker has low source credibility, there will be more attitude
change if the nature of the speaker's credibility (low) is presented before
giving the message instead of after giving the message. The advantage of
disclosing the speaker's low credibility initially is that this allows him more
speaking time to overcome his lack of credibility and shows the audience that he is
honest.
12. Aristotle used the term "status" to refer to what we mean today when we
use the term "source credibility".
13. Even though high source credibility tends to produce more attitude change
than medium or low credible sources, research shows that it does not
necessarily produce better recall of the message.
14. Research indicates that the emergence of an opinion leader is almost
instantaneous and that an individual evolves from a non-leader to an opinion
leader in a very short time period.
15. In the same sense that a receiver has certain personality traits, the source
of a message possesses some degree of source credibility.
16. Persuasion which has been produced by the credibility of the speaker tends
to have a long-range effect.
17. As a rule, opinion leaders tend to have more exposure to mass media, are
relatively well informed, and talk to people more than non-leaders.
18. As a rule, receivers attribute negative characteristics to sources with
whom they are completely unfamiliar.
19. As a rule, research has shown that if an audience disagrees with the
speaker's position, it is not very important for the speaker to initially
express some views which the audience finds agreeable.
20. What an audience thinks of a persuader may be directly influenced by what
they think of his message.
21. Research indicates that strong fear appeal is consistently more effective
than mild fear appeal in producing attitude change.
22. If the audience initially agrees with you, a one sided message is usually
better than a two-sided message in producing persuasion.
23. The use of factual evidence usually tends to make persuasive changes more
permanent.
24. There will probably be more attitude change in the direction you want if
your conclusions are implicit rather than explicit.
25. Fear appeal is more effective when the object of the fear is a loved one
(i.e., wife, child, husband) rather than yourself.
26. In terms of order effects, the "climax order" places the most important
material at the first part of the speech and less important material at the end of the
speech.
27. Factual evidence is usually more effective in producing attitude change
when the persuadee has not heard it before.
28. As a rule, audiences react negatively to extremely intense language.
29. Research indicates that an organized speech will produce more recall than
a disorganized speech but not necessarily more attitude change.
30. Fear appeal is being used when the persuader employs coercive force to get
the persuadee to do what he wants.
31. The early research investigating the primacy-recency question indicated
that the primary effect was more effective that the recency effect in
terms of producing attitude change. More recent research has clearly
supported these findings and demonstrates the superiority of the primary
effect.
32. Strong fear appeals tend to have more of an immediate effect rather than a
long-term effect.
33. Research indicates that emotionally-oriented information is clearly
distinguishable from logically-oriented information.
34. Previewing and reviewing is concerned with the placement of the most
agreeable arguments at the beginning or end of the speech.
35. If the audience is likely to be exposed to messages opposing your position,
you will probably produce a more lasting attitude change if you present a
two-sided message.
36. Research indicates that humorous speeches are more effective in producing
attitude change than are non-humorous speeches.
37. Research indicates that the credibility of the speaker does not help or
hinder the persuasive effect of a message using strong fear appeal.
38. In general, message variables in the public address setting are more
influential in producing attitude change than are source variables.
39. Pyramidal order is more effective in producing attitude change that either
the climax order or anti-climax order.
40. A two sided message is more effective in producing attitude change when
the audience is uneducated.
41. If a speaker knows little about his audience, he is best advised not to use
strong fear appeal.
42. If a speaker presents a one sided argument, the audience tends to perceive
him as being objective.
43. The primacy-recency question has turned out to be more complex than
originally suspected, with a large array of additional variables ultimately
determining whether the message presented first or last will be more
effective in producing attitude change.
44. Of all the variables considered on public speaking (i.e, source variables,
message variables, receiver-personality variables, and channel-setting variables),
probably the most powerful and influential of all these are message variables.
45. If you make the information available (i.e., factual material and evidence),
you will be successful in producing attitude change.
46. When the audience is educated rather than uneducated, an implicitly stated
conclusion is more effective than an explicitly stated conclusion in producing
attitude change.
47. "Avoiders" are persuaded more by strong fear appeal that are copers".
48. The more times you repeat the most important material in your speech, the
greater and greater the amount of persuasion you will achieve.
49. Information presented in the middle and end of a message is remembered
better than information presented at the first of the message.
50. People tend to perceive and recall information that reinforces their prior
attitudes but distort information which goes against their attitudes.
51. High authoritarians are influenced less by the rationality or the logic of
messages and more by the power, prestige, and status of the source of
messages.
52. A person high in need achievement usually is a member of the middle class.
53. An open-minded person tends to compartmentalize his beliefs an polarize
reality.
54. In general, a person low in Machiavellianism is more susceptible to
persuasive messages than are persons high in Machiavellianism.
55. One way to assess personality is to administer a projective test (such as
the Rorshach Ink-Blot Test or Thematic Appreciation Test - TAT) where the
subject presumably discloses information about his personality by
interpreting visual presentations. Projective tests have been widely used
in the study of persuasive communication.
56. There is no evidence to indicate that people are more persuadable at one
age than another.
57. According to Rokeach, a highly dogmatic person is one who relies heavily
on the word of authority figures.
58. People who are ego-defensive tend to exhibit more attitude change when
attempts are made to help them understand themselves(self-understanding)
rather than when purely informational material(issue-oriented) is presented.
59. A person high in Machiavellianism tends to be more person-oriented while
persons low is Machiavellianism tend to be more task-oriented.
60. Persons who are low in need achievement will take more risks (be more
risky) than those who are high in need achievement.
61. Individuals high in self-esteem are persuaded more by rational, logical
arguments and less by messages which employ broad generalizations without
sufficient justifying arguments.
62. Most people are either very high in dogmatism or very low in dogmatism.
63. Research indicates that some individuals exhibit a general personality
trait of susceptibility to persuasion.
64. Persons who have high anxiety are effectively persuaded when high fear
appeal is used.
65. A person who has a concrete cognitive style is rigid and closed-minded in
thinking, and is not able to cope with complex material.
66. An open-minded person when faced with the dissonant situation that "I
smoke and smoking causes lung cancer," is more likely to change his
attitude than is a closed-minded person.
67. One way to assess personality traits is to administer self-report
personality inventories where the individual indicates his attitudes and
feelings toward a variety of verbal statements. The Minnesota Personality
Inventory and Rokeach Dogmatism Scale are scales of this type of
personality testing.
68. Low authoritarians manifest a greater ability to recall the points and
arguments of a persuasive message than do high authoritarians.
69. Females tend to be more persuadable than males.
70. A person who has an abstract cognitive style is more swayed by propaganda
than a person with a concrete cognitive style.
71. Persons who exhibit neurotic anxiety are very susceptible to persuasive
messages.
72. According to Rokeach, the more central a belief is, the more likely it is to
be changed by new, previously unknown information.
73. Individuals high in self-esteem are more persuaded by messages given by
authority figures and information linked to the support of a majority than are
individuals low in self-esteem.
74. More intelligent individuals are persuaded by a message which is primarily
logically oriented and well supported. However, less intelligent individuals are
persuaded more by emotionally oriented information, propaganda, and broad
generalizations.
75. An open minded person is more willing to compare conflicting attitudes
and beliefs he might have than a closed minded person.
76. If an individual is highly aggressive he will be more persuaded by a
message urging aggressive action than a message which does not urge
aggressive action.
77. A person who exhibits "normal" anxiety is often susceptible to persuasive
messages.
78. As a rule, research has indicated that if a person is low in self-esteem he will
usually be more persuadable than someone who is high in self-esteem.
79. A person who is low in dogmatism is close minded.
80. The fact that females are more persuadable than males is biologically
based and attributable primarily to innate physiological characteristics.
81. A person high in Machiavellianism is more effective in persuading others
than a person low in Machiavellianism.
82. The main difference between dogmatism and authoritarianism is that
dogmatism deals more with a person's prejudices in terms of his affiliation with
a reference group. Belief and trust are placed in members of the reference group
he belongs to and other groups are rejected.
83. The visual and auditory channels are the most important communication
channels used by man.
84. Grade-school educated individuals are steadier viewers of television than are
college graduates.
85. The mass media is more effective in creating new attitudes than in
changing attitudes.
86. Television, radio, and newspapers may help arouse attention, but they can
never absolutely replace the persuasive effects of a well-designed
person-to-person interpersonal campaign.
87. Information overload occurs when visual and auditory information are
given simultaneously (at the same time) and both contain unfamiliar
material.
88. In general, television is just as effective a teaching medium as the
lecturer operating in the classroom.
89. For communicating material which is complex and difficult, oral
communication is more effective than visual communication.
90. As audience size increases, spoken communication tends to lose its
persuasive effect.
91. A persuasive message is always more effective if the communicator uses
both visual and auditory channels.
92. Mass media are generally effective in strengthening attitudes, while
face-to-face communications are generally more effective in overcoming
negative attitudes.
93. When the multiple channels of auditory and visual information are used, the
effective communication of both pieces of information is maximized if they are
presented sequentially instead of simultaneously.
94. To gain attention, multiple channels of visual and auditory information
should be employed.
95. Face-to-face interpersonal communication provides more opportunities for
selective avoidance than does mass media communication.
96. Physiological research indicates that man can use the visual and auditory
channels simultaneously to extract sensory information.
97. Mass media forms of communication are just as effective as interpersonal
forms of communication in producing attitude change.